ACIM Lesson 293 All fear is past and only love is here. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
All fear is past and only love is here.
1. All fear is past, because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone with it. ²Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here forever and forever. ³Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me distorted forms of fear? ⁴Yet in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent. ⁵All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.
2. Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. ²Nor let my ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. ³There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. ⁴And I would see only this world before my eyes today.
An Endless Present Moment
I think of the real world as the world without a past or future, just a present moment, and endless present moment. This moment is free of guilt and fear because the idea of guilt is in the non-existent past. The idea of fear is in the non-existent future. We can do this. We made time and all forms of separation and so we can let these ideas go.
Just a Lot of Impossible Ideas
The world as we see it now with layers and layers of mistakes covering it is dark and fearful. But these are just ideas in our mind. Because all thinking produces form, we falsely believe this world has substance and is really there. And because we project this form to appear as if it is outside us, it seems to be out of our hands. The world we made seems now to be something to defend against. All along, it is just a lot of impossible ideas.
Forgive and They Will Disappear
This is why we can see the real world any time we want to. We just have to realize where the world is and how it was formed. We have spent most of the year learning to recognize the thinking that makes up the world of our imagination. We now know that hate, fear, rage, jealousy, competition, attack, defense, grievances are all ideas that produce this dark world. We also know that we can forgive these ideas and they will disappear. What will be left is love.
We Are on a Mission
It once appeared to me that I was born into a world against my will and that, at least, I was learning to make the best of it. Often, I felt confused and frightened but it was my life and I spent most of it learning to cope. Later, I began to recognize the connection between thoughts and their effects and I felt like I was learning to live my life at last. Until I found A Course in Miracles it was a haphazard approach but at least it was an approach.
After studying and applying the Course, I began to feel like I had a grip on my life. While it was still an uphill climb, I could see that my life was definitely getting better and I didn’t feel so out of control. Eventually, even that changed. Now I feel like this isn’t my life at all. I feel like I came here deliberately on a well-planned mission to do my part in the Plan of Atonement.
We Are All In This Together
All these challenges that seemed so personal are now seen as just ideas that are being undone as I reject them. I mostly don’t feel like I am the character, but that Myron is my avatar so to speak. She is a way to experience the ideas in our mind with the intent of releasing those that are obscuring the real world. We all are on the same mission.
From this point of view, no one seems like my enemy anymore. We are in this together, all doing the best we can considering we have amnesia when we get here. Instead of thinking of ways to defend myself against others, I want to tell them it’s OK and that they are safe and can stop fighting. I still have to be vigilant because I can get pulled into a story and temporarily forget it isn’t real.
We Have a Mighty Purpose to Fulfill
Thankfully, we all have the Holy Spirit in our minds and so we can easily find our way back to reality when we are ready. Sometimes when I get lost in my confusion, I feel frustrated but then I feel comforted. I realize that the Holy Spirit is in my mind so I can relax. I can just go back to watching these thoughts and seeing their effects. I can forgive them so that I once again feel the love that is right there beneath those thoughts.
The more untrue thoughts I forgive, the more apparent the real world, and the happier and more peaceful I feel knowing I am completing my mission. Let us remember this from Lesson 98. ³We have a mighty purpose to fulfill, and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. ⁴Not one mistake stands in our way. ⁵For we have been absolved from errors. ⁶All our sins are washed away by realizing they were but mistakes. (ACIM, W-98.2:3-6)
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