[acimlessons_list] Lesson 99 - April 9

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 99 - April 9

"Salvation is my only function here."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to fulfill your only function by letting your dark thoughts be
brought out of hiding to meet with the light of God's Thought, so that your
darkness is replaced by His light.

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

*  Say, "Salvation is my only function here. Salvation and forgiveness are
the same."
*  Then invite the Holy Spirit into your mind and ask Him to search out the
dark and secret places in your mind-thoughts, beliefs, and goals that you
wish to keep hidden, either from yourself or from others. When one comes to
light, repeat the Thought, "God still is Love, and this is not His will."
Let the light in this Thought shine away your darkened thought; let it bring
you to a forgiveness of that thought. Thus will that darkened place be
filled with light. Then begin the process again: Let the Holy Spirit's light
search out another dark, hidden thought. Then again repeat, "God still is
Love, and this is not His will," and let this Thought forgive and shine away
the darkness, replacing it with light. While going through this process,
occasionally reflect on the meaning of "God still is Love, and this is not
His Will." It means that this world of pain is not His Will. It means that
God wills that you are His Son, at one with Him.

Frequent reminders: in between hourly practice periods
Repeat the idea, realizing that by doing so you invite forgiveness to
replace your fears and invite love into your mind, which will reveal to you
that you are God's Son.

Response to temptation: whenever some appearance tempts you to be give in to
fear and doubt
Say, "Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not
His Will." Realize that this special message "has the power to remove all
forms of doubt and fear....Remember that appearances can not withstand the
truth these mighty words contain" (11:1-2).

COMMENTARY

Today we will just comment on a few ideas from this lesson.

"Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see: on sin and pain and
death, on grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must
still be true: God is still Love, and this is not His Will" (5:4-5).

We see sin and pain and death. We see grief and separation and loss. We
think these things are real. What is worse, we believe them to be God's
Will. If we attribute this world and its creation to God, these things must
be, by implication, God's Will. He created them. If we believe He created
the world we must believe that, even if the belief is not conscious. At the
very least we believe He willingly created the potential for all this
suffering and loss, and somehow planned for us to go through it all.

Much Christian teaching has been very explicit about this. A loved one dies
prematurely. We are overcome with an agony of grief and loss, and some
well-intentioned friend tries to comfort us with the thought, "It was God's
Will." What comfort is that? What does it do but place the blame for our
agony on God? What does it do but make God into a monster, an object of fear
or even hatred?

Sin, pain, death, grief, separation and loss are not God's Will. They never
have been. Such a belief stems from a covert belief that God has it in for
us, that He is punishing us for our sins. To hold such a belief we must also
hold a belief that we deserve this awful experience. This is the instant of
our belief in separation from God being played out on the stage of the
world.

You and I have thought that God wanted this for us. He wanted us to be in
this world of pain. Sometimes we have agreed with what we thought of Him,
agreed that we deserved to suffer. Sometimes we have angrily denied we
deserved it, and accused Him of being unfair. Often we have simply been
bewildered, pitifully wondering what we did to deserve all this; sure we
must have done something, but at a loss as to what it might be.

Somehow we have never considered this thought:

"All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He
wanted this for you" (7:4-5).

The essence of our anguish, the element that lends it exquisite sharpness,
is the underlying thought that God wants it for us. What cuts deepest is the
hidden belief that God is the source of this pain. He Whom my heart loves,
and loves uncontrollably, has willed this for me. It is my Father Who
inflicts this pain.

We huddle in our suffering and grief, hopeless and lost because we think it
is God's Will.

"This is not His Will," Jesus tells us. "Forgive yourself the thought He
wanted this for you."

How could we think this of God? How could we believe He is so vengeful? We
do not yet realize, yet will discover it so if we grant ourselves this
forgiveness, that it is only this thought about God that grants to pain all
its power over us. When grief tears at us, fear grips us, or a deep sense of
loss seems to shred our very soul, if we will allow ourselves to turn to the
Holy Spirit and hear Him say, "This is not His Will. God does not want this
for you," we will find it possible to forgive ourselves for thinking it was
so. The moment we do, the vitality of pain is removed. "God does not want
this for me. This is not from Him." The pain becomes--something else.

It is not God Who wills this pain for us. It is ourselves. We believe God
punishes because we believe we deserve punishment. We experience life as
pain because we are unconsciously punishing ourselves.

We are not talking here of the event we think has caused our pain or fear:
the death of the loved one, the apparent loss of love, the physical
suffering. We are talking primarily of the mental-emotional context in which
we are holding it. This is an internal thing. This anguish, this pain of
grief, this terror--this is not His Will for you. We suffer so incredibly
because, all unconscious, we accept most of life as a punishment. A
chastisement. A penalty for being the awful thing we think we are.

Because we believe the bite of pain is His Will, we cannot take it to Him
for comfort. He is its Source, we think, so we flee from Him. We deny
ourselves the relief of His loving Presence. In that Presence we can find
our Self. We can look on our own essence and "look upon no obstacle to what
He wills for you" (8:3).

"Then turn to Him Who shares your function here, and let Him teach you what
you need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as love which
has no opposite in you" (9:8).

"Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you." Bring your pain to
Jesus. Pain is not God's Will for you. The experience you are going through
can become a doorway to infinite release if you let down your defenses
against God. His Presence can transform your experience of pain into one of
joy. It can be a path to knowing your Self as Love. Such seems impossible to
us, but then, miracles always seem impossible.

Let down the defenses. God is not angry. He does not want this pain for you.
Uncoil from your tight fear of Him. Shrink not from His touch. Forgive
yourself the thought that He inflicted this on you. Let Him show you your
Self as He sees it, and open to His healing Love.