[acimlessons_list] Lesson 222 - August 10

[Sue Roth]

Lesson 222 - August 10

"GOD IS WITH ME. I LIVE AND MOVE IN HIM."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See complete Part II practice instructions. 
A short summary:

* READ the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* PRAY the prayer, perhaps several times.

* MORNING AND EVENING: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* HOURLY REMEMBRANCE: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* FREQUENT REMINDERS: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* READ THE "WHAT IS" SECTION slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Practice comments: The prayer for this lesson states that we will be doing
Name of God Meditation. It speaks of a time when we come to God with no
words in our minds except His Name, using the repetition of that Name as a
request to enter His Presence and rest with Him in peace. This, of course,
is a perfect encapsulation of Name of God Meditation.

COMMENTARY

Again we are brought to the Presence of God, without words, in quiet. Our
only awareness is of God, His Name upon our lips.

What does it mean to "live and move" in God? This is the message that the
Apostle Paul brought to the Athenians, speaking of the "unknown God," and
saying that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:16-28).
The lesson speaks of the omnipresence of God--that God is everywhere and
"everywhen." In beautiful imagery, the lesson turns our thoughts to the
all-pervading Presence, never apart from us, "closer...than breathing, and
nearer than hands and feet," as Tennyson wrote.

This is imagery and not (in my opinion) literal. If the world is illusion,
as the Course has so often said, God is not <literally> "the water which
renews and cleanses me" (1:2). This is speaking of our spiritual reality,
where we <really> are. God is the reality of all things in which we look to
the world for sustenance, the true Source of our life. We think we live in
the world, but we live in God. We think our body contains our life, but He
is our life. We think we breathe air, but we breathe Him. God is our true
food and our true drink, our true home. We do not live and move in the
world; we live and move in God.

Reading this lesson aloud is an excellent exercise. Or turning the first
part into a prayer: "You are the Source of my life...You are my home...."
Use these words at the start of your practice period to set your mind into a
consciousness of being immersed in and filled with God, kept in His loving
care. Then, be still, and let yourself sink into that Presence, to rest with
Him in peace a while.

WHAT IS FORGIVENESS?

PART 2: W-PII.1.2-7

"Forgiveness," it says, "does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees
there was no sin" (1:2-3). This is the whole distinction between true and
false forgiveness, which the <Song of Prayer> calls "forgiveness-to-destroy"
(S-2.1:2). There is such a difference between seeing sin in someone and
struggling to overlook it or to refrain from the desire to punish, and
seeing not sin but a mistake, a call for help from a confused child of God,
and naturally responding with love. When the Holy Spirit enables us to see
the "sin" of another in this way, suddenly we can see our own "sins" in that
same very different light. Instead of trying to justify our own errors, we
can admit they are mistakes and simply let them go, without guilt.

Sin is simply "a false idea about God's Son" (1:5). It is a false
self-appraisal projected onto everyone around us. It is the belief that we
are truly separate, attackers of God's Love in our separation; it sees
attackers everywhere.

Forgiveness is seen here (1:6-7) in three steps. <First>, we see the falsity
of the idea of sin. We recognize that no sin has occurred; the Son of God
(in the other or ourselves) is still the Son of God, and not a devil. He has
been mistaken, but he has not sinned. <Second>, closely following on the
first step and a natural consequence of it, we let the idea of sin go. We
drop it. We relinquish our grievances, abandon our thoughts of attack. Only
the first step depends on our choice; the second step follows as its
inevitable result. When we no longer see attack, what reason is there to
punish with counterattack?

The <third> step is God's part. Something comes to take sin's place; the
Will of God is freed to flow through us unhindered by our illusions, and
Love follows its natural course. In this we experience our true Self, the
extension of God's own Love.

All we need do, then, if it can be called doing, is to be willing to see
something other than attack, something other than sin. We need only to be
willing to admit that our perception of sin is false. When we do, the Holy
Spirit will share His perception with us. He knows how to forgive; we do
not. Our part is merely to ask to be taught by Him. He does the rest, and
everything flows out of that simple willingness.