[acimlessons_list] Lesson 71 - March 12

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 71 - March 12

"Only God's plan for salvation will work."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to truly recognize that only God's plan will work and to rejoice in
thisfor it means escape from the hopelessness of the ego's plan and from the
pointlessness of trying to follow both plans at once.

Longer: 2 timesfor 10-15 minutes

*  The first part is another exercise in thinking about the idea.
Specificallyreflect on the two parts of the idea. Part one: God's plan will
work. According to recent lessonsGod's plan involves contacting the light
within and letting go of grievancesboth of which mean changing your mind.
Part two: other plans won't work. This lesson tells us that the ego's plan
involves seeking outside yourself for happinessholding grievances when the
outside doesn't cooperateand refusing to change your mind. Try to reach the
conclusionbased on logic and your experiencethat only God's plan holds any
hope of delivering actual happiness.

*  The second part is the Workbook's first exercise in asking for guidance.
Ask God to reveal His plan for you for today. Ask"What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go? What would You have me sayand to whom?" The
willingness you are demonstrating just by doing this entitles you to an
answerso listen with confidence. "Refuse not to hear" (9:8). Once you
asklisten for the subtlest inner promptings—it doesn't need to come in words
 If you don't hear anythingyou might want to repeat the questionsmaking them
more specific: "What would You have me do today?" or "Where would You have
me go after lunch?"

Frequent reminders: 6 or 7 per hourfor half a minute or less.
Repeat the idea as an affirmation of where your salvation really comes from.

Response to temptation: whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance 
Be alert all day to grievances. Respond to each one by saying"Holding
grievances is the opposite of God's plan for salvation. And only His plan
will work."

COMMENTARY

After being told yesterday that salvation comes from me and only from meit
is a little annoying the next day to be told that only God's plan will work
and that the plan I believe in (which is the ego's) isn't worth anything. It
kind of seems like give and then take awaydoesn't it? But it isn't really
saying anything different. The ego's plan involves looking for salvation
outside of myselfGod's plan is wholly centered on my change of mind. In God
s plansalvation comes from mein the ego's planit comes from any place
<except> me.

To the egosalvation means "that if someone else spoke or acted differentlyif
some external circumstance or event were changedyou would be saved." In the
ego's viewbasically I'm OKI am the innocent victimthe problem is with
something outside of me. Whenever I am thinking"If this were differentI'd be
OK" I am believing in the ego's plan of salvation because I am demanding 
the change of mind necessary for salvation...of everyone and everything
except" myself.

Don't get tripped up by the religious sounding phrase"plan for salvation."
It may remind you of some cheap Bible tract announcing "God's plan of
salvation." What salvation boils down to here is simply"I'd be OKmy problems
would be solved." And the ego's plansimply statedis "If this were differentI
would be saved."

In the ego's planthe mind's only purpose is to figure out <what> has to
change for me to be saved (which presupposes that it <isn't me> that has to
change). The ego will let us pick anything that won't work (which includes
everything in the class of things I am looking at--things outside of
myself--since salvation comes from me and not something outside me). The ego
has me look everywhere but in the one place in which the answer lies--my own
mind.

God's plan for salvation is that I look for it where it is: in myself.

For this plan to workhoweverthere is a condition: I have to look in myself
<and nowhere else.> I can't be looking for salvation in myself <and> from
outside. This just divides my efforts between two different plans. There are
two parts to today's idea:

1) God's plan will work 2) Other plans (i.e. the plans I make up) won't work

The second partthe lesson impliesmay seem depressing. We may feel a flare of
anger. In fact what keeps us from simply accepting God's plan is that we
want to be rightwe want our plans to work. In fact we'd rather be right than
happymost of the timealthough we don't consciously think that. But the ego's
plan consists of holding grievances. Haven't you ever had the experience of
realizing that you <could> just let a grievance go and be happybut that
somehow it seems to feel good to be angry? You don't want to let go. You'd
rather be <right> than happy.

The lesson is saying"You can be saved simply by changing your mind. Nothing
outside you has to change in order for you to be happy. You can simply
choose happinessright now." And our responsetypically? "Hellno! I won't be
happy unless s/he changes first." We're holding on to our plan for salvation
and refusing God's.

The practice for todaythenis surprisingly not mainly about letting go of grievancesor looking within for salvation. It is about listening. It is about asking guidance from God. The emphasis is on taking our hands off the reins of our lives and giving them over to God. If we can learn to do thatwe may begin to learn that His plans work better than our own.