ACIM Chapter 11. I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 1, 2

ACIM Chapter 11. I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 1, 2

I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 1

1 You have learned your need of healing. Would you bring anything else to the Sonship, recognizing your need of healing for yourself? For in this lies the beginning of the return to knowledge; the foundation on which God will help build again the thought system you share with Him. Not one stone you place upon it but will be blessed by Him, for you will be restoring the holy dwelling place of His Son, where He wills His Son to be and where he is. In whatever part of the mind of God’s Son you restore this reality, you restore it to yourself. You dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone.

Jesus is right; I know I need healing. I know that my mind is sick with ego thoughts and beliefs, and I know I want to be healed. This desire for healing is all I want to bring to the Sonship. If I notice that I think someone else is guilty, I don’t want to bring this belief in guilt to the Sonship, but instead, I will bring the desire that this thought in my mind be healed. If I believe in my brother’s sickness, I will not bring this belief to the Sonship. Let me, instead, remember that sickness of the body is a projection of an untrue belief. It is not God’s Will. Therefore, it is not real.

Let each untrue thought that I find in my mind be healed.

And I know that it doesn’t matter where in the Sonship the thought is acted upon. Each thought of which I am aware is my responsibility. When I read about a crime, I pray for the healing of my mind. I pray for the part of my mind that believes salvation lies in attack. When I am told of a brother living in poverty, I pray for the healing of the part of the mind that believes that God’s Son lacks anything.

I am to do this as my part in restoring the thought system I share with God. I dwell, with my brother, in God, but I have made a thought system that puts us outside each other and outside God. It is undone for me as I lose my desire for that thought system. My part in this is to choose differently and allow the mind to be healed and the thought system I share with God to be restored to me. This is God’s Will, and it is my will, too.

I. The Gifts of Fatherhood, P 2

2 To be alone is to be separated from infinity, but how can this be if infinity has no end? No one can be beyond the limitless, because what has no limits must be everywhere. There are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself. Can you exclude yourself from the universe, or from God Who is the universe? I and my Father are one with you, for you are part of Us. Do you really believe that part of God can be missing or lost to Him?

Jesus appeals to my common sense. God is the universe and has no limits. I am of God and in God, so I am the universe, and I am limitless. There are no beginnings or endings in God, so God always was and always will be, and therefore I always was and always will be. Can I undo this? Do I really believe that is possible?

So, what is this that seems to be happening to me and all around me? This does not appear to be God. It is not eternal and limitless. Did I actually succeed in destroying Reality and setting up my own world and my own rules? If that were true, then I really did destroy God, and my guilt and fear are justified. And yet, can I really believe I have the power and will to do that?

This is the error we make.

This belief is that we are something outside of God and that we have power separate from God. We are told that of ourselves, we can do nothing, but through God, all things are possible. So, what I have done is nothing. I did it through the power that is God, but I did it of myself so I did nothing. I dreamed I did something. The only thing I accomplished was to make an illusion of something. But I did nothing, and so the fear and guilt are not justified because nothing happened.

This is nothing I am experiencing as if it were something that feels amazingly real because it is a real experience, but it is not Reality. However, the feeling of it confuses me and makes me think I have done this thing. I like to think of it like this: I (the Son) projected myself into an illusion of reality and am experiencing it as if it were reality. Can you imagine that? Can you see it in your mind?

I project myself into the illusion.

It is as if I am watching the best 3-D movie ever and have the additional ability to put myself into one of the characters. That is, to extend my awareness into that character. Now, the movie is even more astounding and more realistic. In fact, it is so realistic that I am lost in the character, the action, and the story. But I cannot stay lost in it because that would be insanity, and I am in God, Who is not insane.

What is happening now for you and for me is that I am waking up from this dream story and withdrawing my awareness from this character I am playing… from all the characters I have played and all the stories I have experienced. It is perfect that I do this, and it is perfectly natural. It is the only natural thing I have done since I started this eons ago, and yet, not eons since there is no beginning and no ending in God.

From within the story, timelessness and eternity are not understandable, but the story is not in eternity, so it is coming to an end. I don’t need to understand how all this occurred or what it all means to wake up from it. I only need to accept it is possible (and I think that is why the Holy Spirit gives me these metaphors; he is helping me to understand and accept just enough to allow a gentle awakening.) When I am submerged in the story, Reality seems like a dream, but as I emerge, even a little, I glimpse a possibility of my true Self and start to understand that I do not live in this story but in eternity.

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