To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
“Forgiveness offers everything I want.”
In yesterday’s lesson we practiced looking beyond bodies and focusing on the Light in our brothers and ourselves. Today we are told that God holds the door open to a warm and safe place and He invites us to come in. We are told when we enter, we enter into Light and form disappears. The imagery of formless, boundless Light is helping us shift our attention away from forms and what forms seem to do. It brings us to the awareness that illusionary forms do not matter in truth.
Light always unites with Light. Light never resists Light. Light does not place limits on itself. It does not stop Itself. It always expands and enters wherever It is welcome. To be in darkness, barriers must be erected to keep the Light out. The moment the barriers are removed, Light rushes in to fill the space where darkness was. Darkness has no power over Light. We experience darkness only when we do not welcome Light and build barriers against It. Forgiveness brings down the barriers. As we learn to practice looking beyond form, letting the veil of form be lifted, we see the Light that has always been there. We see the changeless in the midst of change.
Holy Spirit, help me today to keep my attention on the changeless and the real, to not value the changeable and temporary. Help me to see the Light beyond all form. I am willing to receive God’s gifts today. I am willing to forgive.
Forgiveness means allowing the veil to be lifted. Forgiveness means accepting Heaven’s answer to the hell we made. Forgiveness means accepting God’s gifts. Forgiveness means opening to the Light of God and letting it heal all our false perceptions of separation. Forgiveness offers joy and peace and happiness. Forgiveness offers everything I want.
In this lesson, Jesus is really focusing on the benefits of forgiveness. He is showing us that holding grievances only brings us hell and we don’t have to continue living in hell. It just takes a little willingness to accept Heaven’s answer. It takes a willingness to open to God’s plan for salvation. Heaven is always there waiting for us to open the door and let It in. The face of Christ is always there to see in our brother. That is how we see it in ourselves.
Today I am willing to practice opening to Heaven’s healing Light. Today I am willing to practice lifting the veil to see the face of Christ in my brother. Love is changeless. Heaven is changeless. Today I am willing to look beyond the constantly changing forms and circumstances to the eternally changeless Light of God That is always there waiting for my acceptance. Today I am willing to be happy. “Forgiveness offers everything I want.”
As I read this beautiful lesson my first thought was, “Yeah, maybe if I do this lesson every day for a hundred years.” I seem to be so attached to my grievances. But I reminded myself that I am not alone in this. The Course promises us much support.
I am really tired of carrying around these grievances, and I can see how they are making me so unhappy. It is a mystery to me why they are so hard to give up.
As I was reading this lesson, I’m answering, “Yes I want happiness, yes I want quietness”, etc. etc. And then the lesson goes into all the wonderful things forgiveness offers like joy and happiness. It seems to me that I can only dream of those things. And then comes the answer to achieve all these things, which is the part I apparently have such a hard time with, the part that keeps me from experiencing these things.
Until the Course came around I didn’t realize there was another way of living. I think I always knew in my heart there had to be something better, but I never knew what it was or how to achieve it. I think Jesus knows that we’re extremely attached to what we made, so He is gently trying to remind us with His lovely poetry. It’s almost like He’s saying “you had this before, remember?”
So many times I get frustrated because I can’t seem to do what it takes to have peace, but the continuous practice of these lessons along with the power of the Holy Spirit helps me have hope and stay focused. The thoughts of this Course give me the only true life I’ve experienced in my time here on earth.
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