ACIM Lesson 268 Let all things be exactly as they are. Let me not be Your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. ²
Let all things be exactly as they are.
1. Let me not be Your critic, Lord, today, and judge against You. ²Let me not attempt to interfere with Your creation, and distort it into sickly forms. ³Let me be willing to withdraw my wishes from its unity, and thus to let it be as You created it. ⁴For thus will I be able, too, to recognize my Self as You created me. ⁵In love was I created, and in love will I remain forever. ⁶What can frighten me, when I let all things be exactly as they are?
2. Let not our sight be blasphemous today, nor let our ears attend to lying tongues. ²Only reality is free of pain. ³Only reality is free of loss. ⁴Only reality is wholly safe. ⁵And it is only this we seek today.
I Will Not Let My Personal Wishes Interfere With God’s Creation
Here is one way I am practicing letting things be exactly as they are. I recognize that what I see is a reflection of the thoughts and beliefs in my mind. I remember that Jesus says this.
It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. ²You think you think them, and so you think you see them. ³This is how your “seeing” was made. ⁴This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. ⁵It is not seeing. ⁶It is image making. ⁷It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions. (ACIM, W-15.1:1-7)
And he also says this.
¹³There are no idle thoughts. ¹⁴All thinking produces form at some level. (ACIM, T-2.VI.9:13-14)
These ideas as well as others along the same line that Jesus shares with us in the Course, explains that my thoughts matter very much. The thoughts that are not true can make a whole world so, even though they make nothing real, what they make is real to the maker so they are not without power. This is why I want to be careful about the thoughts I think I think. I want to be careful of the form that they are producing.
Here is an Example of Thoughts Taking Form
⁴The thought of sacrifice gives rise to all the forms that suffering appears to take. (ACIM, W-187.7:4)
This is an example of a thought that I don’t want to take form in my life. So, for instance, today I am going to my daughter’s house to give her a break from my granddaughter. I’m happy to spend time with my granddaughter and happy to help my daughter, but I have some things I could be doing instead. This can lead to a feeling of sacrifice so that instead of feeling good about the visit, I start to resent it. The effect will be that I don’t enjoy myself. The form will be one that symbolizes the beliefs in victimhood and the belief I am unfairly treated. It will also be that I have strengthened the belief in sacrifice and will produce more experiences of sacrifice in my life.
Letting Things Be as They Are
What I do when I notice these kinds of thoughts is to choose again. I very quickly choose to instruct my mind that I am not interested in sacrifice and suffering. I decide instead that I am looking forward to this visit. I smile and let the truth of that wash over me. I relax about the other things I could be doing, things I thought I should be doing, and trust that all things will get done in perfect timing.
In making this choice, I am letting all things be as they are. I am letting God’s Will that I be happy and peaceful be done. I am not fighting Him about this, insisting that sacrifice is real and unavoidable, that somehow the feeling of sacrifice is forced on me by others and thus others can decide if I am happy or not. I am relaxing the personal will and letting it fall away in exchange for my true will which is one with the Will of God. I can do this with all negative thoughts that I notice. It’s easy and it’s worth the small effort it takes, both for me and for the Sonship as a whole.
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