[acimlessons_list] Lesson 362 - December 28

[Susan Carrier]

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+ COMMENTARIES ON LESSONS FROM THE WORKBOOK OF A COURSE IN MIRACLES
+ by Allen Watson, with Practice Summaries by Robert Perry, 
+ of The Circle of Atonement
+ Visit our website at <http://www.circleofa.com <http://www.circleofa.com/>
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Lesson 362 - December 28

"This holy instant would I give to You. 
Be You in charge. For I would follow You, 
Certain that Your direction gives me peace."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

FINAL LESSONS

PURPOSE: To receive the gift that God promised His Son. To dedicate your
mind to following in the way of truth and leading your brothers there. To
forgive the world and so hasten the ending of the dream that God appointed.

MORNING/EVENING QUIET TIME: as long as needed

* Use the words only at the beginning, and only to remind yourself you are
trying to go beyond them. * Leave the rest of the lesson to the Holy Spirit.
Put Him in charge. Whatever you need, be it a thought, a word, or stillness
and tranquility, He will give it to you.

HOURLY REMEMBRANCE

No specific instructions

FREQUENT REMINDER

No specific instructions

RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION

No specific instructions

COMMENTARY

The Workbook leads us to this point: "...to Him we give our lives
henceforth" (W-FL.Int.1:4, which translates as Workbook, Final Lessons,
Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 4). If the idea of giving our lives to
God seems unappealing, consider the alternative: "For we would not return
again to the belief in sin that made the world seem ugly and unsafe,
attacking and destroying, dangerous in all its ways, and treacherous beyond
the hope of trust and the escape from pain" (W-FL.Int.1:5).

The idea that we want something other than God is what made all this mess.
There is nothing other than God. "The belief in sin" referred to is nothing
more than our belief that we succeeded in making something separate from
Him. We don't really want this, although we have believed we did. This
belief is the source of all our pain, so let us return our lives to the
Source of all joy instead. Let us give our lives to be directed by His
Voice, the Holy Spirit.

Let me give this holy instant and every instant into His hands. "His is the
only way to find the peace that God has given us. It is His way that
everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending God Himself
appointed" (W-FL.Int.2:1-2). Don't let those words, "the only way," scare
you off. This isn't saying ACIM is the only way to God; it is saying that
the route of forgiveness, the truth that we are all innocent before God, is
the only way, whatever the form it may take. God created us all to be His
expression, and His Will will be done in the end. As it says in the Text
Introduction, we don't have any choice about the content of the curriculum,
just about when we learn it.

"In the dream of time it seems to be far off. And yet, in truth, it is
already here; already serving us as gracious guidance in the way to go"
(W-FL.Int.2:3-4). My partner Robert wrote an article for our newsletter on
the topic, "How Long Until We're Out of Here?" or, in other words, "How long
until we reach the end of the journey?" The Course is full of the paradox
stated baldly in this sentence: the truth is already here, and yet--in
time--it seems to be far off. Both are true, each in its proper context. A
dream that lasts only a few seconds can seem, within the dream, to last for
years. Isn't it possible that a dream that lasts only for a "tiny tick of
time" can seem to last billions of years? Within the dream of time, our
journey home seems to be taking a very long time. In reality it is already
over, and the power of its ending is present now, guiding us through the
dream.

So what should we do? How, then, should we live? Should we proclaim, "It's
all over!" and just kick back and relax? No; to us the dream is still real.
Therefore: "Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us.
And let us be the leaders of our many brothers who are seeking for the way,
but find it not" (W-FL.Int.2:5-6).

In his article Robert reaches the conclusion that "how long" is an
irrelevant question, and that we should be equally content whether we go
home tomorrow or in 10,000 AD. Our function, in the meantime, is to be the
light of the world as long as we are in it. We are to lead home all our
brothers who are still lost, still floundering. We are to forgive the world;
to bring the message of guiltlessness to everyone; to extend the peace and
love we have found to all the world.

This is what we do when we say, "For I would follow You, certain that Your
direction gives me peace." What direction? The direction of forgiveness, the
direction of forgiving the world. That is the direction which "gives me
peace". Working out our forgiveness of the world becomes the content of our
days. It is when we have accepted this as the one function that we want to
fulfill that the Holy Spirit will arrange everything for us, providing
everything we need as we go. 
 
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+ Commentary by Allen Watson
+ Practice Summary: Robert Perry
+ Available in book format from The Circle
+ of Atonement (Vol. 1 reprint due by end of 2004, write us for info)
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