Daily Lesson

  

Lesson 166
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.  

   <  GUIDANCE from ELDER BROTHER >    

   All things are given you. God's trust in you

   is limitless. He knows His Son. He gives

   without exception, holding nothing back

   that can contribute to your happiness.

   And yet, unless your will is one with His,

   His gifts are not received. But what would make

   you think there is another will than His?

   Here is the paradox that underlies

   the making of the world. This world is not

   the Will of God, and so it is not real.

   Yet those who think it real must still believe

   there is another will, and one which leads

   to opposite effects from those He wills.

   Impossible, indeed; but every mind

   which looks upon the world and judges it

   as certain, solid, trustworthy and true

   believes in two creators, or in one,

   himself alone. But never in One God.

   The gifts of God are not acceptable

   to anyone who holds such strange beliefs.

   He must believe that to accept God's gifts,

   however evident they may become,

   however urgently he may be called

   to claim them as his own, is being pressed

   to treachery against himself. He must

   deny their presence, contradict the truth,

   and suffer to preserve the world he made.

   Here is the only home he thinks be knows.

   Here is the only safety he believes

   that he can find. Without the world he made

   is he an outcast, homeless and afraid.

   He does not realize that it is here

   he is afraid indeed, and homeless too;

   an outcast wandering so far from home,

   so long away, he does not realize

   he has forgotten where he came from, where

   he goes, and even who he really is.

   Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings

   God's gifts go with him, all unknown to him.

   He cannot lose them. But he will not look

   on what is given him. He wanders on,

   aware of the futility he sees

   about him everywhere, perceiving how

   his little lot but dwindles as he goes

   ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on

   in misery and poverty, alone

   though God is with him, and a treasure his

   so great that everything the world contains

   is valueless before its magnitude.

   He seems a sorry figure, weary, worn,

   in threadbare clothing, and with feet that bleed

   a little from the rocky road he walks.

   No-one but has identified with him,

   for everyone who comes here has pursued

   the path he follows, and has felt defeat

   and hopelessness as he is feeling them.

   Yet is he really tragic when you see

   that he is following the way he chose,

   and need but realize Who walks with him

   and open up his treasures to be free?

   This is your chosen self, the one you made

   as a replacement for reality.

   This is the self you savagely defend

   against all reason, every evidence,

   and all the witnesses with proof to show

   this is not you. You heed them not. You go

   on your appointed way, with eyes cast down

   lest you might catch a glimpse of truth and be

   released from self-deception and set free.

   You cower fearfully lest you should feel

   Christ's touch upon your shoulder, and perceive

   His gentle hand directing you to look

   upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim

   your poverty and exile? He would make

   you laugh at this perception of yourself.

   Where is self-pity then? And what becomes

   of all the tragedy you sought to make

   for him whom God intended only joy?

   Your ancient fear has come upon you now,

   and justice has caught up with you at last.

   Christ's hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel

   that you are not alone. You even think

   the miserable self you thought was you

   may not be your identity. Perhaps

   God's Word is truer than your own. Perhaps

   His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He has

   not wholly been outwitted by your plan

   to keep His Son in deep oblivion,

   and go the way you chose without your Self.

   God's Will does not oppose. It merely is.

   It was not God you have imprisoned in

   your plan to lose your Self. He does not know

   about a plan so alien to His Will.

   There was a need He did not understand,

   to which He gave an Answer. That is all.

   And you who have this Answer given you

   have need no more of anything but this.

   Now do we live, for now we cannot die.

   The wish for death is answered, and the sight

   which looked upon it now has been replaced

   by vision which perceives that you are not

   what you pretend to be. One walks with you

   Who gently answers all your fears with this

   one merciful reply, "It is not so."

   He points to all the gifts you have each time

   the thought of poverty oppresses you,

   and speaks of His Companionship when you

   perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.

   Yet He reminds you still of one thing more

   you had forgotten. For His touch on you

   has made you like Himself. The gifts you have

   are not for you alone. What He has come

   to offer you, you now must learn to give.

