Lesson 193:

All things are lessons God would have me learn…

You know, this idea that life is a series of lesson was not unfamiliar to me when I first began my Course study. No, pretty much every situation of up bringing and growing and learning and succeeding was laced with the idea that, if nothing else, one was supposed to learn something from said given situation. Oh, how many times I used this idea; both to ‘improve’ myself and to make excuse for my perceived ‘failure’ (well at least I learned something). I used it as a coping mechanism, pulling it out when needing. This idea has taken many forms for me and actually was a sort of bridge of hope when I had none (“perhaps there is a reason for all this”)… I did not speak the language of the A Course in Miracles when I began my study, but somehow, deep within, it spoke mine. And by way of the miracle all my ideas of what things are or what they mean, have systematically been brought to the Holy Spirit for review and reinterpretation. And the major reinterpretation has been that if it is not as God is: changeless, formless, eternal happiness, joy and love, then it is not real.

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exist.

Herein lies the peace of God… (T-introduction)

One can’t really take this in from the ego-belief-structure. From there, we believe what we see not realizing that we only see what we believe. That is the mechanism of perception. It show us what our minds believe is real. Perception is not of God, Who knows all. However, perception is the temporary means the Holy Spirit utilizes to return our minds to there natural state of eternal oneness and love. Forgiveness is the tool for employing the proper use of perception in this so-called world.

Forgive, and you will see this differently…

When I first really allowed the meaning of this one idea to permeate my being, I remember I sat huddled in my meditation room, rocking and weeping tears of joy and relief…

Prior to then, I was still holding on to regrets and wishes that things would have gone differently; I would have been better, kinder, not-intoxicated, more honest, etc… Then in the twinkling of an eye, so to speak, I got it. Pain is not real, because it is not of God. Period. So there is no point attempting to deceive myself that pain and regret and guilt and worry were a necessary part of my ‘growing-learning-process’. If there is pain in any form present, it is not real. You can’t fix the unfixable. Forgiveness returns to mind to the truth… Only what God created is real.

And I am what God created in any given situation.

Here is my starting point: “I am as God created me and you and I are one in Him…” This makes for a sort of vacuum type of pull dispelling the falseness of the ‘stressful, painful, fearful, etc. situation and allowing for the Holy Spirit within my mind to heal and correct and then use for His plan for salvation of the world… forgive, and see this differently…

Now here’s the thing, none of the perception correction part is my business. My business is to notice how I feel, and as the lesson suggests, if pain seems real in the perception, the lesson of forgiveness has not been learned. I merely apply these words, held in full awareness, with devoted willingness: “Forgive, and see this differently”…”Forgive, and this will disappear”…

What I found is that the temptation to replay the past with pain and regret must be vigilantly addressed with the forgiveness tool. As tempting as it is to organize them into hierarchies deserving of time’s meted out punishment and pay the price of shame with the coin of delay in healing now, that’s still all it is, a game of the ego of distraction and delay… God’s Will for perfect happiness is inevitable…

If there is pain present in perception of a situation, I could not be the truth. Let us today, as the lesson beckons let mercy come to us more quickly and use time for what it was meant for: Morning and night, devote what time you can to serve its (time’s) proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets our deepest need… give all we can, and give al little more. For now we would arise in haste and go unto our Father’s house… and as we practice, let s think about all the things we saved to settle by ourselves, and kept apart from healing. Let us give them all to Him Who knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear. Truth is His message…His are the lessons God would have us learn… practicing in the form established for the day. And try to give it application to the happenings the hour brought, so that the next one is free of the one before… let not one hour cast a shadow on the one that follows, and when that one goes, let everything that happened in its course go with it. Thus will we remain unbound, in peace eternal in the world of time.

We but bring everything to Him, with this faith upon our hearts:

I will forgive, and this will disappear…