WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE?
page 33, paragraph 6
WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE?
WHAT IS THE REAL MEANING OF SACRIFICE?
6. You may believe this course requires sacrifice of all you really hold dear. ²In one sense this is true, for you hold dear the things that crucify God’s Son, and it is the course’s aim to set him free. ³But do not be mistaken about what sacrifice means. ⁴It always means the giving up of what you want. ⁵And what, O teacher of God, is it that you want? ⁶You have been called by God, and you have answered. ⁷Would you now sacrifice that Call? ⁸Few have heard it as yet, and they can but turn to you. ⁹There is no other hope in all the world that they can trust. ¹⁰There is no other voice in all the world that echoes God’s. ¹¹If you would sacrifice the truth, they stay in hell. ¹²And if they stay, you will remain with them.
Sacrifice?
What is it that we would “sacrifice” to answer the Call to service? What is it that we want and will have to give up? Special relationships, of course. The “right” to righteous indignation. We would have to give up being a victim, seeing guilt in others and ourselves. Of course there goes all that delicious drama. We would have to give up all those hours of rehashing past stories of our lives. Secondly we would have to give up the hope that we will finally think of the one story that will bring us perfect happiness. We would have to give up sickness, pain, and death. The belief that letting these go is sacrifice is a sickness in our mind. Holy Spirit, please heal us all.
Teachers
I have heard God call me to teach, as have each of you who are reading this. Our teaching is essential to the plan of salvation. We are the voice of hope in the desert. Would we sacrifice that trust for another go at the illusion? Would we deny our Call, bowing our heads in false humility? We began this experiment in separation so long ago that the memory is lost to us. We have nothing else to gain from staying. Surely, we tire of it now, and that is why we answered God’s Call. I will not turn my back on that Call now. I will not stay in hell, nor leave any part of my one Self in hell.