   This is the lesson which His giving holds,

   for He has saved you from the solitude

   you sought to make in which to hide from God.

   He has reminded you of all the gifts

   that God has given you. He speaks as well

   of what becomes your will when you accept

   these gifts and recognize they are your own.

   The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care

   to give to all who chose the lonely road

   you have escaped. They do not understand

   they but pursue their wishes. It is you

   who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ

   there is another way for them to walk.

   Teach them by showing them the happiness

   that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ

   and recognize God's gifts. Let sorrow not

   tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.

   Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those

   who look to you for their release. Your tears

   are theirs. If you are sick you but withhold

   their healing. What you fear but teaches them

   their fears are justified. Your hand becomes

   the giver of Christ's touch; your change of mind

   becomes the proof that who accepts God's gifts

   can never suffer anything. You are

   entrusted with the world's release from pain.

   Betray it not. Become the living proof

   of what Christ's touch can offer everyone.

   God has entrusted all His gifts to you.

   Be witness by your happiness to how

   transformed the mind becomes which chooses to

   accept His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ.

   Such is your mission now. And God entrusts

   the giving of God's gifts to all who have

   received them. He has shared His joy with you.

   And now you go to share it with the world.

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM

Daily Lesson Page   

ACIM Edmonton - Sarah's Reflections 

LESSON 166
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.

This lesson has a wonderful  way of carrying the image like a story. It is a rather sad story of how we have chosen to be outcasts, far from home, homeless and afraid. But we don't remember that we made this choice. We try desperately to make this place as comfortable as possible. Like a homeless person, we make the best of our circumstances.   We go nowhere, feeling very alone. Perhaps you don't identify with this picture. Yet this lesson says that "everyone who comes here (to this world) has pursued the path he follows, and has felt defeat and hopelessness..." (6.2) Yet, when we are tempted to feel victimized by our situation, he reminds us that it is indeed the way that we ourselves chose. "Yet is he really tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose and need but realize Who walks with him....?" (6.3)  But why would we continue to choose this when we now have an opportunity to choose against this picture? And if we can choose God's gifts at any time we want, can we be tragic figures or are we just mistaken?

The irony of it all is that while we are wandering alone, miserable, sad, and seemingly without a home for safety and support, God's gifts of infinite value go with us and we are never alone for God is there. So if this is our life, why are we denying these gifts? Because Jesus says that as long as we have allegiance to our will and what we have made of ourselves and the world, we will reject God's gifts and "deny their presence, contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made." (3.3) Thus we are hanging onto our specialness, uniqueness, individuality and the world and making ourselves miserable in the process while refusing to look at what God has given us. (5.3) "This treasure is so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude." (5.5) But while we are refusing to look at this treasure, we continue in our sorry state. We may not like what we have made, but it is of our making and thus we are committed to it. But we can change our minds. We can make another decision. Our condition of seeming homelessness is simply a denial of the truth of what we have and what we are.

 I recently visited with friends who are coming to the end of their careers and are very frightened by the prospect of what to do with their lives. They are casting about for options of how to spend their time and how to find meaning. The options seem limited to volunteering, travelling, getting future contracts for more work, or entertaining themselves with various pastimes.  Their perspective is one of killing time. While to me it seemed sad, it is not that there is anything wrong with any of these activities. It is not about what we are doing in the world that is important but what is in our minds that is important. Are we devoted to seeking for happiness in the world which is what the ego counsels or to awaken from this dream. In other words do we look at everything with the ego as the teacher or do we choose the Holy Spirit to reinterpret everything for us. So the question is, what is the purpose of what we choose to do. Jesus shows us the way out of this futile cycle where, the purpose for the ego is to keep us rooted in the illusory world constantly looking for our peace and happiness where it is not.   

