Commentary on ACIM Lesson 124

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

Let me remember I am one with God.

 

 

You know all those advertisements soliciting 'come live your dreams', stuff like that....  They are a double-edged sword that cuts two ways, I think.  Why is that? Because I am looking at that a very big way to lose love in my life is being too'committed to dreams'.  (I'm sure you will 'know this one too'.)

 

It's been (in the past) a tough one for me because in a 'very real' (meaning a 'pretty-solidly-identified-as-me') way, my dreams have been 'what gets me up in the morning'.  So I, as an identity, have been a die-hard 'dreamer'/'visionary'.  As John Lennon was one too, I haven't kept bad company....  BUT, in the area of relationship, that there has been a price for living in dreams and that that price has been 'the apparent absence of love in my life' has been at times emotionally hard to swallow.  Because one of my dreams IS 'having love in my life'.  More correctly stated, to have my ('personally perfect'*) dream-love in my life.  By the way, I do know other people like this too.  I usually attract them.  We similar types just know each other.... don't we?   :-)

 

One of my biggest ego fears has been that I would 'miss' (i.e., not be available for) my 'P.P'* dream-love 'when she arrives' if I am 'involved with' someone wonderful (but not completely 'it'/'P.P.'*).  So my 'addiction' to this fantasy (*) picture of 'what it is supposed to be like' has kept a repeating pattern going of entering relationship (with the 'blind hope' that 'this is the (*) one') and then leaving when it is 'clear to me' (or whoever is being 'me' right then) that it's not.  That's often sad, I find, for both me and those I have 'unchosen' (or, as has also happened, who 'unchose' me). 

 

If everyone I did this dance with was enlightened, and I was similarly enlightened, I can see all the sadness would not have been necessary, and we could have both just laughed at our foolishness (and eventually, we usually do).  But given that the pattern has (in the past, I affirm) existed and that there has been suffering for me and others as a result of it is enough to inform me that in this area I still 'may' have blindspots, particularly the blindspot of seeing love through a personal (*) point of view.  That the Godness does not do this, I am clear.  

 

I get I am going to have future opportunities to keep learning in this arena too, although that is nothing to get excited about (my inner Teacher says).  I do keep discovering I already have a huge of amount of love in my life as I am just willing to be open to Being Loved by anyone who chooses to offer that (and increasingly, I do....hooray!).  That the Godness does do that, I am also clear. 

 

You can see, I am sure, that this is all my leftover childish control/insecurity issues running the show when this racket is active.  And it is hilarious to get that a lot of my personality 'peacockness' (that's self-obvious, right? [and also another 'P.P.'*]) is all about (uselessly attempting) egoic self-validation.  Anyway, 'attracting the one' is really a matter of Self-sourced love, not other-sourced love (given, there IS NO 'Other' :-).  And all of this is.....well..... just some stuff that I get I should 'out-myself' about.  So now you know.  Now we can get back to the Course.... and simply remembering all this foofoo is just foofoo (i.e., playpen distractions), compared to remembering 'we are one with God'.   :-).   

 

Namaste, 

 

David

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First Person Edited Version

Lesson 124

Let me remember I am one with God.

Today I will again give thanks for my true Identity in God. My home in God is forever safe, I have protection guaranteed in all I do, and power and strength are available to me in all my undertakings. When I choose God's will, I can fail in nothing. Everything I touch then takes on a shining light that blesses and that heals. At one with God and with the universe I go my way rejoicing, with the true thought that God Him/Herself goes everywhere with me.

How holy is my mind in this remembrance! And everything I see reflects the holiness within all like minds at one with God and with themselves. Now how easily do errors disappear, and everywhere death gives up it's place to everlasting life. Our shining footprints point the way to truth, for God is my Companion as I walk the world with Him a little while longer. And those who come to follow me will recognize 'the way' because the light I carried stays behind, yet still remains with me as God and I walk on.

What I have received is my eternal gift to those who follow after, and to those who went before me or stayed with me a while. And God, Who loves all of us with the equal love in which we were all created, smiles on us and offers each of us the happiness we gave each other.

Today I will not doubt His Love for me or you, nor question His protection and His care. I will let no meaningless anxieties come between my faith and my awareness of His Presence. I  am one with Him today in recognition and in remembrance. I feel Him in my heart. My mind contains His Thoughts; my eyes behold His loveliness in all I look upon. Today I see only the loving and the lovable.

This loving and lovableness?  I see it in 'appearances of pain', and then the pain gives way to peace. I see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, all who are restored by God to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. And I see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. And all this I see because I saw it first within myself.

No miracle will ever be denied to any who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their holy thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.

I join in this awareness as I truthfully say that I am one with God. For in these words I say as well that I am saved and healed; and that I can save and heal accordingly. I have accepted, and I now would give. For I would keep the gifts my Father gave me. Today I choose to remember and experience myself 'at one with Him', so that the world may share my recognition of reality. In my experience of God the world is freed. As I deny my egoic dream of separation from my Father, the world is healed along with me.

Today, Gods Voice speaks to me thusly, saying: Peace be to you today. Secure your holy peace by practicing the awareness that who you are is one with your Creator, as He is one with you. And sometime today, whenever it seems best, devote a half an hour to the thought that 'you' are one with God. (This is the Courses first attempt at an extended period for which it gives no rules nor special words to guide our meditation.) I will trust God's Voice to speak to me as He sees fit today, certain He will not fail. I will abide with Him this half an hour. He will do the rest.

And, my benefit will not be less if I believe that nothing has happened. I may not be ready to accept the gain today. That does not matter. Yet sometime, somewhere, they will come to me, nor will I fail to recognize them when they dawn with certainty upon my mind. This half an hour of meditation shall be spiritually 'framed in gold', and every minute will be like a diamond set around the holy mirror that this exercise offers me. And as I do this self-emptying, I will see Christ's face arise within me, as a reflection of my own.

Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, I will see my own transfiguration in the glass this holy half an hour holds out for me to look within myself with. When I am ready I will find my transfiguration right here, within my own mind --- waiting to be found. I will remember then the thought to which I gave this half an hour, and I will be thankfully aware no time was ever better spent.

Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, I will look into this glass, and understand the sinless light I see belongs to me; the loveliness I look on is my own true being. I shall then count this half hour as my gift to God, in certainty that His Return will bring a sense of love I cannot understand, a joy too deep for me to comprehend, a sight too holy for my body's eyes to see. And yet I know I can be sure someday, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, I will understand and comprehend and see.

And I shall add further jewels to the golden frame that holds the mirror God has offered me today, by hourly repeating to myself this short prayer:

O Divine Holiness within me, let me remember today I am one with the One True God, and at one with all my brothers and my Self, and I AM in everlasting holiness and peace. Amen.