Commentary on ACIM Lesson 155

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

I will step back and let Him lead the way.

 

 

 

I just peeked ahead and read the title of the lesson.  A big smile rose in my heart, and my Voice said, "Ok, but write what you've been thinking about now, and then read the lesson".  So that's the context today.

 

What I have been thinking about all day is 'bit parts'.  Like in the movies, not the starring role, but the 'little bitty' parts.  (This is all 'up' for me because of the Guy Finley wisdom dovetailing with yesterdays lesson...)

 

What I am seeing is bit parts are as essential as the starring role, from God's point of view.  In fact, given the fact that it is often an unrecognized 'extra' that holds the pivot point that the story of our lives revolve around, I am now understanding that bit parts are 'assigned' as deliberately as starring roles are.  And, by God, they are very appreciated, especially when performed with love and gratitude.

 

What is opening for me as I contemplate the possibility of loving bit parts is a sense of balance and rightness.  The blindness of stardom cannot be escaped except by stepping down from the stages and seeing life from absolute ordinariness.  In absolute ordinariness lies the freedom to be just exactly as I am, which requires no effort and no struggle and no pretense of being anybody other than the being that God created.  

 

Tonight as I practiced my guitar and sang a song or two, it was for the love of the music that I did it.  I saw that even though I am being given musical performance assignments (in churches and for friends),  that they are not 'big star' productions...., that they are nice little bit parts (that I receive appreciation for, but I am not being the meal. I am being simply a bit of spice). 

 

The other thing I am seeing is this IS exactly what I desire.  I love self-expressing, but I do not love myself as an arrogant egotistical prima donna.  In fact, the idea of becoming lost in egotistical 'stardom' is actually my idea of hell.

 

So after thinking about this a lot today, when I saw that the lesson title was "I will step back and let God lead the way", it was 'self-obvious' that the timing was perfect.  

 

Let's see what we can learn today, shall we?  

 

Namaste, 

 

David  

 

 

____________________________

 

First Person version

 

Lesson 155

I will step back and let Him lead the way.

There is a way of living in the world that is 'not here', although it seems to be. I do not change appearance, though I smile more frequently. My forehead is serene; my eyes are quiet. And all the ones who walk the world as I do recognize me as their own. Yet those who have not yet perceived 'the way' will recognize me also, and believe that I am like them, and as I was before.

The world is an illusion. Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be an illusion, and avoid their own reality. Yet when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and let it lead the way. What other choice is really theirs to make? To let illusions walk ahead of truth is madness. But to let illusion sink behind the truth and let the truth stand forth as what it is, is merely sanity.

This is the simple choice I make today. The mad illusion will remain awhile in evidence, for those to look upon who chose to come, and who have not yet rejoiced to find they were mistaken in their choice. They cannot learn directly from the truth, because they have denied that it is so. And so they need a Teacher Who perceives their madness, but Who still can look beyond illusion to the simple truth in them.

If truth demanded they give up the world, it would appear to them as if it asked the sacrifice of something that is real. Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing in its reality. And so they have suffered from a great sense of loss, and have not been released, according to their thinking. Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper, which they did not understand.

Between these paths there is another road that leads away from loss of every kind, for sacrifice and deprivation both are quickly left behind. This is the way appointed for me now. I walk this path just as others walk it, nor do I seem to be distinct from them, although I am indeed. Thus can I serve them while I serve myself, and set their footsteps on the way that God has opened up to me, and them through me.

Illusion still appears to cling to me, that I may reach them that God has assigned me. Yet illusion has stepped back. And it is not illusion that they hear me speak of, nor illusion that I bring their eyes to look on and their minds to grasp. Nor can the truth, which walks ahead of me, speak to them through illusions, for the road leads past illusion now, while on the way I call to them, that they may follow me.

All roads will lead to this one in the end. For sacrifice and deprivation are paths that lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims that will remain impossible. All 'this' steps back as truth comes forth in me, to lead my brothers from the ways of death, and set them on the way to happiness. Their suffering IS AN ILLUSION. Yet, still they need a guide to lead them out of it, for they mistake illusion for the truth.

Such is salvation's call, and nothing more. It asks that I accept the truth, and let it go before me, lighting up the path of ransom from illusion. It is not a ransom with a price. There is no cost, but only gain. Illusion can only seem to hold in chains the holy Son of God. It is only from illusions he is saved. As illusions step back, the Son of God 'finds himself' again.

God tells me: Walk safely now, yet carefully (because this path is new to me and I may find that I am tempted still to walk ahead of truth, and let illusions be my guide). My holy brothers have been given me, to follow in my footsteps as I walk with certainty of purpose to the truth. Truth goes before me now, that my brothers may see something with which they can identify; something they understand, to lead the way.

Yet at the journey's ending there will be no gap, no distance between truth and I. And all illusions walking in the way I travelled will be gone from me as well, with nothing left to keep the truth apart from God's completion, holy as Himself. I will 'step back into faith' and let truth lead the way. I know not where I go. But the One Who does know goes with me. In faith I will let Him lead me, and go, as with the rest.

When dreams are over, time has closed the door on all the things that pass and miracles are purposeless, the holy Son of God will make no journeys. There will be no wish to be illusion rather than the truth. And I step forth toward this, as I progress along the way that truth points out to me. This is my final journey, and one which I make for everyone. I must not lose my way. For as truth goes before me, so is it going before my brothers who will follow me.

I walk now only to God, pausing and reflecting on this. Could any way be holier, or more deserving of my effort, of my love and of my full intent? What way could give me more than everything, or offer less and still content the holy Son of God? I walk now only to God. The truth that walks before me now is one with Him, and leads me to where He has always been. What way but this could be a path that I would choose instead?

Now my feet are safely set upon the road that leads the world to God. I look not to ways that seem to lead me elsewhere. Such dreams are not a worthy guide for I who am God's Son. I will forget not He has placed His Hand in mine, and given me my brothers in His trust that I am worthy of His trust in me. He cannot be deceived. His trust has made my pathway certain and my goal secure. I will not fail my brothers nor my Self.

And now He asks only that I think of Him a while each day, that He may speak to me and tell me of His Love, reminding me how great His trust; how limitless His Love. In my true Name and His Own, which are the same, I practice gladly with this thought today:

I will step back and let Him lead the way,
For I would walk along the road to Him.

Amen.