Commentary on ACIM Lesson 128

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

 

The world I see holds nothing that I want.

 

 

Driving my 'beautiful turtle' across the 3D holodeck of this world today,  there was much to take delight in.  And multitudes of 'possibilities' fueled my imagination, both for paintings, for writings to come, for projects in service to holiness.  God directed.... we didn't rush. (Actually, we can't...:-)

 

For example, as the 'bt' is (like a turtle) quite slow on the open interstate highway, I pulled off spontaneously at a exit just to let the 'heavily backed up and probably getting irritated and unsafe'  traffic pass, and then 'realized' I was near a small healing foundation that I had visited years ago which practiced the teaching of Dr. Ann Wigmore (wheatgrass therapy, which I do a lot of...).  I checked my heart to see if I was being invited to stop by again, and got a Yes.  It was the third or fourth little adventure like that today... all unplanned (or so it seemed :-).....   At the Foundation (set close to a very old, poor, quaint and picturesque Hispanic/Pueblo Indian village) nobody was home, but as I walked around the several buildings calling 'hello, hello', I found myself observing the condition of the structures and their current and future upkeep needs, and I heard my heart saying that perhaps in the future (when free) I would return and do such service. It felt like 'home', being there, and I could feel I would love 'being in service' for a while there too, in 'God's Timing'.  I left my card at the door, as 'suggested'.   

 

I am writing this after completing the editing of todays lesson (other times I write here first), which you will see, is about not 'overvaluing' the trinkets of the world.   To 'value the world' is to completely miss the mark.  To value the opportunity to 'serve one another' from and with God's love is a different story.  That is what the story above is about.  And when our lives are about that, we are 'home' everywhere.  

 

Like Jesus, I associate broadly, with both the refined and the in-the-rough, as equally as I am able (that got covered yesterday in the lesson, right?).  Now in  Albuquerque, I am 'landed' tonight at a quasi-spiritual community, a 'family' of Jesus-loving people that I have known for several decades.  The 'family population' is variable,  some are old-timers I have known many years, some are recently 'off the streets' and just finding God.  It's spring, and the gardens are being planted.  Several men are at work as I drive in and they wave, glad to see me after many months.  Again, it felt like 'home'.  Another opening for the heart to serve.  

 

What am I leading to?  That 'home' is a heart determined thing.  Yuma is 'home' (perhaps originally because of my parents being there, but now, because of the Course-community that I am heartfully co-facilitating), Phoenix is 'home' because of heart connectedness too, same Albuquerque & Santa Fe, same for anywhere I am doing an art show that spirit-enlivened people and I connect at.  

 

And the story about the tire shop two days ago?....  What that was was a view of how, when love is present, that strangers can become (if only for the instant) 'like family'.  ('Like family' in this case as exemplified by the transformation of a straight business exchange into 'a gift accepting/giving economy', the way 'you'd help your brother', without thinking about the money, etc.)  And that instant, it opens up 'a crack in the world' for a higher Love to be experienced.  

 

This is then the definition of a miracle:  to simply serve everyone with love.  It's something I am working on learning too....:-)

 

Namaste, 

 

David  

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Todays lesson, with my edits....

 

Lesson 128

The world I see holds nothing that I want.

Bluntly said, this world I am seeing with my body's eyes holds nothing that I need or that could offer me a holy value; nothing that I can use in any way, nor anything at all that serves to give me joy. My acceptance of this thought will save me from untold years of misery, from countless disappointments, and from an endless cycle of 'hoping' that turns to bitter ashes of despair. Certainly no one must accept this thought as true,  for we are given free will, but, if I would leave the limits of this world (and its petty scope and little ways) behind and soar beyond, beyond, beyond, and then beyond even beyond, then that one, that 'myself', will certainly one day accept it fully.

Right now, I can see each thing I value here is a chain that binds me to the world, and it will serve no other end but this. For everything must serve the purpose I have given it, until I see a different purpose there. The only purpose worthy of my mind this world contains is that I 'pass it by', without delaying to 'perceive some hope' where there is none. I choose to be deceived no more. The world I see holds nothing that I want or choose.

I hear God calling me to escape today the chains I have placed upon my mind (when I perceive salvation here, of this world). For what I value I make part of me (and as I perceive myself, I am, at least to myself). All things I seek for in order to make my value greater in my own sight limit me even further; they hide my real worth from me, and add another 'bar across the door' that leads to true awareness of my Self.

Today God, let nothing that relates to body thoughts delay my progress to realizing Your salvation, nor permit any temptation to believe the world holds anything I want to hold me back from You. I accept that nothing is here to be cherished. And I accept that nothing here is worth one instant of further delay and pain; or one moment of uncertainty and doubt. For the worthless offers onlynothing. Let me not forget that certainty of my worth can not be found in what is intrinsically worthless.

Today God, I will practice letting go all thoughts of value I have 'given to the world'. And I will practice leaving it free of the 'purposes' I gave its aspects and its phases and its dreams. I will hold it purposeless within my mind, and loosen it from all I have wished it were. Thus do I lift off the chains that bar the door to my freedom from the world, and thus I go beyond all its little values and diminished goals.

Today I shall regularly pause, and 'be still a little while', and watch and see how far I shall rise above the world. I will practice  releasing my mind from 'illusions chains' and let it return to the naturally awake level where it finds itself 'at home with God'. My mind will be grateful to be so free for this while. For it knows where it rightly belongs. I need only free its wings, and it will fly in sureness and in joy to join its holy purpose. I shall let it rest in its Creator, and there, let it be restored to sanity, to freedom and to love.

Yes God, I will give my mind ten minutes rest three times today at least. And when my eyes are opened afterwards, I will not value anything I see as much as when I looked at it before. My whole perspective on the world will continue shifting, perhaps by just a little, every time I let my mind escape its chains. This world is not where a mind made whole by my God belongs. And I belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when I release it from 'the world'. God, your Guide in me is sure. I will open my mind to Him. I will be still, and rest.

God, protect my mind throughout the day as well please. And if or when You see I am seeing some value in an aspect or an image of the world, please help me to not lay this chain upon my mind, but let your Voice remind me to tell myself, with quiet certainty:

This shall not tempt me to delay. 
The world I see holds nothing that I want.

Amen.