ACIM Workbook
Healing Perspectives

Lesson 75

“The light has come.”

This is one of my favorite lessons. It is so uplifting and affirming, yet when I read the lesson, I am aware of an ego aspect that tells me I am not worthy of it. It points out the many ways that I have not yet forgiven the world and asks me, “Who am I to say the light has come?” Yet these are just the ego’s frantic efforts to hold on to its place in my image of myself, for if I truly acknowledge that I have forgiven the world, the light has come, that is the end of the go.

This lesson is affirming the truth about me, not the ego lies. It is uplifting because it is reminding me of what my true Self experiences in every moment. My true Self does see a forgiven world. It does see its Light reflected back from everything it looks upon. It does experience the serenity that God would have me experience. The apparent fact that I don’t experience this is simply because I have been thinking illusions were real. This does not change reality one iota. But it does cast a shadow upon the world of Light that is my reality.

As I affirm again and again, “The light has come. I have forgiven the world,” I am both reminding myself of what is and teaching myself how to open my mind to what is. I open my mind to the Light by forgiving the world. I open my mind by letting all thoughts of the past go and seeing the world as if I had never seen it before. In truth, I have never truly seen the world, for I have always laid images of the past upon it and called that seeing. It was only hallucinating.

As I remind myself that the light has come, I have forgiven the world, I feel a wonderful, soft, comforting sense of peace come over me. My heart overflows with gratitude and in joy I offer Love to the world. And if only for a moment I experience that the light has come, it is enough to motivate me to keep on practicing letting go of the past. I want to live in the Light in every moment. And so today I will remind myself again and again, “The light has come. I have forgiven the world.”

This lesson invites me to recognize the truth that the Light that is in everyone is the only truth. This lesson invites me to let go of the images of separate bodies I have made. This lesson invites me to accept the only Truth that could ever be real. This lesson invites me to see past illusions to the truth. The part that stands out to me most is, “We dedicate this day to the serenity in which God would have you be. Keep it in your awareness of yourself and see it everywhere today, as we celebrate the beginning of your vision and the sight of the real world, which has come to replace the unforgiven world you thought was there.”

Keeping the serenity of God in my awareness and seeing it everywhere is what helps me remember that the light has come. It never left. I only put illusions in its place. As I become more willing to let illusions of uniqueness go, I am able to recognize the wandering in the wilderness of image making for what it is and not attach meaning to it.

God did not make a world of separation. Our oneness and indivisibility in the all encompassing Light of God is what is real and separate bodies are not real. Truth is true and nothing else is true. The Light of God has come because the Light of God is all that ever was true. This recognition brings me serenity. This recognition helps me see serenity everywhere. The Light has come.

Something happened yesterday that hurled me into the darkness and it was so sudden and so unexpected that I felt myself trapped there. I felt paralyzed in my fear and guilt and unable to extricate myself. That is the way I left it last night and so, of course, when I woke up, it was still there. When I saw today's lesson I thought, how ironic. And then I thought, how am I going to do this lesson today. I am as far from the light as I have been in a long time. It seemed absurd, feeling as I did, to say "the light has come."

I started doing it, though. I did a peace meditation and as always, it helped a lot. Something from the lesson helped me a lot. It said, "No shadows from the past remain..." I felt a sense of relief as I remembered that the illusion is just shadows. I was feeling like I was weighed down with huge granite blocks and that they were chained to me. Whew! They were only shadows after all. From that point, things got better. When I allow myself to become caught in the ego's dark thoughts, it is easy to think they are more real than reality and that escape is impossible. When I come out of it, I feel like laughing at my foolishness.

I am so glad that I stayed with it and didn't give into the ego impulse to just curl up and pull the covers over my head. The ego does love to wallow in misery. I am especially grateful because a few moments ago I received a call from my son and he needed my love and comfort. He needed me to be there for him without becoming part of his problem and I couldn't have done that if I had not used today's lesson to pull myself out of my own funk.

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