ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 73, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 73 I will there be light.

I will there be light. ACIM Lesson 73

Lesson 73

I will there be light.

1. Today we are considering the will you share with God. ²This is not the same as the ego’s idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness arise. ³The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it. ⁴The ego’s idle wishes are unshared, and therefore have no power at all. ⁵Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. ⁶But they are idle indeed in terms of creation. ⁷They make nothing that is real.

The darkness and nothingness that arise is the world of our wishes. It is not creation because it is not the will we share with God that makes this world. Because our idle wishes are not shared, they have no power to create. They make images that we can see with the body’s eyes but that are not real. It is only our belief in them that makes them seem as if they are.

Idle Wishes and Grievances

2. Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the world you see. ²The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego’s need for grievances, which are necessary to maintain it, peoples it with figures that seem to attack you and call for “righteous” judgment. ³These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances. ⁴They stand between your awareness and your brothers’ reality. ⁵Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self.

Our desire for something impossible, that is, separation and specialness, brought the world into our mind. Because of our strong belief in what we made up it appears very real to us. If it were not for our grievances, the truth would dawn on our mind and the world would disappear from it. In order to maintain the world, we need our grievances. And so, we people it and imagine they are attacking us. These attacks seem to call for “righteous” judgment. As long as we keep buying into this, we will not know our brothers or our Selves.

Strange Bartering

3. Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering, in which guilt is traded back and forth, and grievances increase with each exchange. ²Can such a world have been created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father? ³Did God create disaster for His Son? ⁴Creation is the Will of Both together. ⁵Would God create a world that kills Himself?

I’ve always appreciated the first sentence in which he talks about this strange bartering in which guilt is traded back and forth and grievances increase. I appreciate it because I can see how true that is. Looking at my last marriage, I see how this was done. We kept trading grievances and in so doing we wound up with nothing but grievances. Who can be aware of love with grievances blocking it in this way? Though it was done after the marriage had ended, in forgiving these grievances, I came to love him again.

I have since learned to be vigilant for thoughts of grievances and to release them to the Holy Spirit quickly. I understand now that God did not create such a world as this and therefore it cannot be real. If the grievances are not real, there is no reason for me to believe in them so they are easy to release.

And knowing that God did not create this world, it is easy to accept that it is but a figment of my imagination. The world does not exist except in our minds. It is just an image of a thought we hold and believe. As it says in Lesson 15, My thoughts are images that I have made.

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. (ACIM, W-15.1:1-2)

These thoughts I think I think are not thoughts I think with God so what they produce is not reality.

Darkness Has Vanished

4. Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance with your will. ²The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will of God. ³It is not Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines on it. ⁴Darkness has vanished. ⁵The ego’s idle wishes have been withdrawn. ⁶Yet the light that shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it must be in you that we will look for it.

5. Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. ²The source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. ³Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. ⁴Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. ⁵We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily passed, and cannot stand between you and your salvation. ⁶The reason is very simple. ⁷Do you really want to be in hell? ⁸Do you really want to weep and suffer and die?

We are trying to reach the real world, the world we made before we condemned it with our guilt and fear. We can do this because the dark world we are experiencing now is the effect of the dark thoughts in our mind. As we forgive our grievances, the mind is lightened. Now the images we make reflect that light. Jesus asks us to consider if we really want to be in hell. Do you really want to weep and suffer and die? No, of course we do not. This is why we will succeed. Our true will is God’s Will and must prevail.

Suffering Is not Happiness

6. Forget the ego’s arguments which seek to prove all this is really Heaven. ²You know it is not so. ³You cannot want this for yourself. ⁴There is a point beyond which illusions cannot go. ⁵Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. ⁶Such is your will in truth. ⁷And so salvation is your will as well. ⁸You want to succeed in what we are trying to do today. ⁹We undertake it with your blessing and your glad accord.

We cannot have grievances and also have happiness. Happiness is what we want and so all grievances must be forgiven. We cannot make exceptions and at the same time live the happy dream. If I discover that I am justifying a grievance, I change my mind. There is never a justification for a grievance. While I was married, I did feel like my grievances against my husband were justified.

Others agreed with me and that reinforced my belief. When I forgave that relationship, it became clear to me that I was much happier without the grievances. I completely lost interest in them and I learned a valuable lesson in so doing. When Putin invaded Ukraine, I had a grievance and it certainly seemed justified, but I quickly released it. I have learned my lesson about grievances. They only cause suffering to me and the rest of the Sonship.

Salvation Is for You

7. We will succeed today if you remember that you want salvation for yourself. ²You want to accept God’s plan because you share in it. ³You have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so. ⁴Salvation is for you. ⁵Above all else, you want the freedom to remember Who you really are. ⁶Today it is the ego that stands powerless before your will. ⁷Your will is free, and nothing can prevail against it.

8. Therefore, we undertake the exercises for today in happy confidence, certain that we will find what it is your will to find, and remember what it is your will to remember. ²No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of strength. ³Today let your will be done, and end forever the insane belief that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose.

Someone I love is suffering right now. I can join him in his suffering, or I can just hold the truth in my mind and let his experience unfold. The ego argues that if I really loved him, I would be worried and afraid for him. I would certainly care that he is suffering. I can’t see where suffering with him is going to help him nor where not suffering with him will hurt him. So where is the value in that choice?

When I notice a fear thought or a worry thought about him, I release it to the Holy Spirit. ²No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of strength. Today the ego stands powerless before my will. This is a decision that is not done and done. The decision for God is a decision that I must make with each thought.

You will Succeed Today

9. We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition that God’s plan for salvation, and only His, is wholly in accord with your will. ²It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you unwillingly. ³It is the one purpose here on which you and your Father are in perfect accord. ⁴You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes. ⁵His will is now restored to his awareness. ⁶He is willing this very day to look upon the light in him and be saved.

Why not today? Why not right now? Today can be the day appointed for the release of the Son of God from hell. It is up to me. In the Manual for Teachers it says this about accepting the end of time.

⁶As the course emphasizes, you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you will learn it. ⁷You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. ⁸And as you accept it, it is already learned. (ACIM, M-2.3:6-8)

That is all we are doing, accepting what has already been learned. We can do this and we will do it according to what we truly desire. I accept as fully as I can and forgive myself for what I cannot yet accept. This prepares me for the next effort and makes all following decisions more easily accepted. I am not alone in this. The Christ joins me in this because it is the joint Will of God and of us.

Let Your Will Assert Itself

10. After reminding yourself of this, and determining to keep your will clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:

²I will there be light. ³Let me behold the light that reflects God’s Will and mine.

⁴Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and united with your Self. ⁵Put the rest of the practice period under Their guidance. ⁶Join with Them as They lead the way.

11. In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you really want. ²Say:

³I will there be light. ⁴Darkness is not my will.

⁵This should be repeated several times an hour. ⁶It is most important, however, to apply today’s idea in this form immediately you are tempted to hold a grievance of any kind. ⁷This will help you let your grievances go, instead of cherishing them and hiding them in darkness.

I Will for Light

Light is my will, and darkness is not my will. I know this now and I know it forever. If dark thoughts show up in my mind, I only need to remind myself of what I truly want. I remind myself of my decision. I join with the Christ in the will I share with God and I let Them guide me in my practice and in my life.