[acimlessons_list] Lesson 162 - June 11

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 162 - June 11

"I AM AS GOD CREATED ME."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

Purpose: To accept the perfect holiness that is your right, to recognize the
Son of God in you. And to thereby bring this acceptance and recognition to
everyone.

Morning/evening quiet time: At least five minutes; ideally, thirty or more.

My suggestion: Spend this time in deep meditation. Let the power of these
sacred words ("I am as God created me") carry you to the place in your mind
where you experience the Self that God created as you. You might want to
begin this meditation by reviewing the various images you hold of yourself,
stating each one in the form "I see myself as..." and letting each one go by
affirming, "But I am as God created me."

Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if
circumstances do not permit).

Dwell on the idea and let it carry your mind to stillness. Then thank your
Father for His gifts in the hour gone by. And ask His guidance for the hour
to come.

Overall remarks: I recommend making a conscious decision to steep your mind
in these words today. Begin the day with them, end the day with them, and
try to keep them with you all the time in between. If you do so, you will
experience their power to uplift your condition. They can transform your
mind into the treasure house in which all of God's gifts are stored, ready
for you to distribute them to the world. Today's lesson assumes that your
understanding of this idea has deepened, for whereas in earlier occurrences
of it (94 and 110), you were given additional lines to repeat, this lesson
says you need no extra thoughts to draw out its meaning (4:2).

COMMENTARY

For the third time we encounter as the main thought of a lesson what may be
the single most repeated thought in the Course. (The first two lessons were
94 and 110; the idea was featured in Lesson 93 as well.) The phrase "as God
created" occurs 105 times in the Course. We will see it as a focus of our
Workbook review period in another twenty lessons, 201-220.

Why is this idea so important and repeated so often? "This single thought,
held firmly in the mind, would save the world" (1:1). In the Text, our
entire spiritual journey is characterized in terms of this idea: "You but
emerge from an illusion of what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God
created you" (T-24.II.14:5). If these statements are true, it is reason
enough to memorize this idea and repeat it over and over until it becomes
part of our pattern of thought. We might say that the entire Course is aimed
at nothing more, and nothing less, than bringing us to the point where we
hold this thought firmly in our minds.

In paragraph 4 our practice for the day is described as a very simple
practice. All we need are the words of the main idea: "They need no thoughts
beyond themselves to change the mind of him who uses them" (4:2). The change
of mind the Course aims at is simply the acceptance of ourselves as God
created us. By focusing on this thought, meditating on it, repeating it, and
chewing it over in our minds, we accelerate this change of mind. "And thus
you learn to think with God. Christ's vision has restored your sight by
salvaging your mind" (4:4-5).

In Lesson 93, there was a useful addition to the words that helped clarify
their meaning for me:

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;--you are as God
created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you
did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about
you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. (W-pI.93.7:1-4)

We are not what we made of ourselves. Our mistakes have not changed the
truth about us. That is what accepting this idea means: the recognition that
nothing we have done has been able to alter our relationship to God in the
slightest, nor to change our nature, given us by God in creation. Our most
shameful acts, the thoughts we would never want exposed to the world, have,
none of them, changed God's creation in the slightest. There is no reason
for guilt, no cause to shrink from God in fear; our imagined "sins" have had
no effect. We are still safe, and complete, and healed, and whole.

How are we to use this thought? "Holy indeed is he who makes these words his
own; arising with them in his mind, recalling them throughout the day, at
night bringing them with him as he goes to sleep" (3:1). It reminds me of
the words written about the words of God in the Old Testament: "And thou
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when
thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou
liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut 6:7). In other words, make them a
part of your entire life, especially on rising in the morning and when going
to bed.

To acknowledge that "I am as God created me" is to recognize the Son of God.
It is to be free of guilt. It is to know the innocence of every living
thing. It is to acknowledge God as perfect Creator. It is to release the
past. It is to forgive the world. In these words is everything we need: "I
am as God created me."