ACIM Chapter 11. III. From Darkness to Light P 1-3

ACIM Chapter 11. III. From Darkness to Light P 1-3

III. From Darkness to Light P 1

1 When you are weary, remember you have hurt yourself. Your Comforter will rest you, but you cannot. You do not know how, for if you did you could never have grown weary. Unless you hurt yourself you could never suffer in any way, for that is not God’s Will for His Son. Pain is not of Him, for He knows no attack and His peace surrounds you silently. God is very quiet, for there is no conflict in Him. Conflict is the root of all evil, for being blind it does not see whom it attacks. Yet it always attacks the Son of God, and the Son of God is you.

Right now, I am feeling anxious because I have to talk to a friend about a mistake I made. I want to do it right this moment and I know the reason I am in such a hurry is that I feel guilty and afraid, and I want to make everything right. This is always the ego solution to everything I think is wrong. I hate how I feel, so the ego says I need to do something to make it right. I must find the right words to make up for my error, and the sooner, the better.

On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is gently nudging me in another direction.

The situation is not the problem. The problem is the ego’s interpretation of the situation. The ego says I am wrong, guilty, and in trouble. The Holy Spirit says that the problem is that I believe I am this story and that I am endangered at every turn.

He says that the story of Myron making a mistake is the effect of the belief in my mind that I am separated from God, and so am vulnerable. It is the effect of believing the thought that life is not fair and that guilt is an endless, awful burden that is mine to carry. So, fixing the story isn’t going to help. I will still be left with these mistaken thoughts that will simply make more stories of disaster. Other than my thoughts about the mistake I made and what I must do to correct it, nothing has happened regarding this situation.

I am hurting myself with each fear thought I entertain.

I am moving myself further and further from the Light that is in my mind. The Holy Spirit will comfort me and guide me if I turn to Him. But to turn to Him, I must turn from the ego. I cannot be at peace if I try to listen to both voices. They speak different languages; they turn in different directions. Trying to walk both paths at the same time keeps me in conflict, and conflict is painful. I am suffering, but it is suffering I brought on myself. It will stop the moment I choose. I will choose God, Who has never led me astray and never failed me.

III. From Darkness to Light P 2

2 God’s Son is indeed in need of comfort, for he knows not what he does, believing his will is not his own. The Kingdom is his, and yet he wanders homeless. At home in God he is lonely, and amid all his brothers he is friendless. Would God let this be real, when He did not will to be alone Himself? And if your will is His it cannot be true of you, because it is not true of Him.

It is so important that I accept the truth that God’s Will is my will. This imagined will I have made to take the place of my true will is hurting me. It tells me that I am endangered and in need of defense. It tells me that I am alone and apart from all of creation. My separate will tells me that I must find special people from whom I can take what I think I lack, and somehow, this is going to ensure my happiness.

No wonder I often feel alone, friendless, small, and frail. I have a voice in my head that teaches me this is true, and sadly, I made this voice, and I keep it intact by listening to it. I call it my will, and I value it in spite of the bad advice it continues to give me. Worse yet, I treat it as if it is what I am and defend it against God.

All along I have a true will, the will I share with God.

It sits alongside the small personal will that I have been listening to. I can reclaim my true will by simply desiring to do so. For the most part, I have done this, and I feel such joy and peace you wouldn’t believe. I cannot imagine why I ever wanted a separate will.

Sometimes, though, I return to my separate made-up self-will, and again, I am enthralled with the idea that I need it. I think I need to defend myself against someone who seems to be against me. Since I cannot use God’s Will to attack, I pick up my little self will again. Or I think that I need to look different, or I need more money, or I believe I am guilty, and God’s Will does not recognize any of this as true, so I turn to the little will. It brings me proof that I am right to be afraid and offers me lifetimes of advice that has never met a single one of these needs.

I am tired of wandering homeless. This prodigal daughter longs for her Father and the Will she shares with Him. This is why I am so grateful to my brother, Jesus, for bringing the solution to this dilemma into action. Thank you, Jesus, for the Atonement. Thank you for your devotion to the Atonement. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit, the Bridge that will allow me to cross from the illusory world to my true Home. The peace of God is everything I want.

III. From Darkness to Light P 3

3 O my child, if you knew what God wills for you, your joy would be complete! And what He wills has happened, for it was always true. When the light comes and you have said, “God’s Will is mine,” you will see such beauty that you will know it is not of you. Out of your joy you will create beauty in His Name, for your joy could no more be contained than His. The bleak little world will vanish into nothingness, and your heart will be so filled with joy that it will leap into Heaven, and into the Presence of God. I cannot tell you what this will be like, for your heart is not ready. Yet I can tell you, and remind you often, that what God wills for Himself He wills for you, and what He wills for you is yours.

It seems like it would be so easy to just surrender to this joy and watch my bleak little world vanish. What is it in the world that is so important to me that I would hesitate to choose to know that God’s Will is mine? I ask myself that question this morning, and right away, I think about how difficult I made things for myself last week and how my thoughts kept me in the bleak world I chose.

I was angry, frustrated, and fed up with the situation with my friend.

Once I got all tangled up in my thoughts, I spent the week slipping in and out of the ego mind. I seemed unwilling to forgive the situation and felt like I was unable to do so. Today, my mind is clear. I see that I was projecting images from the beliefs in guilt, fear, and rage that are obviously still in my mind.

It wasn’t really about the story of guilt, fear, and rage. but rather, the story was imagined and projected into the world from those beliefs. While I was enthralled with that little drama, I kept listening to the ego tell me, first, it was someone else’s fault, then that I must fix the story. The advice varied wildly, but the refrain was always focused on the story. Once again, I got caught up in trying to fix the effect, like looking into my reflection in the mirror, not liking what I see, and trying to correct the image I see there.

Today, with more clarity, I see the obvious. If it is in my life, I put it there. If I want it gone, I must invite the Holy Spirit to look with me and heal my mind. It is never about the situation or the people involved; it is always about my mind and what I find there. The situation simply reflected my thoughts and showed me what I believe to be true: that guilt is real, I am unfairly treated, and I am a victim. Jeez.

Today, I see that none of this could possibly be true.

God does not will guilt, fear, or rage. If this is not God’s Will, then it cannot be. I must be dreaming—a really bad dream as it happens, but still just a dream. I cannot be what God did not create. Nor can I have a crazy, distorted will that is different from God’s Will. I am an extension of Love, and joy and peace are my inheritance.

Holy Spirit, You and I know the dark places in my mind. Please bring light to those shadowy beliefs. Teach me not to simply pardon but to forgive entirely. I don’t want to pretend the situation is undone; I want my mind to be completely healed. My desire is to look at each person involved and see only Christ and feel only love. I need your help, and I open my heart and mind to that help.

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