ACIM Chapter 14. IV. P 5,6 Your Function in the Atonement
IV. Your Function in the Atonement
5. Before you make any decisions for yourself, remember that you have decided against your function in Heaven, and then consider carefully whether you want to make decisions here. ²Your function here is only to decide against deciding what you want, in recognition that you do not know. ³How, then, can you decide what you should do? ⁴Leave all decisions to the One Who speaks for God, and for your function as He knows it. ⁵So will He teach you to remove the awful burden you have laid upon yourself by loving not the Son of God, and trying to teach him guilt instead of love. ⁶Give up this frantic and insane attempt that cheats you of the joy of living with your God and Father, and of waking gladly to His Love and Holiness that join together as the truth in you, making you one with Him.
6. When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. ²There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer. ³Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard. ⁴The Holy Spirit will not delay in answering your every question what to do. ⁵He knows. ⁶And He will tell you, and then do it for you. ⁷You who are tired will find this is more restful than sleep. ⁸For you can bring your guilt into sleeping, but not into this. (ACIM T14.IV.5,6)
I have new mantra
The more I turn to the Holy Spirit to make all decisions for me, the more peaceful my life becomes. Holy Spirit, decide for me is my mantra now. It is the way I begin my day as I set my intention. It’s the way I deal with any perceived problems. It allows me to meet these problems with grace rather than with fear, which at times has led to a cycle of attack and defense. This is so much better.
³How, then, can you decide what you should do?
This question is no longer theoretical for me; it shows up in the ordinary moments of my day.
We are going to have some very severe weather here, and I found myself distracted with thoughts about this. I have already done all that is needed to prepare for it, so it’s not a matter of need. It is just the ego’s desire to focus on fear and an unfortunate habit of letting myself be drawn into it. But today, I remembered that I don’t have to do that anymore. I give all these thoughts to the Holy Spirit and ask that He decide for me what to think and believe.
While doing this work, I noticed a fleeting judgment of a man I know.
I say it was fleeting because it came and went quickly, and then I was thinking of something else. But, it came to mind again while I was contemplating this lesson, and I realized that while this particular thought didn’t seem to impact my peace of mind, this wasn’t an isolated judgment. I have had many more thoughts about him in that same vein. And they reminded me of someone else who does the same thing, and these judgments brought up feelings of being unfairly treated.
It seems that there is no such thing as little judgments or minor disturbances. Either I am at peace, or I am not. Either I recognize and appreciate the Son of God in all His disguises, or I believe in the illusory story I make up about them. I can’t have it both ways, and I rob myself of joy when I make anyone guilty. If I look at these choices with the ego, even the idea of healing becomes a burden. It all feels like too much, and I become discouraged. But if I simply remain vigilant for opportunities to practice turning to the Holy Spirit, it all becomes quite doable.
In fact, it becomes as easy and as right as breathing.
As I learn to decide with God, it becomes effortless. Jesus describes life surrendered to the Holy Spirit as to “…be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.” This is the passage that reinforced my decision to continue asking the Holy Spirit to decide for me. “⁴The Holy Spirit will not delay in answering your every question what to do. ⁵He knows. ⁶And He will tell you, and then do it for you.” Each time I ask, this is exactly what happens. I ask, and I receive. Sometimes, I ask and I feel some lingering unease, so I wait. Likely what happens is that I see other connected thoughts or ideas, maybe memories that are triggered by the problem at hand. I just continue allowing the Holy Spirit to decide for God for me. And then the peace comes.
More restful than sleep.
I don’t think I get tired from physical activity so much as from the mental gymnastics of trying to live from the ego. Its advice is repetitive of the past at best. It is often contradictory and seldom actually helpful. I didn’t realize how exhausting this was until I began experiencing life with the Holy Spirit in charge. The contrast is glaring.
I used to often go to bed in hopes of escaping the burden of decision-making. But it often followed me in sleep, twisting my dreams so that I sometimes woke up exhausted from them. This is happening less and less, and I think that once this practice is firmly established and automatic, I will go to sleep because I am sleepy rather than as an escape from my life. And I will wake up happy to start another day. I believe that because it is already beginning to happen.