ACIM Lesson 88 The light has come. I am under no laws but God’s.
The light has come. I am under no laws but God’s.
ACIM Lesson 88
Lesson 88
Today we will review these ideas:
1. (75) The light has come.
²In choosing salvation rather than attack, I merely choose to recognize what is already there. ³Salvation is a decision made already. ⁴Attack and grievances are not there to choose. ⁵That is why I always choose between truth and illusion; between what is there and what is not. ⁶The light has come. ⁷I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative. ⁸It has replaced the darkness, and the darkness has gone.
2. These would prove useful forms for specific applications of this idea:
²This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come.
³The light in you is all that I would see, [name].
⁴I would see in this only what is there.
In the moment we had the tiny mad idea, it unfolded in all variations and was undone in the same moment. These stories we think we are living are ancient memories in our minds. Choosing to live in memories is choosing nothing. It is choosing to close our eyes to the light that has come. I was reading a novel in which the main character dies and her friends are grieving. I felt sadness long after I had put the book down. Of course, I was not reacting to anything real, just to an idea.
Finding the Path Out of Darkness
This is much like my life. I feel the emotions called for in the story of Myron until I remember that I am not really living this story. In actuality, I am the one who is aware of the story, the observer, and decision-maker. Then, with some detachment, I am able to step away from the emotions. Sometimes, though, I get caught up in the story. When that happens, it is harder to remember that the light has come and that I am just staring into imagined darkness.
This is when I am so grateful for these lessons. I can open the Workbook to almost any lesson and find a path out of the darkness. My daughter and I spent the weekend with my son who had hurt himself. We helped him clean his apartment and get some packing done for his upcoming move. He was feeling anxious about a lot of changes in his life. When I got home, I was feeling anxious about him and these last several lessons were very helpful. They give me thoughts that remind me of the truth.
3. (76) I am under no laws but God’s.
²Here is the perfect statement of my freedom. ³I am under no laws but God’s. ⁴I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me. ⁵I suffer only because of my belief in them. ⁶They have no real effect on me at all. ⁷I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God’s. ⁸And His are the laws of freedom.
4. For specific forms in applying this idea, these would be useful:
²My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist.
³I see only the laws of God at work in this.
⁴Let me allow God’s laws to work in this, and not my own.
The ego has a lot of laws that are counter to God’s laws. For instance, the ego says that to be rid of something we must give it away. God’s law says that giving something is how we keep it. I have a friend who is very angry at the manager of her apartment complex. Standing outside of the situation, I can see that she is really afraid of a change in her primary relationship.
She doesn’t want to look at the relationship problems because they feel so big to her. Instead, she projects all her anger onto the manager. Unconsciously, the thought is that in so doing she is ridding herself of the emotion. But while we can ignore God’s laws, we cannot undo them. And so, in giving the anger away, she is keeping it.
Forgiving Beliefs
When caught up in strong emotion, it is easy to overlook what is actually happening. When we project our fear, anger, or hatred, we are actually reinforcing the reality of these feelings in our own minds. In other words, we are hurting ourselves. Forgiving (letting go) of the beliefs behind the emotions is how we effectively deal with them. This is because forgiveness is how we align ourselves with God’s laws.
I know this is true because it is the method I use and I know that it works. When I got home from the visit with my son, I looked at my thoughts. Each thought was the expression of a belief. I soon realized that they all led to a possible outcome in which he suffered. Thus, it seemed to me that I, too, would suffer. Looking at these thoughts with the Holy Spirit dissipated them.
Choosing God’s Laws over Ego Laws
This forgiveness process allowed my mind to begin to clear. I saw that I was acting as if the ego was real and God was not. It took a while, but I was able to choose God’s laws over the ego’s laws. I saw that I was projecting into a future that does not exist. And not only that, I was basing that future on the ego perspective. I also saw that I was choosing to believe in suffering for us both. Suffering is not part of God’s laws. Holy Moley! The light has come! Letting go of these beliefs is such relief. This allowed me to go back to watching the show to discover how it unfolds instead of dreading it as if it is real.
To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 88 click here.
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