Commentary on ACIM Lesson 212

©2010 Rev. David Seacord

I have a function God would have me fill.

I know this. And, my ego knows this too. I think all my ego's 'guilt complex' arises from it having desires OTHER than God's function for me. That would make anybody 'feel guilty', seems to me. But because I am at least somewhat dis-identifed from this body, it has to get me to agree, as it needs to use this body that is my temple (and God's home) to accomplish it's desires.

What all the spiritual teachers I have ever known have shared is that happiness is never really available from following the ego, although certainly temporary sense-based pleasures are. What I did for a long time "when younger", and what I watched many friends do ---very often in the name of spirituality-- is be pleasure and fun pigs, satiating the senses, and using that satiation to suppress the guilt of 'having so much (ego-based) 'fun'. God, sometimes I still wish it had worked, but it didn't. For me, and I think for anybody that loves God--by any name or form-- once that is real, we/I are on the Divine Hook, with infinitely stretchable (fishers of the pure hearted) 'line' that will let us run as far as we chose, do as many of the worlds games for as long as we wish, BUT that line never breaks. And is the quietness of our being, we can always hear the call to return to our Home in Holiness. Eventually, we do, and begin our true spiritual journey in humbleness.

Please do not misconstrue me as saying that pleasure is bad. It is not. It is only the addiction to pleasure that is the spiritual quicksand that I am suggesting is best to avoid. Nowadays, my practice (when I remember) is to 'be present' and simply allow what IS to be pleasurable--- in other words, I do my best to not SEEK to have fun, but just practice remembering I am always in the right place... that there is no 'better' place to go... that being here in this moment is my curriculum, and that that curriculum leads beyond 'pleasure', and on to the joy of being.

Bottom line, every time I am truly connected to my personal joy of being, I get right then I am fulfilling the function God would have me fulfill.

Namaste,

David

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Lesson 212

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.

(192) I have a function God would have me fill.

I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain
illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I
accept as mine.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.