A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 317, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 317 I follow in the way appointed me. 1. I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. ²Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do.

Lesson 317

I follow in the way appointed me.

1. I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone. ²Salvation waits until I take this part as what I choose to do. ³Until I make this choice, I am the slave of time and human destiny. ⁴But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.

2. Father, Your way is what I choose today. ²Where it would lead me do I choose to go; what it would have me do I choose to do. ³Your way is certain, and the end secure. ⁴The memory of You awaits me there. ⁵And all my sorrows end in Your embrace, which You have promised to Your Son, who thought mistakenly that he had wandered from the sure protection of Your loving Arms.

A Course in Miracles tells us that we have a role to play.

Content-wise, our role is the same for each of us. We are to forgive, that is, to accept the Atonement for ourselves and to help others awaken as well. These are the things we read in the Course repeatedly. In form, this could look very different. Helen and Bill had A Course in Miracles to receive for all of us. Ken Wapnick had an important place to fill as a teacher. Likewise, there have been many other teachers who have helped us along the way.

And There are Those Who Quietly Fulfil Their Roles

And then there are the many who are teachers every day simply through the way they live their lives. They may never become known as teachers, but their part is as essential as any others. They are the ones who quietly do the work until their minds become clear. They are kind and compassionate to those who are still wandering through the world, blindly lashing out in their frustration and rage. They are the ones whose healed minds are at peace and so draw to them those who long for that. I’m sure we all know people like that and are grateful they are in our lives. Maybe you are one of these unassuming spiritual heroes.

I know this is true. I know that I have a special place to fill. I have a classroom that I refer to as my life. My purpose is to use it and everything in it to awaken myself and others. I have learned that I want only what will take me Home. I still hear the ego voice challenging this decision, but I know that I want only what will deepen the awakening, take me further into it, and I am not interested in what the ego-mind thinks about that.

I had a judgmental thought about someone a little while ago.

And because this particular issue is a thought habit, I felt myself following the thought. I stopped it and reminded myself that if I kept that judgment, I would be trading Fundamental Wellbeing for the right to judge this person. It was insane, and I saw the insanity, and choosing again, I went back into peace. It all took about a minute. The thing I remembered that made the difference for me is that I only want to awaken further. I don’t want anything else, not to judge and not to be right.)

2016

“I have a special place to fill; a role for me alone.” When I first began to read and study the Course, I read this to mean that I was special. Then I realized that everyone else who read the Course was special also, and I would feel disappointed. But it was still a pretty exclusive group, so I was pleased again. This is funny to me now, but it is a perfect description of ego thinking.

I understand that my special role is the same as everyone else’s special role; that is forgiveness. I also understand that this would have to be true because there is only one problem, which is separation, and the way to undo this is through forgiveness. I also understand that everyone is me, so there is no one to be better or worse than, no one I have to beat out of first place.

I do have a special place to fill. This life as Myron is that place right now. My role as Myron presents the perfect opportunities to forgive and to allow the mind to be healed. That is exactly what I am here to do, to use Myron’s life as a tool for awakening the Mind that sleeps. That is everyone’s role.

Each one has a specific way in which to do exactly the same thing.

Maybe one person is a writer, and another is a coach. Someone else is a teacher, and another serves her purpose while in the corporate world. What an interesting paradox. Everyone has a special role, and at the same time, no one part of salvation is personal. Myron is just a symbol of the sleeping mind, and as she awakens, she is symbolic of the awakening of the entire mind.

Holy Spirit, I give my vigilance to following you in my appointed way. I gladly accept that I do not lead but only follow, and am grateful to know this is so. There are so many forgiveness opportunities, and I don’t want to overlook any of them. Thank you for being with me always.

2015

For all the time I have been practicing A Course in Miracles, I have had a harder time with that practice at the end of the day. Even on the days that were easy and the days that I was vigilant in my practice, by evening, I felt more confusion and would feel the ego closing in on me. Lately, the ego would interpret that as meaning I must be doing something wrong, that the happiness of the day must have been simple denial, and that my present feeling must mean there was no real healing.

After a while, I asked Holy Spirit for an interpretation. What came to me is that this is now simply a habit, an ego response that I have allowed myself to believe because I never questioned it. I was shown that I don’t have to experience this anymore if I don’t want to. I can simply turn from the ego and toward God. This has been my practice for only a short time, but I see that it works and that there was never actually a problem other than failing to ask the Teacher what it meant and how to undo it.

I am no longer a slave to the ego-mind when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go. I will then recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.

2011

I have often thought of undoing the ego as peeling an onion. I remove layers and layers of ego thinking until, finally, all have been peeled away, and nothing is left. When there is no ego, there is only Self which was always there.

As I have been reading the journaling I have done over the last few years, I see it as a rose that is slowly opening. What I have written was never wrong, but as it continues to open, whether with new words or with a deeper understanding of the words I was given, the rose unfolds and becomes even more beautiful. I am so grateful.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 317 click here.

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