Lesson 359
God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.
Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your Own. We have misunderstood all things. But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are we. And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace.
Journal
It feels like there are layers of understanding when it comes to this lesson. I can, right now, forgive what we have made of the world. It looks like seeing the destruction and cruelty, the guilt and fear as merely errors to be overlooked. It feels like asking the Holy Spirit for a new interpretation of what I see with a willingness to trust His vision over what the eyes and ears tell me. When I do this, the world and everyone in it feels precious to me. Their errors seem inconsequential and certainly not like sins. The future no longer feels threatening. Instead, I wait with curiosity to see what comes next.
At another level, I see forgiveness unfolding within the mind that we all share. I see beauty and kindness, love and joy spreading across this world so that the world itself is transformed. In our dream of separation, we walked a rocky and crooked path, and returning to reality requires we turn around and follow our steps to where we started. The end brings us to Eden and we rest there awhile enjoying the world we made, the one that existed before we took a detour into fear and guilt.
At still another level, I see us, as one, forgiving the world’s existence because we are done with that experience. I see the world disappearing in our forgiveness and God lifting us to Him. But in each of these levels what remains true is that forgiveness undoes what we made and it is replaced with peace and love and joy.
Regina’s Tips
We were given these words to contemplate as pointers to what we are:
- Complete and healed and whole
- Guaranteed eternal life
- Love perfected, fear impossible, and joy established without opposite
- The holy home of God Himself
- Sinlessness Itself
- Purity
We were also told:
The truth of what we are is not for words to speak of nor describe. Yet we can realize our function here, and words can speak of this and teach it, too, if we exemplify the words in us. …
And thus our minds are changed about the aim for which we came, and which we seek to serve.
As the workbook nears its end, we are left with a decision to make. Do we want to practice our function here to the best of our ability so we can prepare ourselves for the final awakening, which is the realization that answers the question, “What am I?”
My Thoughts
Oh, yeah. I hear the ego’s objections and I see that there is some fear in my mind, but I also trust. And I trust that each step I take in that direction prepares me for what comes next so that I am ready for it.
2008
This has been a wonderful holiday. I got everyone terrific gifts and barely went over my budget. I had all my kids with me, and both grandchildren. My extended family was together yesterday. Even my ex husband and his brand new wife joined us for Christmas morning gift exchanging. Tonight we are going to my daughter’s house for a lovely Christmas supper. I love it when somebody else does the cooking!
But the best part of this holiday took place this morning as the sun rose. I bundled up as it was chilly out, and met the sunrise as I allowed the Christ within to rise in me. I used this opportunity to recognize that in the past several years I have been focused on allowing the gradual and natural death of the ego. I renewed my commitment to God to accept His Will for me and only His Will.
I then joined with my spiritual family, my mighty, mighty companions as we shared this experience with each other. I was moved to tears as George read from NTI, and as Sonja read from the Course, and Regina expressed for all of us our desire to step out of the form of Christmas traditions and into the spiritual meaning of this occasion, which is the birth of Christ in each of us. I was so comforted and supported by my friends that my heart was filled to bursting with gratitude and I just gave up trying not to boo hoo. 🙂
The rest of today I will notice the moments when I do not feel happy and recognize that it is because I have placed value on what has no value. I welcome into my conscious awareness each thought that is unlike what I think with God. I am glad to see it so that I can decide it is not what I now choose. I am looking forward to the coming year as I continue my journey home choosing anew in each moment knowing that what I left behind is what I no longer want. I am not condemned for it, nor am I marked by it. The moment I no longer want something, it is no longer in my life.
Holy Spirit, I am not completely free of the ego mind, and so I need help. I am willing to step back and allow You to lead the way. I am willing to know that I don’t know and that You do. I am willing to make no decisions on my own. I am grateful that there is within my mind a Guide, One Who knows, placed there by my Father that I might never forget my way home.
2009
I was reading this posting from last year and asked the Holy Spirit to speak to me about it.
Holy Spirit: You are, quite simply, the perfect and holy creation of your Father. Live it, Myron! Live what you are! When you make that final decision to accept your truth you are going to laugh at the idea you could have ever been less. Why not laugh now?
You are loved. You are appreciated. You are not what you think you are. You say that you are not completely free of the ego mind, but I say that you have never been imprisoned. To think that God’s Work could be subverted in that way! The absurdity of it! Go ahead and laugh. It could never be true.
I am leading you, my friend, out of a dream; that is all. You are not trapped. You are not in harm’s way. You are merely sleeping, dreaming. Rest your mind and allow your thoughts to subside. You are trying to become what you already are. Precious, precious child, there is nothing holier than you. What would you become?
This year for Christmas, give Me this gift. I want your doubts, your fears, your guilt. Give them to Me. Give Me your belief that you must work hard to be what you are, and give me that belief you try to keep hidden, the one that says maybe you will never wake up. Just give me these things I ask of you.
I have a gift for you. I will take what you have given me and purify your mind. I will prepare it to be host to God, your Father. I will restore you to your original glorious state. I will awaken you to what you are, holy Son of God. Never has anyone been offered so much in exchange for so little.
Me: Yes! Yes! Yes!
2017
On this day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our dear brother, I give him the gift of forgiveness, the only gift I think he would want. God help me today to forgive so completely that I leave not a spot of darkness within my mind. Help me, Father, to know your creations as You know them, pure and perfect and so like You that there is barely a difference. Oh, what a Christmas this is to be!