ACIM Workbook
Healing Perspectives

Lesson 98

“I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”

The sentence that stands out to me the most in this lesson is: “We side with truth and let illusions go.” As I am willing to side with truth, all the silly ego squabbles found in this world of separate identities are seen as just plain silly. I am not as tempted to take them so seriously. As I am willing to side with truth, I am open to seeing the Light that lies beyond the separate images, beyond time and space. When I side with truth, I am siding with eternal reality and letting illusions go.

The illusions of bodies seem so important in this world -- the struggle for survival, the desire to be entertained. But here Jesus shows me that God’s way works. God’s way brings me everything I really want. God’s plan brings me happiness and peace and certainty.

The ego’s plan always goes for seek and do not find. The ego always looks for conflict and strife. The ego grows strong in strife. When I am following the ego’s plan I can tell by the level of anxiety I feel. When I follow God’s plan, I can tell by the level of peace and inner joy I feel.

The first five minutes of every hour seems like a lot of time to take out from my busy day. But when I realize that this time is a time dedicated to accepting the truth and opening to God’s peace and Love, I see that it is really very little time to give to this most important practice. I feel like I am being given such a powerful gift, a way Home that is truly beautiful and simple and perfect for me. I give my time to God. I give time to opening to God’s peace. How could time be more well spent?

The ego likes to make it appear that accepting my part in God’s plan for salvation is a burden and a sacrifice. It does not want me to recognize that it is really accepting God’s gift of joy that is beyond anything this ego world has to offer. The only reason I have any doubt or resist this dedication at all is because some part of me believes that I can find happiness in the world of the ego. It is true that I will need to give up everything the world has to offer in order to receive the magnificent gifts God has given me. But what is also true that the ego does not want me to recognize is that everything the world has to offer has no value whatsoever. It is all empty illusions, nothing, meaningless. So what I must give up to experience God’s gift of perfect joy is absolutely nothing. I give up nothing to recognize I have everything.

This world is the effect of believing it is possible to have more than everything, to somehow be special, different, unique. The only way to seem to have this specialness, to seem to have more than everything, is to make up illusions and call them real. But believing illusions are real does not make them real in truth. It is only a self delusion, a deceit that I use to make believe that I have what I want. But beneath this deception is a deep longing to return to the Love that seems to be so distant, yet in truth is what I am.

When I choose to accept my part in God’s plan for salvation, I simply choose to accept His gifts of Love. Nothing more and nothing less, for there is nothing else. I am deeply grateful for this reminder and this practice to strengthen my dedication to accepting God’s gift that is my part in God’s plan for salvation. For when I accept God’s Love, I cannot but offer it to all that Is, for that is Love’s nature.

I am worthy of His Love because I was created worthy of It. It is simply a fact to accept. Nothing need be done to make me worthy. I need merely accept what Is. Today I will practice accepting God’s Love and offering God’s Love. Today I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.

I woke up this morning with some concerns for the coming day. This lesson was a welcome reminder that I am upset because I am looking for salvation in a place where it is not. I went over my worries one at a time and saw that their solutions did not bring me salvation. This helped me to settle into the lesson realizing that I can find salvation if I look in the right place.

I also found it comforting to realize I am not alone in what I am doing today. I loved reading that "They will be with us..." because I surely feel that I need support today.

I wrote my lesson on a sheet of paper today along with a few lines to help me focus on my five minute prayers. This way, even on the road I can easily pull over and do my lesson at each hourly interval. At the bottom of the page I quoted the Course, "Is it not worth five minutes of your time...?" These last several lessons have been reminding us of how important this work is and I'm glad of that reminder.

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