[acimlessons_list] Lesson 139--May 19

[Allen Watson]

Lesson 139

"I will accept Atonement for myself."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

PURPOSE: To accept the truth about yourself today, and go your way
rejoicing in God's Love.

LONGER: 2--morning and evening for 5 minutes

* Begin by reviewing your mission: "I will accept Atonement for myself.
For I remain as God created me."

* Then accept the truth about yourself. You have not lost the knowledge
of who you are. It is still in your memory, along with the knowledge of
how dear your brothers are, how much a part of you. You can remember
today for everyone, for all minds are one.

SHORTER: hourly, for several minutes

Lay aside all thoughts that would distract you. Learn that the chains
that would hide your Self from awareness are mere fragile cobwebs
cluttering your mind, as you say: "I will accept Atonement for myself.
For I remain as God created me."

COMMENTARY

What does it mean to accept the Atonement for myself? This lesson puts
an end to any idea that this is a selfish notion, or that it means my
only concern is myself, my personal happiness my only concern. Nothing
could be clearer than this: "It is more than just our happiness alone we
came to gain. What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must
be, along with us" (9:4, 5).

To accept the Atonement for myself means to accept the truth of what I
am, to decide to "accept ourselves as God created us" (1:2). And what am
I? I already know, in my heart of hearts, but I resist knowing. This
lesson is magnificent in its trechant dissection of the insanity of the
way we question our Identity. It questions all our questioning. It
raises all our doubts to doubt. It denies the possibility of denial. It
belittles our thoughts of littleness. How can be be anything except what
we are? How can we <not know> what we are? "The only thing that can be
surely known by any living thing is what it is" (2:3).

God created us as extensions of His Love. That is our mission; it is
what we are. To accept the Atonement is to accept this truth about
ourselves. To accept the Atonement is to begin to function as God's Love
in the world.

Every time we refuse to see the magnificence in another we are denying
our own. We look on others with less than love because we refuse to see
how much <we> merit it. We are God's representatives on earth; accepting
the Atonement is to accept our mission. We are here to restore the
grandeur of what we all are to every mind--not just to our own. This
grandness, this magnificent inclusiveness, this divine generosity is our
very being. We are the open heart that embraces the world, remembering
"how much a part of us is every mind" (11:6).

In us our Father's Love can contain them all. Our heart is big enough
for all the world.

This is Who we are. Today, let me remember. Today, let me accept my holy
aim. Today, let me know myself as part of this great throbbing,
all-embracing Heart of God.

-- 
Your companion on the journey,
Allen Watson

The Circle of Atonement, P.O. Box 4238, W. Sedona, AZ 86340
<http://www.circleofa.com>
"Whom you forgive is free, and what you give you share. Forgive the sins
your brother thinks he has committed, and all the guilt you think you see in
him." (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV(D.i).15:9-10)