[acimlessons_list] Lesson 80 - March 21

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 80 - March 21

"Let me recognize my problems have been solved."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: to claim the peace to which you are entitled by the fact that God
has solved your only problem.

Longer: 2 times, for 10-15 minutes

* This is an exercise in just basking in the awareness that you are
problem-free. I see it as being much like Lesson 50 (you may want to review
those instructions now), where you thought about the idea and rested in the
peace that it provided. So do that here. 

* Close your eyes and realize that, having recognized the problem
(yesterday), you have also accepted the answer. This means that your one
problem has been solved. Reflect on this. Think about the fact that all your
problems are gone. Reflect on the fact that you are totally conflict-free.
You have only one problem and God has solved it. Use these thoughts to claim
the peace that now belongs to you. Lean back and relax in that peace. Rest
in the feeling of being carefree.

Frequent reminders: as frequently as possible
* Repeat the idea (you may want to shorten it to, "My problems have been
solved"), with gratitude and with deep conviction. If you will, try now
repeating it once with gratitude, and then try repeating it with deep
conviction.

Response to temptation: Whenever a specific problem arises, especially an
interpersonal one
* Immediately say, "Let me recognize this problem has been solved." Be
determined not to saddle yourself with problems that don't exist.

COMMENTARY

"One problem, one solution" (1:5). "The problem must be gone, because God's
answer cannot fail" (4:2). So I must be at peace--whether I know it or not.
I have no more problems. Seeing and understanding this, accepting it wholly,
is the essence of salvation (1:8; 2:5; 5:6).

To see a problem as unresolved is to accumulate another grievance and to
block the light from my awareness. An unresolved problem is an occasion of
unforgiveness. It represents something I do not like or do not approve of, a
cause of judgment in my mind. "Certain it is that all distress does not
appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form"
(W-pI.193.4:1,2). When the Course speaks of our forgiving the world, it
means the same thing as our recognizing that all forms of problems are only
separation, which has already been resolved. The answer to every problem,
therefore, is forgiveness. The answer is accepting the Atonement,
recognizing that nothing, whatever form nothing takes, can separate me from
the love of God; nothing can take away my peace.

I have spent this past weekend (1995) sleeping on an air mattress at my
son's home in California. I am writing this on my last day here. Last night,
the air mattress sprang a leak, and I woke about five o'clock with most of
my body on the ground and my arms and legs still half floating several
inches higher, a most uncomfortable position. I never got back to sleep and
got up feeling short of sleep and worrying a bit about driving from Phoenix
to Sedona late tonight, two hours in the dark desert, alone, and sleepy.

That seemed to be a potential problem. How is that a form of unforgiveness?
How is this problem of short sleep a manifestation of separation?

If I recognize that my only problem is separation and that it has been
solved, I can realize that a lack of sleep cannot separate me from God's
love and peace. I can forgive the air mattress, or forgive my son for
providing a flawed bed. I can forgive myself for worrying about the drive. I
can accept that nothing is wrong and that my life is in the hands of God,
and all will work out just as it should. Perhaps my body will be energized
enough that I will not be sleepy as I drive home. Perhaps I will spend the
night with friends in Phoenix even though that is not "my" plan. Perhaps I
will pull off the road and sleep in my truck. Whatever happens, I do not
need to be pulled out of peace by this event; my problem has been solved. I
can be at peace NOW.

Or, if I so choose, I can destroy my last day with my son and grandchildren
by obsessing about my problem. I can worry about falling asleep at the
wheel. I can be upset because I may be forced to change my plan. I can be
grumpy and grouchy and miss out on the love that is around me with my
grandchildren. Is that really a choice I want to make?

A collapsing air mattress is not my problem. The only problem is allowing
that, or anything like it, to disturb the peace of God that is always mine
if I choose to have it. The only problem is separation from God. The events
in our lives do not, and cannot, cause us to separate from Him. When we seem
to be upset it is always a choice we make; the events we connect to that
loss of peace are only a convenient excuse. Forgiveness involves recognizing
our responsibility and lifting the blame for loss of peace from the persons
and events of our lives and accepting that the peace of God has not been
taken from us, cannot be taken from us, and indeed has never left us. We
have merely closed our eyes to it. And we can open them again at any instant
we choose to do so.

The events and persons may or may not change as a result. The Atonement does
not plug the leak in the mattress, necessarily. It may or may not supply me
with more energy to make the drive to Sedona. Sometimes those things happen,
sometimes they don't; it depends on what plan the Holy Spirit has for me.
What happens externally is not the problem, and the solution lies not in
externals, but within me. Will I choose peace, or choose upset? Will I
forgive, or will I project my rejection of peace onto the external things
and blame them?

Peace lies in acceptance. I accept God's peace <whatever> happens. I refuse
to believe that anything can separate me from the love of God. I refuse to
deceive myself about what the problem really is. I recognize the problem is
within me, and I bring the problem to the answer. And I rest, trusting the
Holy Spirit to arrange the circumstances as He sees fit, not as I think they
should be. I am out of conflict; I am free and at peace.