Commentary on ACIM Lesson 359

© 2010 Rev. David Seacord

Tonight, at the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at the Yuma new thought church I usually go to, the minister lady was brief but eloquent. And what stuck with me was her comment: "Jesus did not come to be the exception. Jesus came to be the example...."

I appreciated the clarity, and how she continued speaking on the 'greater things than these shall you do' theme. Because that is what calls me and those others that I feel 'bonded-in-soulness-to' standing beside me on this journey. I mean, the word 'christian' means literally 'little christ', which is what we are being.... christs-in- training. Which of course means we error at times.

The teaching of ACIM regarding error is: mistakes only call for correction. Nothing else. Especially not a bunch of judgements. In other words, mistakes are not an I'm right -- you're wrong issue. Mistakes are just untrue negative thought patterns--- things that we believe to be true, but which the truth of the universe knows to be false. And the problem is that since we believe things to be true that aren't, we get into trouble--- because we normally act on what we believe. But when we believe falsities, acting on them produces bite-you-back-ouchies/ouwee's. That's why being a teacher of God is a humbling path.... because you are there to be a living example of correcting your own mistakes. That is absolutely what Jesus did... he cleaned up all the karma by being without judgement about those around him, yet at the same time he was so straight that he never hesitated to call a spade a spade. People got then (and they still do now) a lot of value out of that. So it is an example for us too.

The time for each of us is coming, will come soon, for the stand-tall mission we each have been assigned to and which we have accepted. And I know you have accepted because you are here.... so your job is just like my job (because there really is only one 'job description' on God's payroll--- we get to say it straight, and then not take what happens personally. That's the high road. If we slip up and we do take it personally, it's just another lesson is learning how to be impeccable about cleaning stuff up.

As anything that is between two brothers is in the way of knowing our own wholeness, and will stay in the way until cleaned up, there is no better time than now to step up to humbleness, and forgive it all. And in the long run (which IS the view God has) NOTHING ever turns out to be a mistake. That is why todays lesson clearly says: Sin is impossible.

Namaste,

David

PS... Merry Christmas everyone!

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Lesson 359

God's answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.

Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your Own. We have misunderstood all things. But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are we. And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace.