Commentary on ACIM Lesson 183

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I call upon God's Name and on my own.

I receive 'my lessons' from every direction, even the occasional times I turn on a TV. Which I did yesterday for a short time. I've been 'working with the material' all day....

'The material' was a syndicated national 'talent show', where three judges and a live audience view a contestant's audition, and the judges vote yea/nay. What hooked me was how nasty and brutal the dialogue from the judges to a contestant became.... There was no recognition of brotherhood here, this was rating-driven dog eat dog 'entertainment'. The 'outclassed' hopeful who received particularly brutal treatment... booing and name calling plummeting into the range of legally mandated muting almost before he 'got to first base', pre-maturely killing his 'act' before he even got going (and obviously profoundly humiliating him).....he was just a 28 year old grocer trying to be a clown (and yes, he didn't belong on national tv). Yes, his 'act' (what I saw of it) was bad... Yet, was it necessary he be publicly humiliated? I opine that such events can cause huge emotional traumas....

I so felt for the brother like I was him...., and what I have been pondering and asking for today is a deeper peace when 'in the domain of worldly injustice'. Things like 'being humiliated' have also happened in my life too. 'They filled me' (Accurately... I choose to fill myself) with bitterness and anger and egoic self-righteousness, and I hardened my heart so as to not feel the pain (of, in my case for instance, being a failed prophet....mentioned that in an earlier Commentary, in case you are a new reader...). And as a result of my choice, several years of my life were lived in a very dark place that I would not now wish on anyone, even though I see because of it I know firsthand that pain... But thank God I met Gangaji in '94. Her clear being re-inspired me to 'ask for help', which did come and continues to come daily as needed, unlimited in its forms and blessings...

I know that now, watching that tv clip was a opportunity for deeper contemplation into the mystery of how God works, and my own healing. As I/we grow in the acceptance of our oneness with God and each other, the world in large part will continue without us, doing what it has always done. However it does that, it is OK. We each are assigned who we need to be working with specifically. How to know? It is in the connection you feel. I think of it as someone 'showing up in color'.

Would I be surprised to be in a store somewhere someday in the future and somehow discover myself talking to the humiliated grocer/clown of last nights TV? Absolutely not. In fact, if it is meant to be, it will happen. Why? Because 'our angelic supervisors' will arrange it if I am further assigned to serve the brother. Such a thing could be, after all, he definitely just served me.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 183

I call upon God's Name and on my own.

God's Name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own. A father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. His brothers share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity. Your Father's Name reminds you who you are, even within a world that does not know; even though you have not remembered it.

God's Name can not be heard without response, nor said without an echo in the mind that calls you to remember. Say His Name, and you invite the angels to surround the ground on which you stand, and sing to you as they spread out their wings to keep you safe, and shelter you from every worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.

Repeat God's Name, and all the world responds by laying down illusions. Every dream the world holds dear has suddenly gone by, and where it seemed to stand you find a star; a miracle of grace. The sick arise, healed of their sickly thoughts. The blind can see; the deaf can hear. The sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried as happy laughter comes to bless the world.

Repeat the Name of God, and little names have lost their meaning. No temptation but becomes a nameless and unwanted thing before God's Name. Repeat His Name, and see how easily you will forget the names of all the gods you valued. They have lost the name of god you gave them. They become anonymous and valueless to you, although before you let the Name of God replace their little names, you stood before them worshipfully, naming them as gods.

Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His. Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective. Those who call upon the Name of God can not mistake the nameless for the Name, nor sin for grace, nor bodies for the holy Son of God. And should you join a brother as you sit with him in silence, and repeat God's Name along with him within your quiet mind, you have established there an altar which reaches to God Himself and to His Son.

Practice but this today; repeat God's Name slowly again and still again. Become oblivious to every name but His. Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on this. No other word we use except at the beginning, when we say today's idea but once. And then God's Name becomes our only thought, our only word, the only thing that occupies our minds, the only wish we have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only Name of everything that we desire to see; of everything that we would call our own.

Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. And God will come, and answer it Himself. Think not He hears the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world. They cannot reach Him thus. He cannot hear requests that He be not Himself, or that His Son receive another name than His.

Repeat God's Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him, creating in His Name. Sit silently, and let His Name become the all-encompassing idea that holds your mind completely. Let all thoughts be still except this one. And to all other thoughts respond with this, and see God's Name replace the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is one Name for all there is, and all that there will be.

Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. And both can be accomplished perfectly.

Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are insignificant, and all requests unneeded when God's Son calls on his Father's Name. His Father's Thoughts become his own. He makes his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.

All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The little things of earth have disappeared. The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his Father. And his Father's Voice gives answer in his Father's holy Name. In this eternal, still relationship, in which communication far transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. In our Father's Name, we would experience this peace today. And in His Name, it shall be given us.

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My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on it's way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you.

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Rev. David Seacord

Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag

david@davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord.com

www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com

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