ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 4, 5

ACIM Chapter 11. VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 4, 5

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 4

⁴ No one can withhold truth except from himself. Yet God will not refuse you the Answer He gave. Ask, then, for what is yours, but which you did not make, and do not defend yourself against truth. You made the problem God has answered. Ask yourself, therefore, but one simple question:

Do I want the problem or do I want the answer?

Decide for the answer and you will have it, for you will see it as it is, and it is yours already.

It seems the answer is always available to us because the answer has already been established and is ours. The only way we can not be aware of the answer is if we deliberately choose the problem over the answer. I have been asking myself what problems I am choosing to keep when I could have the answer instead. Obviously, they are the problems I still have.

I used to look in the mirror and see an image of a chubby woman, and that felt like a problem to me. The image was of my own making, a projection of the beliefs in my mind. I saw it as a problem, and yet, if the image was a representation of my beliefs, and if my beliefs can be changed, why did I hold onto this problem image? I was defending myself against the truth. This is true of all the problems I perceive in the world.

All of them are the same problem.

They are just different forms of the one problem; I think I am separated from God. What am I afraid of? Not enough money? Not enough love? Sickness? Loss of some sort is always involved in my fears. All of those fears are really the fear that I am separated from God. Could the loss of anything be found in God? Could even the idea of loss and lack be found in God? All forms of loss have something to do with the body. Could a body be found in God?

These are problems that I made, and the solution to those problems, the one problem, was given in the instant it was needed. It is in my mind waiting for me to want it. For right now I am still looking at my problems as if each one was discreet and allowing myself to find the answer. But each time I do so, I remind myself that it is just a form of the one problem, and the answer is for all forms of that problem. In this way, I am learning not to defend against the answer and that I don’t even want to defend against it because it is a defense against God. I am learning that I want God.

VIII. The Problem and the Answer, P 5

⁵ You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. Nothing could be more specific than to be told that if you ask you will receive. The Holy Spirit will answer every specific problem as long as you believe that problems are specific. His answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the One is many. You may be afraid of His specificity, for fear of what you think it will demand of you. Yet only by asking will you learn that nothing of God demands anything of you. God gives; He does not take. When you refuse to ask, it is because you believe that asking is taking rather than sharing.

If I ask, God gives, and He doesn’t give in the way that we do.

He does not give to get; He gives to share, and that means nothing will be taken from us in the giving. This makes it perfectly safe to ask. He even answers specific problems even though He knows that we have only one problem appearing as many. He answers the problem we believe we have until we learn that all problems are one problem with one solution.

What more could we ask? What are we waiting for? He is asking us to practice this, to put it to the test, and let the results convince us. What would you ask for if you knew you would be answered and that the answer would cost you nothing? I was thinking about this, and I wondered why anyone would hesitate. What would I fear would be taken from me if I asked for what I wanted? Jesus gave me a specific need to look at so he could help me understand this.

The following is from my journal of 2016.

I have the possibility of retirement looming ahead. It is getting closer, and so it is no longer just a vague idea to look forward to but a reality coming soon. This is something I want, but at the same time, I am afraid of it. I won’t have much money, and that is the problem that I am most concerned about. I notice that sometimes when it comes to mind, I remember that all my needs are met because all my problems are answered.

But then, other times, I listen to the ego, and the ego says that there is no way for this to happen. It says that I should have prepared better, saved money, and invested. It says that I will get what I deserve, and that ain’t much. I am not becoming as a little child, asking as a child would ask, with happy anticipation of a loving answer. I am asking out of fear and little expectation of a generous answer, but rather a meager answer based on my perceived guilt.

In order to ask differently, confidently, and with an open heart ready to receive, I will have to give up my specialness. I will no longer be the one who did not plan, and so is guilty. God will not take this from me, but on the other hand, He cannot give me what I do not think I deserve, and so do not really want.

The first thing I am asking for is a healed mind.

I ask that I be healed of the belief that I am guilty about my failure to plan for the future. Now that I think about it, guilt wants to attach to the idea that I think I should plan for the future when the Course tells me that a healed mind doesn’t make plans.

Could I give up all this guilt? Could I at least accept the Atonement for this particular form of guilt in this particular circumstance? If this is the sacrifice asked of me, the sacrifice I am afraid of, then clearly, I have been afraid of nothing. Freedom from guilt would not be a sacrifice. And obviously, I believe I have specific problems. So, I will use those perceived needs to teach myself trust and acceptance, and eventually, that all needs are one need and that need is answered.

Thank you, Brother, for this clarity. I am open to a new way of perceiving this future. I am asking for help to remember my purpose and to release my fear. God wants me to ask, and He wants to answer. I want to receive and receive fully. Help me to do so.

And, as always, when I ask, I receive. I have been retired from my previous job since November 2016, and I seem to be doing just fine. I still have a job, and I love my work with the Holy Spirit far more than I ever did for any other job I had. All my needs are met, and the job satisfaction is out of this world!  

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