ACIM Chapter 12. II. The Way to Remember God, P 3, 4

ACIM Chapter 12. II. The Way to Remember God, P 3, 4

II. The Way to Remember God, P 3

3 Perceive in sickness but another call for love, and offer your brother what he believes he cannot offer himself. Whatever the sickness, there is but one remedy. You will be made whole as you make whole, for to perceive in sickness the appeal for health is to recognize in hatred the call for love. And to give a brother what he really wants is to offer it unto yourself, for your Father wills you to know your brother as yourself. Answer his call for love, and yours is answered. Healing is the Love of Christ for His Father and for Himself.

Clearly, sickness of any kind is not God’s Will.

It is not love but a call for love. Wherever I see sickness, I am to see wholeness, and this is the love that heals. I can think of it as forgiveness. Where I see sickness, I forgive what is believed to be true. I could also say that I accept the Atonement for this situation, and that would be the same thing.

I do this because as my brother is healed, so am I. We are all part of a single whole, and if any part of this whole is sick, the whole is sick. But what if I see some form of sickness and I believe in it? What if I see sickness, and that is all I can see? What if I can’t see the truth behind the façade? Then I ask that my mind be healed.

I don’t have any particular fear of sickness of the body, nothing that scares me into dread. I don’t want any sickness at all, but nothing stands out as particularly upsetting. When someone I care about has a sick body, I can more easily see through that. I see them in their classroom, learning the lessons they came to learn but completely unaffected by that lesson. I also see them as capable of learning that lesson. Sometimes, I have trouble holding onto the idea of them as sick at all because I see only the potential of a healed self. That is me giving them the love they are unable to give themselves at this time, and it is healing.

On the other hand, when I see someone in great pain, I tend to have a more visceral reaction because I hate pain.

I’ve worked on the idea of pain as illusion and have accepted some healing in this area, so sometimes I do better with this. When my son was in extreme pain, I was lost in his illusion and so was not able to answer his call for love. I was paralyzed in fear for him. I did remember to ask for healing of my mind, so that was good. Because of my own fears I was unable to see that one illusion is the same as another. Illusions can’t really be more or bigger or worse. It is only my beliefs that make it seem so.

Another form of sickness is lack. Sometimes, I slip into that belief. For instance, when I was contemplating my upcoming retirement looming nearer, I fell into fear about lack. It was not total by any means, but I would see these little thoughts that I wouldn’t be able to buy this, or go here, or do that when I retired, and I felt a sense of loss. So, that showed me there was still a belief in lack in my mind. As a result, when I saw someone with less than me, especially an older person, I projected my fear onto them and felt sympathy. This was not answering a call for love with love. It helped no one.

Over time, I turned that belief over to the Holy Spirit.

And I asked Him to show me a different way to see it. I noticed a shift. I would still notice the thoughts, but there was little emotion attached to them. And I didn’t get upset about it as I had just a couple of months before. I love it when that happens; it is a miracle, that change of mind. It is a miracle because the ego mind didn’t do it. I wanted healing more than I wanted to hold onto the fearful thoughts, and so it occurred.

Now, I seldom feel a sense of lack, and so I can see those with less and not be completely useless. I can mostly see through the form of their story to the reality of their being. I am answering their call for love more often than not. This answer to their call is also the answer to my call. When we share a belief in the illusion, we uphold and strengthen that belief. When at least one of us allows that belief to be loosened in our mind, we both experience healing.

Sometimes, I envision it like this.

When we considered the idea of separation, our minds projected a picture of the Sonship being shattered into billions of pieces and scattering across the landscape of our vast and holy mind. Now that we have decided to awaken from that strange and impossible dream, it is different.

When we see the many forms those pieces of ourselves took, we begin to recognize them for what they really are. In the recognition of our Self in them, we gather them back into the wholeness that we really are. We do this as we see that each one of the pieces represents a lack of love, and as we supply that love, our scattered piece flows naturally back into the Oneness of the Father and His Son.

II. The Way to Remember God, P 4

4 Remember what was said about the frightening perceptions of little children, which terrify them because they do not understand them. If they ask for enlightenment and accept it, their fears vanish. But if they hide their nightmares they will keep them. It is easy to help an uncertain child, for he recognizes that he does not understand what his perceptions mean. Yet you believe that you do understand yours. Little child, you are hiding your head under the cover of the heavy blankets you have laid upon yourself. You are hiding your nightmares in the darkness of your own false certainty, and refusing to open your eyes and look at them.

One day, I had a guilty thought that led to a frightening thought that led to a general sense of unease.

By the end of the day, I was feeling tired and listless. I was that child who was hiding under the covers of my certainty that guilt and fear are real and threatening. But not quite the same child who used to have the covers pulled up over her head and lay there shivering and terrorized by her own beliefs.

The difference was that even though I was attracted to the guilt and fear, I was also aware that there was a way out. I had the covers pulled up, but beneath the covers, I was talking to the Holy Spirit. I was saying, “Here I am, under the cover of these false beliefs. Please correct my thinking.” Then, I would let my mind go hazy again and distract myself with something so that I would not hear the answer. Oh man, sometimes I am so silly.

There are eleven lessons that remind us that our thoughts are meaningless.

They say that we can counteract our ego thoughts by remembering that they don’t mean anything. When I had this guilty thought, I might have said to myself, “This thought doesn’t mean anything.” Instead, I said to myself that this thought meant I was unworthy and condemned.

Today, I am sane again, and I am laughing at the nonsense of that day. I am also grateful for the simple lessons and the many tools we have to bring us to our sanity. I feel excited to think about using these lessons. It will help me to fully awaken if every time I have an ego thought that encourages the illusion, I simply remember that this thought does not mean anything.

These are the lessons I am using.

Lessons 10, 11, 51, 52, 53, 74, 93, 131, 281