Commentary on ACIM Lesson 157 

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

 

 

Today the trees called to the active monkey-in-me.  The old man who owned the out-of-season citrus orchard said (in answer to my question) "Sure, there's still grapefruit on the trees, but they're too high for anyone to reach.  But you can try.  Take as much as you want for $5".   

 

I hadn't planned for this... I was only out and about early because the nail my tire had picked up needed quick repair.  And how God had gotten me to pull into this driveway is too long a story to tell, but here I was.  It was only 9 am, but already over 90 degrees.  As I headed into the thickness of the small orchard, the ground was still wet from a recent flood irrigation, so that the peacock families wandering the tree shaded grounds with me left their prints clearly in the soft soil.  The short-horned milking goats made guttural noises from their quarters.  It was humid, and I began to sweat. 

 

To me, this was a pleasure, as sweating through this summer (and receiving the accompanying detoxification benefits) is something I am looking forward to (and have missed, since the summer of '06, which I spent in Phoenix).   I worked and sweated and climbed and reached and stretched for and won piece after piece of fruit treasure until there was no place left to put more in my car.  And all the time, I was saying, Thank you God, especially for 'this sweaty breath', or 'this aliveness high in this tree', or 'this ability to carry these heavy bags to my car'.  

 

This is the promise of our lives:  That when we will let God lead us, He will give us our joy.  Why then, do anything else?

 

Namaste, 

 

David

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My personal version, in first person.

 

Lesson 157

Into His Presence would I enter now.

Today I will be silent, and trust. Today is a special time of promise in my calendar of days. It is a time Heaven has set apart to shine upon my heart, and cast a timeless light upon this day, wherein echoes of eternity are heard. Today is holy, for it ushers in a new experience; a different kind of feeling and awareness. I have spent long days and nights in celebrating death. Today I learn to feel the joy of life.

This is another crucial turning point in my holy awakening curriculum. God adds a new dimension now; a fresh experience that sheds a transforming light on all that I have learned already, and prepares me for what I have yet to learn. It brings me to 'the door where learning ceases', and from there, I shall catch a glimpse of what lies past the highest reaches this curriculum can possibly attain. It leaves me fully 'here' for an instant, and then I go beyond it, sure of my direction and my only goal.

Today it will be given me to feel a touch of Heaven, even though I will return to 'paths of learning'. Yet I have come far enough along 'the way' to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws, and thus walk into eternity a while. This I will learn to do increasingly, as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed, brings me more swiftly to this holy place and leaves me, for a moment, to my true Self.

God Voice will direct my practicing today, for what I ask for now is only what He wills. And having joined my will with His this day, what I am asking must be given me. Nothing is needed but today's idea to light my mind, and let it rest in still anticipation and in quiet joy, wherein I shall quickly leave the world behind.

From this day forth, my ministry takes on a genuine devotion, and a glow that travels from my fingertips to those I touch, and blesses those I look upon. A vision reaches everyone I meet, and everyone I think of, or who thinks of me. For my experience today will so transform my mind that it becomes the touchstone for the holy Thoughts of God.

My body will also be sanctified today, its only purpose being now to bring the vision of what I experience this day to light the world. I cannot give experience like this directly. Yet it leaves a vision in my eyes which I can offer everyone, that they may come the sooner to the same experience, in which the world is quietly forgot, and Heaven is remembered for a while.

As this experience increases and all goals but this become of little worth, the world to which I will return becomes a little closer to the end of time; a little more like Heaven in its ways; a little nearer its deliverance. And I who bring it light will come to see the light more sure; the vision more distinct. The time will come when I will not return in the same form in which I now appear, for I will have no need of it. Yet now while it has a purpose, it will serve it well.

Today I will embark upon a course I have not dreamed of before. But the Holy One, the Giver of the happy dreams of life, Translator of perception into truth, the holy Guide to Heaven given to me, it has dreamed for me this journey which I make and start today, with the experience this day holds out to me to be my own.

Into Christ's Presence will I enter now, serenely unaware of everything except His shining face and perfect Love. The vision of His face will stay with me, but there will be an instant which transcends all vision, even this, the holiest. This I will never teach, for I attained it not through learning. Yet the vision speaks of my rememberance of what I knew that instant, and will very surely know again.