Lesson 241
This holy instant is salvation come.
What joy there is today! It is a time of special celebration. For today holds out the instant to the darkened world where its release is set. The day has come when sorrows pass away and pain is gone. The glory of salvation dawns today upon a world set free. This is the time of hope for countless millions. They will be united now, as you forgive them all. For I will be forgiven by you today.
We have forgiven one another now, and so we come at last to You again. Father, Your Son, who never left, returns to Heaven and his home. How glad are we to have our sanity restored to us, and to remember that we all are one.
Journal
I imagine that most of us reading this don’t believe it. I believe it is going to be true, but not this morning. What if I accepted that if it is true for one of us, it is true for us all? So, what if it is true for me today? But I have trouble even with that idea. I feel pretty darn good this morning. I feel happy and peaceful. I feel joyful right now. I have no pain, I have no grievances, and feel loving toward the world. So, what’s the problem? I suppose that I doubt this will last.
I don’t trust myself to stay in this elevated state. I believe that I could slip a bit under the right circumstances. Peace is not real if it cannot withstand the shifting circumstances of the world and happiness is meaningless if it depends on those circumstances. It is not freedom if it can be easily lost. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t get buffeted around every time the wind changes in direction like I used to, and when I do get upset, I don’t stay upset, so I am not so lost anymore, but neither am I restored.
But as I write this, I think that I am willing to say this Lesson anyway because what comes into my heart is that this is the truth, not the illusion of a totally screwed up world that we are now experiencing. The experience is not reality, this lesson is reality. I think of it like this. There is an outstanding movie called A Beautiful Mind that tells the true story of a brilliant scientist who was also schizophrenic.
He heard voices and saw people who were not there. In the end, he learned to disregard these visions and these voices. He would look right at them and remind himself they weren’t there. This is how he stayed sane. I am doing that, too. I am looking at the vision of a world that cannot exist and I am reminding myself that it is not real. I am making a place in my mind for the truth.
That scientist could not be in two worlds at once, the world everyone else saw and the world he saw, and still be sane. He chose to disregard the world he saw so that he could see what everyone else saw. I cannot be in the real world and believe in the illusory world of imagination. I choose to acknowledge the real world and to do so as consistently as I can.
Regina’s Tips
Our last special theme said that salvation “is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot but be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well.”
Today we celebrate this promise. We also realize that we are not passive receivers of the promise. We have a role to play. Our role is forgiveness. Forgiveness is remaining focused on our unaffected Self while failing to support the ego—choosing not to uphold it with our attention and action.
Since we are not supporting the ego, we need another way to live in the world. That way is surrender, seeking guidance from spiritual intuition by asking, “What am I to do now?” and letting it lead us in everything we think, say and do.
How glad we are to celebrate the promise of salvation today! We celebrate by joyously doing our part. We are eager to play our role in salvation
My Thoughts
I am all in with Regina’s suggestions today. I am playing my role by forgiving what we made and by reminding myself during the day and in meditation that I am as God created me and that Self remains unaffected by my imagination. I surrender as fully as I can to inner guidance and, that is, I do so most of the time.
Past Entry
Each time I forgive I experience this joyful celebration. I understand it pales in comparison to what it will be like when there is nothing left to forgive, but it is a little foretaste of what is to come. Forgiveness has become a real habit for me now, and the slightest sense of discomfort has me searching my mind for the thought that needs to be forgiven.
Because I have committed to do this, the ego part of the mind has become very subtle, and often clever, at finding ways to stop the process. This morning I had a clear forgiveness opportunity pop up in my mind and a few moments later I noticed I was thinking about something entirely different. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that my mind had followed a thought to another to another and simply bypassed the forgiveness I had set out to do. It was easy for me to do this because I am still “much too tolerant of mind wandering.” I am asking the Holy Spirit to help me change this habit of allowing my mind to wander all over the place because I recognize that I will need His help to do this.
I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that my mind had followed a thought to another to another and simply bypassed the forgiveness I had set out to do. It was easy for me to do this because I am still “much too tolerant of mind wandering.” I am asking the Holy Spirit to help me change this habit of allowing my mind to wander all over the place because I recognize that I will need His help to do this.
I woke up one morning feeling weepy. I realized there was no particular story attached to it, but it was the result of a belief in my mind, nonetheless. So I asked for healing. I had the thought that this sadness would interfere with my writing, and that was the ego speaking first. It was immediately followed by the thought that this is not true and the writing with Spirit would clear my mind. That is a perfect example of how the ego works in the mind. It speaks first and loudest. It is also a perfect example of how we can make a different choice and how easy it is to do so.
Today’s Lesson helped me to confirm my decision for God. It is a day of celebration because I chose God on awakening and I will spend the day choosing God. I will forgive all my brothers and every situation. I forgive everything I see. It’s funny how the ego works. As soon as I say I am ready to forgive everything, the ego starts pointing out stuff I don’t want to forgive. But I am remembering what we are, and it’s not the ego. We are the Sons of God and there is no fear in us!
I forgive readily, easily and joyfully, all false thoughts within my awareness! Thank you, God. I love you, God.