ACIM VI. P The Rewards of God, P 6, 7, 8. My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will not always be that way.
ACIM Chapter 4, VI.The Rewards of God, P 6, 7, 8
VI. The Rewards of God, P 6.
My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will not always be that way. ²Your mission is very simple. ³You are asked to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego, and I do not choose God’s channels wrongly. ⁴The Holy One shares my trust, and accepts my Atonement decisions because my will is never out of accord with His. ⁵I have said before that I am in charge of the Atonement. ⁶This is only because I completed my part in it as a man, and can now complete it through others. ⁷My chosen channels cannot fail, because I will lend them my strength as long as theirs is wanting.
Here is what stands out to me in this paragraph. First that Jesus has faith in me. He chose me to fulfill my function and he does not make mistakes. So I can trust that I will do what I came to do. Then he describes my mission. He says that I am to live so as to demonstrate I am not an ego. Well, I have not always done such a good job at that, but I am getting better. I have learned to lean on his strength when mine fails.
Slow and Steady
My process has been long, slow, and gentle. This works perfectly for me. When I started this work, I was a hot mess. I was also uncertain of myself and so, of course, I doubted everyone else, too. I was filled with self-loathing and guilt. A slow gentle path was perfect for me and that was provided. I eventually learned to trust this path and Jesus who is in charge of it. I love that he completed his part and now he is completing it again through me.
Trust, built slowly over time, is what brought me to where I am now. Misery once gone is of no more importance. I think back on my life before the Course, and while I can tell you things that happened, they no longer elicit emotion. It would make a very dry book, indeed. Memories that no longer sting are healed. No matter how bad I thought it was then, now I am glad it happened. These were my classrooms and I used them well.
7 VI. The Rewards of God, P7
7. I will go with you to the Holy One, and through my perception He can bridge the little gap. ²Your gratitude to your brother is the only gift I want. ³I will bring it to God for you, knowing that to know your brother is to know God. ⁴If you are grateful to your brother, you are grateful to God for what He created. ⁵Through your gratitude you come to know your brother, and one moment of real recognition makes everyone your brother because each of them is of your Father. ⁶Love does not conquer all things, but it does set all things right. ⁷Because you are the Kingdom of God I can lead you back to your own creations. ⁸You do not recognize them now, but what has been dissociated is still there.
How I See It
What a paragraph! I will go with you to the Holy One, and through my perception He can bridge the little gap.I’m going to start with the first sentence, which, I admit I don’t understand. Jesus what do you want me to know about this sentence today? Oh, he will go with me to God and through his perception, God will lift us up, or take the last step as Jesus says in other places. We will get into this more in Chapter 5. But here is part of what he says.
³The Holy Spirit is the Mind of the Atonement. ⁴He represents a state of mind close enough to One-mindedness that transfer to it is at last possible. ⁵Perception is not knowledge, but it can be transferred to knowledge, or cross over into it. ⁶It might even be more helpful here to use the literal meaning of transferred or “carried over,” since the last step is taken by God. (ACIM, T-5.I.6:3-6)
Bridging the Gap
And in Chapter 11, he says this.
⁴When you perceive yourself without deceit, you will accept the real world in place of the false one you have made. ⁵And then your Father will lean down to you and take the last step for you, by raising you unto Himself. (ACIM, T-11.VIII.15:4-5)
I think that when Jesus says that his perception will bridge the little gap, he is referring to himself as the Holy Spirit. He says this.
I am the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and when you see me it will be because you have invited Him. (ACIM, T-12.VII.6:1)
The way I understand this now is that Jesus is helping us to clear our minds of the desire for ego thoughts. Whatever it is that we cannot do, he does for us. His perception bridges the gap between our true perception and knowledge.
Gratitude to My Brother
Then he says this all-important sentence: ²Your gratitude to your brother is the only gift I want. All through the Course he reiterates the importance of accepting our oneness with our brother. This is why I cannot hold onto a grievance. If I find myself aggrieved of a brother, I let it go as quickly and completely as I can.
My very salvation depends on doing this. Every time I hold a grievance or judge, it is the tiny mad idea playing out all over again. I am turning my back on God once more. I can’t do that anymore. Nor can I stop at letting them and myself off the hook. I am not done until I feel gratitude toward them.
And this: …I can lead you back to your own creations. He will sprinkle little reminders of our creations throughout the Course. Naturally, we all want to know what our creations are. I guess we will just have to do our work and make room in our mind for that answer. It is certainly intriguing. I have no idea how to think of this but I feel the draw toward it.
8 VI. The Rewards of God, P 8
8. As you come closer to a brother you approach me, and as you withdraw from him I become distant to you. ²Salvation is a collaborative venture. ³It cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are disengaging themselves from me. ⁴God will come to you only as you will give Him to your brothers. ⁵Learn first of them and you will be ready to hear God. ⁶That is because the function of love is one. (ACIM, T-4.VI.6:1–8:6)
Could Jesus be any clearer than this? We go Home together; it is the only way. We cannot disengage ourselves from the Sonship. I think this could be done by isolating myself because I don’t want to look at my triggers. I’m sure a lot of people have had that experience. Once you start the process of healing the mind, it can feel hard.
Disengage
I know at one time I thought the answer was to avoid other people so that I didn’t have all those judgmental thoughts. That didn’t work. If I am unaware of the desire to judge then that desire cannot be let go. I need my brother to show me the desire in my mind to judge him.
Another way we can disengage from our brother is to hold onto those pesky grievances. I find these days that I love most people except certain politicians. I suppose that points to my lingering belief that someone outside me can hurt me or affect me in any way. Who I am cannot be affected by anyone or anything. So, when I find myself judging a politician, I forgive myself and forgive my projections onto him or her. I cannot let my thoughts stand between us if I want to awaken from this insane dream.
⁴God will come to you only as you will give Him to your brothers. ⁵Learn first of them and you will be ready to hear God.
This is so clear I cannot fail to understand it. I cannot give my brother to God if I cannot even stand to be around him. Or if I don’t like him or cannot appreciate him, or judge him in any way. I can only come to God with a brother whom I love. When I learn to love my brothers, all of them, I will be ready to hear God.
CLICK HERE to visit the Little Garden website. this is where I am staying for my vacation and where many of my pictures were taken.