Why do we continue to choose to be these tragic figures instead of accepting the gifts that await us?  Why not laugh at this foolishness? Is there something noble in victimhood? Is there something special about us if we can suffer what we think others can't withstand? Understand that this is not conscious. But think about it. But when we hold this perception of ourselves, and take is seriously, we are not seeing the absurdity of it all. "He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself."  (8.3). While we make tragedy, God only wants joy for us. Yet we fear His touch. (8.1) If we accept the truth about ourselves then we can no longer claim our victimhood. And thus, His Presence is a great threat to us which is why we resist it. We still want to be authors of our own lives. It seems, as Milton wrote that we would rather rule in hell than serve in Heaven. Can this be true about me? Well, this lesson tells us that our misery and poverty, in a spiritual sense, is worth it if we can be the authors of it ourselves. So we indulge in our misery, believing that no one can understand us as we feel sorry for ourselves. But if we can step back and laugh at the silliness of this notion, then Jesus wonders "where is self pity then?" (8.4)  We are the dreamers of this dream. We can choose to examine our decision to stay in misery. No it does not seem to be a decision. That is why we savagely defend our situation which is what we do to maintain the independent separate self while indulging in self pity. It is very difficult to accept that we are choosing our own victimhood. We will probably initially feel attacked and very defensive at the suggestion that we are choosing to be victims. We get extremely defensive at the idea that the circumstances of our lives are not inflicted on us but chosen by us. We seem to prefer to proclaim our condition as we see it because we are attached to our story. And thus we fear Christ's touch because that would change everything.

Our stories of victimhood are designed to make others responsible for our circumstances. It is because we prefer to see ourselves as innocent while those who perpetrated our situation as we see it can then be punished by God for their "crimes" against us and we can continue as their innocent victims. 

"You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ's touch upon your shoulder, and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How could you then proclaim your poverty in exile?" (8.1-2) How indeed?  We would then have to see the insanity of our attachment to our will and we could no longer hang onto the tragic story of our lives and wallow in self pity in defiance of the joy that God has given us. The seeming rewards of victimhood trump God's gifts in our view. It is my will I want to hold onto in spite of what it is costing me. It truly is insanity.

The insanity of the ego really shows up for us in obvious ways when we are ready and willing to watch our thoughts. For every gift of God, the ego seeks to make a counterfeit form that is a 'substitute' gift yet is truly a trap.  We  trade off the gifts that God offers for what the ego offers instead and yet these 'gifts' offer only pain. Until we see that no substitute for God's gifts can bring us what we seek, we will continue to look to the world for our happiness.  It takes courage and willingness to take responsibility for our lives and everything that seems to happen to us. With it comes the realization that we have done all this to ourselves. We are the ones who chose this. And now Jesus asks that we look at the irony of our position where we cry about our situation yet have deliberately chosen it. "He would make you laugh at this perception of yourself. Where is self pity then? And what becomes of all the tragedy you sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?" (8.3-5) What I take from this is that one thing that we might do more is laugh at the ego which we can only do when we realize that we are not really this character in the dream.

Can we see the possibility that perhaps "the miserable self you thought was you may not be your Identity? Perhaps God's Word is truer than your own." (9 3-4) Just maybe our plan for our lives is starting to fail and our foolishness becomes apparent to us. (9.6) Just maybe we are not who we have thought we were. Just maybe..... With Christ's hand touching our shoulder, we feel not quite so alone anymore and start to believe that maybe these gifts of God are real and His Word truer than our own. This puts us between worlds where we start to see the possibility that we are not the poor, miserable, homeless guy. Now our sight is being replaced by vision. "We are not what we pretend to be." (11.2)  We become aware that maybe our pain does not come from outside of us but that it comes from our opposition to the truth of who we are.   "One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply, "It is not so."  (11.3) He is telling us that everything we think is not the truth.

After my husband died in 1993, I was experiencing what Jesus is talking about in this lesson, feeling very alone, indulging myself in my story of victimhood, loss, sadness. As I lay in bed, crying, feeling abandoned by love, a gentle voice within asked quietly "how much longer do you need to cry?" It startled me because nowI had a question in my mind that seemed to require an answer. The answer I gave this Voice, was perhaps ten minutes more and yet the absurdity of it all made me smile and I simply could no longer feel sorry for myself. It was a recognition that I could make a choice in that moment to believe the ego version of events or see that there was perhaps another way of seeing this situation. 

