[acimlessons_list] Lesson 98 - April 8

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 98 - April 8

"I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to firmly and happily dedicate yourself to taking your part in God
s plan for salvation; to really take a stand on this today.

Longer: every hour on the hour, for 5 minutes (if you cannot do this, at
least do the alternate)
This practice strikes me as similar to the practice you did in Lesson 77.
There, you repeated "I am entitled to miracles" and then waited for the Holy
Spirit to give His assurance that these words are true. Here, in this lesson
 you repeat "I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation" and then
expect the Holy Spirit to infuse your words with His certainty, so that you
really do accept your part. Throughout the practice period, keep repeating
the idea, and let Him make every repetition a total dedication, made with
deep conviction, sincerity, certainty, and full understanding. Let Him turn
a mere repeating of "I will accept my part in God's plan for salvation" into
an actual accepting of your part. That is your goal for today, to use these
practice periods to take a stand, to use them to accept your part in God's
plan.

Frequent reminders: often
Repeat the idea. Try to think of each hour as preparation time for your next
five-minute practice period. "Repeat [the idea] often, and do not forget
each time you do so, you have let your mind be readied for the happy time to
come" (10:3).

Encouragement to practice: Paragraphs 5 and 6 are a rousing pep talk. They
ask the question: Is it not worth five minutes an hour to receive a
limitless reward? I recommend reading these paragraphs over slowly and
thoughtfully, letting their questions and promises do their intended work in
you. Paragraphs 2 through 4 also contain wonderful encouragement. They tell
us that by embracing our part in God's plan—which is the point of today's
practice—we can lay aside all our doubts and find true certainty of purpose.
They tell us that those who have done that will be with us in our practice,
helping us to take the same stand they did. And they tell us that our stand
will help others in taking theirs, which will in turn reinforce ours (as we
were told in yesterday's lesson).

COMMENTARY

"Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today
 We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the
two, but take a firm position with the One..." (1:1-3).

"How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our
stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and
surety has come" (2:1-2).

Perhaps as I read these lines about certainty, I find myself doubting that
very certainty. "Am I certain?" The thought surely arises. Perhaps I feel as
if I don't belong with this lesson. My ego reminds me slyly that I am not
beyond vacillation. How can I say, "Doubt is gone?"

Yet even in the words of the lesson is the recognition of my condition: "All
our doubts we lay aside today" (2:2). Yes, doubts are there. Of course they
are. Jesus knows that. He is only suggesting that in these five minutes we
spend with him, we lay them aside. Just put them down and be without them
for a few minutes. See what it is like. You can doubt later if you want; for
now, see how happy it is to be certain.

Within me there is a place that is always certain. It has never doubted. It
cannot doubt because it knows. This is my true Self. The doubts are thoughts
that question the reality of that Self, the reality of the part of me that
is certain, which is the only real part. I am brought by this lesson to
question my questioning. I am brought to listen to the certainty, the
eternal silence of spirit which knows.

When I am willing, even for a moment, to lay aside my doubts, to still the
nattering mind (the "yama yama" as Werner Erhard called it), I encounter a
still sureness. It is not a certainty of ideas and words; it is an assurance
of being, a majestic calm. The stillness is beyond space and time. It has
nothing to do with the drama played on this planet.

It is of this we speak today. It is of those who know to touch this eternal
calm of which the lesson says,

"They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what is given them to do.
They do not doubt their ability because they know their function will be
filled completely in the perfect time and place" (3:3-4).

I take my stand with those who, before me, have come to this place. It is
the same place for all of us. It is the same Self we come to know. And I
know, in that holy instant, that if one has been here before me, all will
come to find it. If one has been here--and I know that many have been
here--all will be here, for one could not come unless it were the reality
for all. The nature of this place, this quiet certainty, is a shared nature.
It could not be here for me if it were not here for you as well. It could
not have been there for Jesus if it is not also here for me.

"They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly
offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still
uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make
it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard,
and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not
choose but for ourselves today" (4:1-4).

In the center of the storm of doubts and uncertainty there is an eye of calm
 The storm rages on. We still can perceive it. Yet here, here, we are calm.
We are quiet. We rest.

Of course you have doubts and uncertainty. That is what you are supposed to
notice as you do this lesson! Just for the moment, be willing to have them
disappear. There is One within you who is always certain, and He is you; you
have forgotten that. Let yourself, however briefly, identify with His
certainty, and let go of your identification with the doubts. Make that
choice; this is all that is asked.

"He will give the words you use in practicing today's idea the deep
conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours, and
make each repetition of today's idea a total dedication, made in faith as
perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the
light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what
they really mean" (7:2-4).

"Give Him the words, and He will do the rest" (9:1).

Give Him the words, and He will do the rest! He is simply asking you to say
your faltering "Yes." You are not being asked to turn your doubt into faith.
He will do that. "My part in God's plan" is very simple: acceptance. My part
is not an active role, but passive. It is to be willing to receive, and that
is all. My part is to say, "OK. Yes. I will accept." Give Him those words;
that is all. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that
what you say is true.

Over and over through the day, over and over throughout life, give Him those
words: "I will accept my part. Yes."

This is surrender. This is all we do. There is nothing else to do. So simple
 So difficult to be so simple. So difficult to stop trying to make it on our
own. Let go, and let God. "Yes, God. Yes, Holy Spirit. I accept my part."

Tell Him once more that you accept the part that he would have you take and
help you fill, and He will make sure you want this choice, which He has made
with you and you with Him.

Perhaps I'm not sure I want it. But He will make sure I want it. Come to Him
just as you are, with all your doubts, all your fears. Just come. Just say, 
Yes. I accept."

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(Just a note of interest: If you can recognize iambic pentameter, you'll be able to detect that after the title and first line, most (but not quite all) of today's lesson is written in that meter. Tomorrow's lesson begins the first full lesson in I.P., and the entire rest of the Workbook follows suit.)