[acimlessons_list] Lesson 105 - April 15

[Sue Carrier Roth]

Lesson 105 - April 15

"God's peace and joy are mine."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to accept God's gifts of peace and joy, and understand that in
doing so you actually increase His peace and joy, rather than taking them
from Him. Thus, you "learn a different way of looking at a gift" (3:3).

Longer: every hour on the hour, for 5 minutes (if you cannot do this, at
least do the alternate)

*	Think of those to whom you denied God's peace and joy, for thus you
denied them to yourself. Say to each one, "My brother, peace and joy I offer
you, that I may have God's peace and joy as mine." By giving God's gifts
where you withheld them, you will now feel entitled to claim them as your
own. Doing this preparatory step well will guarantee your success in the
following step.
*	Then close your eyes and say, "God's peace and joy are mine," and
try to find those gifts deep in your mind. Let yourself experience the joy
and peace that belong to you. Let God's Voice assure you that God's peace
and joy really are yours. This appears to be another meditation aimed at
making contact with the happiness God placed in you.

Alternate: on the hour
If you cannot do the five minutes on the hour, don't think that doing a
shortened version is worthless. At least repeat, "God's peace and joy are
mine," realizing that by doing so you invite Him to give you the happiness
He wills for you. 

Response to temptation: whenever you are tempted to deny God's gift to
someone
Be grateful to this person for providing you with another chance to receive
God's peace and joy by giving them away. Channel your gratitude into this
blessing: "My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God's
peace and joy as mine."

COMMENTARY

Today's lesson adds to yesterday's emphasis on peace and joy. It reiterates
much of what was in that lesson, but adds the thought that we receive these
gifts by giving them.

"A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of
giving, so you can receive" (3:1). This idea, that we receive by giving,
runs all through the Course, and is given considerable importance, but this
is the only place I know of that learning this lesson is specifically
identified as "a major learning goal" of the Course.

We noted yesterday that peace and joy are gifts that increase by being
shared. To share my peace with you increases it rather than diminishing it.
This lesson makes the rather startling assertion that when I receive peace
and joy from God, God's joy grows (4:1). By accepting peace and joy as mine,
I am allowing God to "complete Himself as He defines completion"
(5:1).Through my experience of this, I learn what my own completion must be
(5:3).Even the psalmist of the Old Testament knew something of this when he
wrote:

"What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take
the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord" (Psalm 116:12,13,
KJV).

What gift can I give to God to thank Him for His blessing? I can give Him
the gift of receiving His salvation and calling on His love. I take the
gifts of joy and peace, and "He will thank [me] for [my] gift to Him" (5:6).

We have all experienced this in some small way, at least. We know the joy of
giving. We know that when we give love, and it is received, our love is
strengthened, not weakened. Shared love is a great joy. Love received is far
richer than love unacknowledged. Even receiving the joy of a child over a
new toy or a new pet visibly adds to the child's joy. These are small
reflections of how God's giving works, and we are meant to be part of it.
This kind of giving, the giving of things that increase by being given away,
is how we create ("True giving is creation," (4:2)) and how we complete
ourselves.

The exercises today prepare us to receive peace and joy, and the preparation
is consciously giving them away to those to whom we have denied them in the
past. Our "enemies." The people who, in our eyes, have not <deserved> to
have peace and joy. We did not realize that in denying the gift to them, we
were denying it to ourselves in equal measure. If what we give increases in
us, then if we withhold it we are withholding from ourselves as well.

To truly say, and to experience, that "God's peace and joy are mine," we
must open our hearts to share peace and joy with the world. It begins with
that person to whom my heart has been closed. "My brother, peace and joy I
offer you." If I will open my heart to allow love to flow out, it will also
flow in. As I open my heart, allowing peace, joy and love to flow out to
those around me, what I am doing is "letting what cannot contain itself
fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for
itself" (4:5). What is it that "cannot contain itself?" My Self, my own
Being.

This irrepressible Giver is me.