It is such a reassuring Presence that is always available to us. We no longer need to continue on this aimless wandering and this feeling of aloneness.  We can call on His strength in every turmoil and every uncertainty and know that He will always answer.

Having been entrusted with the gifts, we are now called to extend them to our brothers so that we can be the one to tap them on the shoulder, as Christ has touched ours. We show them that there is another way than the way that they are going since we have been down those same roads and have learned they lead nowhere but to death. "For you have learned of Christ there is another way for them to walk." (13.4) But how do we do this? He says we do it by "showing them the happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize God's gifts."  (13.5) 

"Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their release. Your tears are theirs." But when we change our minds, our "hand becomes the proof that who accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with the world's release from pain." It is all about choice. Last night I was feeling like a martyr and doing a lot of sighing about my lot as I took on a job for Don who was struggling to meet his obligations to a volunteer organization. I quickly realized how I found juice in this situation and was doing exactly what this lesson says by showing him that he had the power to make me suffer. I had to laugh at my foolishness. Watching my thoughts helped me realize that the choices I make in every moment either open me to God's gifts or to being the homeless outcast by my own decision.

But each time we make a choice for forgiveness and feel the peace, we can reflect this to others who don't understand that their suffering is coming from their own choice. We make this choice whenever we notice the game we are playing.    We demonstrate another way of being in the world by not being of it. We increasingly recognize that it is no longer the circumstances of our lives that bring us sorrow but only what choice we are making in our own minds. Thus we can become a living demonstration of His love and that is what we are called to do, seeing our interests the same as that of every brother. Our reality is outside of the dream.

In our morning and evening practice we give five minutes minimum and thirty or more and spend the time bringing our attention to our thoughts, our fears, our investments in our ego self and hearing the response from God that "it is not so." Jesus pleads with us not to choose what the ego has to offer over those of the Holy Spirit. He is reminding us that everything we think is not the truth. What we are experiencing is what we have chosen. It is our dream.

We remember today that our interests are not separate from our brothers. We are one. What I do to you I am doing to myself. My happiness cannot be bought at your expense. And today I am thankful that Christ's touch is on my shoulder and that this is not my home.

Love and blessings,

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php    

A Course in Miracles   
TEXT  

Chapter FIFTEEN    

The Purpose of Time  

VI. The Holy Instant and Special Relationships                        

⁴⁵ The holy instant is the Holy Spirit's most useful learning device for teaching you love's meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Judgment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. You would make no attempt to judge because it would be quite apparent to you that you do not know what anything means. You are afraid of this because you believe that without the ego all would be chaos. Yet I assure you that without the ego all would be love.

⁴⁶ The past is the ego's chief learning device, for it is in the past that you learned to define your own needs and acquired methods for meeting them on your own terms. We said before that to limit love to part of the Sonship is to bring guilt into your relationships and thus make them unreal. If you seek to separate out certain aspects of the totality and look to them to meet your imagined needs, you are attempting to use separation to save you. How, then, could guilt not enter? For separation is the source of guilt, and to appeal to it for salvation is to believe you are alone. To be alone is to be guilty. For to experience yourself as alone is to deny the oneness of the Father and his Son and thus to attack reality.

⁴⁷ You cannot love parts of reality and understand what love means. If you would love unlike to God, Who knows no special love, how can you understand it? To believe that special relationships, with special love, can offer you salvation is the belief that separation is salvation. For it is the complete equality of the Atonement in which salvation lies. How can you decide that special aspects of the Sonship can give you more than others? The past has taught you this. Yet the holy instant teaches you it is not so.

⁴⁸ Because of guilt, all special relationships have some elements of fear in them. And this is why they shift and change so frequently. They are not based on changeless love alone. And love where fear has entered cannot be depended on because it is not perfect. In His function as Interpreter of what you have made, the Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which you have chosen to support the ego, as a learning experience which points to truth. Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love.

