ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 247, Year 2022

A Course in Miracles Lesson 247 Without forgiveness I will still be blind.

Lesson 247

Without forgiveness I will still be blind.

1. Sin is the symbol of attack. ²Behold it anywhere, and I will suffer. ³For forgiveness is the only means whereby Christ’s vision comes to me. ⁴Let me accept what His sight shows me as the simple truth, and I am healed completely. ⁵Brother, come and let me look on you. ⁶Your loveliness reflects my own. ⁷Your sinlessness is mine. ⁸You stand forgiven, and I stand with you.

2. So would I look on everyone today. ²My brothers are Your Sons. ³Your Fatherhood created them, and gave them all to me as part of You, and my own Self as well. ⁴Today I honor You through them, and thus I hope this day to recognize my Self.

It is easy to fall into the trap of seeing sin in ourselves or others.

I just read the news to gauge how I am doing with that. Or maybe start discussing politics with someone. I understand completely that I cannot enter the presence of God if I attack His Son. I also understand that if I attack another, I attack myself and will suffer for it. And I understand that we are joined as the Christ, and so I cannot attack another as there is only one. And I am part of that one, so no matter what it looks like, I really am always attacking myself.

You stand forgiven and I stand with you.

As I began to remember who I am, I began to remember who everyone else is. Here is what I love reading from this lesson. ⁵Brother, come and let me look on you. ⁶Your loveliness reflects my own. ⁷Your sinlessness is mine. ⁸You stand forgiven, and I stand with you. Oh, my dear God, what a thought! As I read this, I think of different people in my life, and my heart opens wide. I feel so much love and happiness!

It is hard to imagine that I was ever foolish enough to judge anyone, and yet, I know that this has happened and probably will again. But I also know that I can choose again. I can choose to filter the world through the ego split mind or through the Holy Spirit. That is the limit of my choices, and for that, I am grateful. If I choose to perceive someone as guilty, I notice how that feels and what the effects of this choice turn out to be. If I am not joyful, I know that I will choose again, and this time with the Holy Spirit. I am keeping this lesson handy and reading those beautiful words again. I choose this as the way I live so that I can have the experience they promise.

From What Is the World?

⁴Hear His Voice alone in all that speaks to you.

Some years ago, I was involved in a misunderstanding with a friend. He thought I had abandoned him and felt unfairly treated. I thought he was being unreasonable and was impatient with him. It took quite some time to work this out because we were both looking at it from the perspective of the separate self. If this were happening today, it would be different. I might initially have similar thoughts, but I no longer stay with that perspective.

I would find the idea of attack and defend too painful to tolerate for long. My other choice would be to open my mind to the Holy Spirit and hear His word and only His. I would recognize that my friend was asking me to love him, and what can one give to this request except for love? Doing so would give me Christ’s Vision, and I would see in him the brilliant light that he is. What if he is not ready to accept this gift? Then I would wait patiently, knowing that the gift is given, so my part is done. This new way of being in the world results from consistent practice.

Here is something I wrote two years ago.

I drove through McDonald’s this morning, and the woman who took my order was curt, not rude, just curt. I had a thought not even completely formed, but the essence was that she owed me some courtesy, maybe even friendliness. That was an attack. Her sin lay in her tone of voice. For that judgment, I relinquished my own sinlessness, and I suffered for it.

I had another stop to make and then went home. By the time I got there, I was suffering from heartburn. I briefly wondered how an Egg McMuffin could give me heartburn. When I opened the lesson for today, I got my answer. I am not suggesting there was a direct relationship between my acidic thoughts about the McDonald’s employee and my heartburn. But there is a direct relationship between the belief in sin and suffering.

Probably I make a lot of judgments that I don’t even notice.

I absolutely don’t do that as much as I used to because, like today, I notice that stuff, and I generally choose differently right away. By the time I got to her, I was already making amends with a smile and kind words. This made me more aware when I went to my next stop, so I was more loving with the next person.

Do these little encounters matter? Of course, they do. Every encounter has the potential for holiness, just as every encounter has the potential for harm. I harm myself far worse than I harm anyone else because if I believe in sin anywhere, I will believe I am sinful. My belief cannot make it true, but it makes it true for me; thus, I suffer. I love that I no longer treat people thoughtlessly very often and that I notice when I do because I love to love people. I am always the first recipient of that love, and it reminds me of who I am and who we are together.

Regina’s Tips

When we judge others, we believe the ego’s deceptive thought system. Our mind may argue that it is justified for its way of perceiving, but it perceives without the light of truth. As our special theme has taught us, “The mechanisms of illusion have been born instead. And now they go to find what has been given them to seek. Their aim is to fulfill the purpose which the world was made to witness and make real.” That purpose is separation. It is the opposite of truth.

My Thoughts

When I judged the woman at McDonald’s, I was reinforcing the ego thought system. That is the reason I suffer when I judge. Sometimes I think I am justified in my judgments, but who cares about justification when it means the choice for ego? I don’t care who is right or who is wrong, not ever. I just want to awaken from the dream of separation. Nothing else matters.

This is something I wrote several years ago while still working.

Recently, I had the same experience over something political, but in both cases, I changed my mind and chose peace.

I had to laugh this morning when I read today’s lesson. I am in a hotel and went to the lobby for coffee before starting my lesson. The coffee was not very good, and I felt resentful that they skimp on the coffee at this hotel chain. The clerk turned on the TV while I was annoyed about the coffee, and the newscaster was talking about a negative ruling for gay marriage here in Louisiana. I had a whole cascade of angry thoughts about that, and then to get more specific, some local politician was putting his very judgmental two cents in, and I had some more angry thoughts about him. So, of course, I giggled when I read today’s lesson.

I was blind this morning to my own attack thoughts and my own judgments.

I was blind to the radiance of the Christ within these people and within myself. And I was blind to the joy of life and the wonder of this illusion we made. I was blind to the lessons it has to offer me that I could accept if only I were willing to forgive. I was blind to my purpose.

Fortunately, I no longer cling to my ego beliefs like I used to and was happy to see differently. The moment I desired forgiveness, I saw the fear fueling this debate and the fear that had blinded me to forgiveness. Fear is a call for love because only love cures fear. Is not a child of God worthy of love? Am I not worthy of love? I can know love only as I am willing to give love. I felt the anger and resentment fade away.

Hiding From the Beauty of My Brother

As I read the lesson this morning, I had another thought. I see the perfection of myself only as I can see it in my brother. Another way to say that is I see in my brother only what I see in myself. So if my brother appears less than perfect, it is because I feel less than perfect and am projecting this onto him. So I don’t see the beauty that is my brother by squinting and holding my head just right.

It isn’t a beauty that you see with the body’s eyes. And it is not hidden from me, but rather, I am hiding from the beauty. The way to achieve the goal set for us in this lesson is to desire nothing else. I want to know myself as I was created, and I want nothing more than I want that. I want to know my perfect beautiful self more than I want to defend myself, attack, judge, and retain my separate individual identity. Every time I forgive, I come a little closer to being revealed, and in that unveiling of Self, everyone else is revealed as well.

Contemplation 2025

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ACIM Lesson 244 contemplation by Rev Myron of Pathways of Light