⁴⁹ The Holy Spirit knows no one is special. Yet He also perceives that you have made special relationships, which He would purify and not let you destroy. However unholy the reason why you made them may be, He can translate them into holiness by removing as much fear as you will let Him. You can place any relationship under His care and be sure that it will not result in pain if you offer Him your willingness to have it serve no need but His. All the guilt in it arises from your use of it. All the love from His. Do not, then, be afraid to let go your imagined needs, which would destroy the relationship. Your only need is His.

⁵⁰ Any relationship which you would substitute for another has not been offered to the Holy Spirit for His use. There is no substitute for love. If you would attempt to substitute one aspect of love for another, you have placed less value on one and more on the other. You have not only separated them, but you have also judged against both. Yet you had judged against yourself first, or you would never have imagined that you needed them as they were not. Unless you had seen yourself as without love, you could not have judged them so like you in lack.

⁵¹ The ego's use of relationships is so fragmented that it frequently goes even further-one part of one aspect suits its purposes, while it prefers different parts of another aspect. Thus does it assemble reality to its own capricious liking, offering for your seeking a picture whose likeness does not exist. For there is nothing in Heaven or earth that it resembles, and so however much you seek for its reality, you cannot find it because it is not real.

⁵² Everyone on earth has formed special relationships, and although this is not so in Heaven, the Holy Spirit knows how to bring a touch of Heaven to them here. In the holy instant no one is special, for your personal needs intrude on no one to make them different. Without the values from the past, you would see them all the same and like yourself. Nor would you see any separation between yourself and them. In the holy instant, you see in each relationship what it will be when you perceive only the present.

⁵³ God knows you now. He remembers nothing, having always known you exactly as He knows you now. The holy instant parallels His knowing by bringing all perception out of the past, thus removing the frame of reference you have built by which to judge your brothers. Once this is gone, the Holy Spirit substitutes His frame of reference for it. His frame of reference is simply God. The Holy Spirit's timelessness lies only here. For in the holy instant, free of the past, you see that love is in you, and you have no need to look without and snatch it guiltily from where you thought is was.

⁵⁴ All your relationships are blessed in the holy instant because the blessing is not limited. In the holy instant, the Sonship gains as one. And united in your blessing, it becomes one to you. The meaning of love is the meaning God gave to it. Give to it any meaning apart from His, and it is impossible to understand it. Every brother God loves as He loves you-neither less nor more. He needs them all equally, and so do you. In time you have been told to offer miracles as Christ directs and let the Holy Spirit bring to you those who are seeking you. Yet in the holy instant, you unite directly with God, and all your brothers join in Christ. Those who are joined in Christ are in no way separate. For Christ is the Self the Sonship shares, as God shares His Self with Christ.

⁵⁵ Think you that you can judge the Self of God? God has created it beyond judgment out of His need to extend His Love. With love in you, you have no need except to extend it. In the holy instant, there is no conflict of needs, for there is only one. For the holy instant reaches to eternity and to the Mind of God. And it is only there love has meaning, and only there can it be understood.

⁵⁶ It is impossible to use one relationship at the expense of another and not suffer guilt. And it is equally impossible to condemn part of a relationship and find peace within it. Under the Holy Spirit's teaching, all relationships are seen as total commitments, yet they do not conflict with one another in any way. Perfect faith in each one for its ability to satisfy you completely arises only from perfect faith in yourself. And this you cannot have while guilt remains. And there will be guilt as long as you accept the possibility, and cherish it, that you can make a brother what he is not because you would have him so.

⁵⁷ You have so little faith in yourself because you are unwilling to accept the fact that perfect love is in you. And so you seek without for what you cannot find without. I offer you my perfect faith in you in place of all your doubt. But forget not that my faith must be as perfect in all your brothers as it is in you, or it would be a limited gift to you. In the holy instant, we share our faith in God's Son because we recognize together that he is wholly worthy of it, and in our appreciation of his worth, we cannot doubt his holiness. And so we love him.

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