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April-June, 2015

God Is the Love in Which I Forgive

by Rev. Linda Wisniewski, O.M.C.

Throughout Linda’s life, she experienced pain that she believed was physical. Last June after getting a hip replacement for a broken hip, she has experienced continual pain in her hip, lower back and left shoulder. The night after beginning to work with ACIM Lesson 46, the pain became so bad, she could barely walk and she became despondent. She went to bed crying out to Holy Spirit: “Holy Spirit, help me.”

Lesson 46 starts with: “God does not forgive because He never condemned. (1) And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. (2) Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them.” (4)

Then in paragraph 2 of this lesson it states: “Fear condemns and love forgives. (1) “Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God.” (3)

So in the middle of the night, after crying out for help from Holy Spirit, Spirit gently whispered in Linda’s ear, “Do the practice; Do the practice.”

The first practice in Lesson 46 comes with the following instruction: “God is the Love in which I forgive you [name]. (4:4)

All of a sudden what came up was the word “body.” So, Linda added, “God is the Love in which I forgive this body.” As Linda said this, she was flooded with memories of a lifetime in the body. Memories came that left her feeling deep shame and self-hatred. For example, she remembered as a child, she loved to dance. At the age of 16, she took dance lessons with a professional dancer who told her she moved like a “slut.” When she performed a dance at a summer camp, the parents complained that she was ‘too sensual in her movements’ and she couldn’t continue performing. By the time Linda was an adult, there was so much shame and guilt around the body that became self-hatred for the body.

Linda then used the body promiscuously to cover up the self-hatred. She believed that she could get love that she was desperate for by using the body lovelessly. Of course this just added to the guilt and shame about the body that then got projected onto the body in the form of physical pain.

She then reached for magical solutions that brought about temporary relief, but never brought about permanent relief because the problem wasn’t in the body. It was in the mind.

The basis for the guilt really was the guilt Linda felt for believing she had chosen to embody in the first place as a way to separate from God and from His Love. In fact, during a hypnotic therapy session, Linda had an image of a voice coming to her in the womb that told her life would be hell if she embodied. She brought that belief with her when she came into the dream and it became her reality. Linda believed she deserved to be punished for choosing to embody and that the punishment was to make the body sick with pain and dis-ease.

So back to the practice in Lesson 46 that Holy Spirit guided Linda to do in the middle of the night. The next instruction in the lesson is: “God is the Love in which I forgive myself.” (5:3)

I forgive myself for having used this body to punish myself for believing I was guilty. Then Holy Spirit reminded Linda to replace these guilt thoughts with the instructions of the rest of the lesson. “God is the Love in which I love myself. (5:5) God is the Love in which I Am blessed.” (5:6)

I kept repeating these above thoughts the rest of the night until I really felt the Truth of them. The more I repeated it, the more I believed it. I began to feel a deep peace and was able to deeply relax and fall asleep in a peaceful state. I went to sleep feeling despondent and hating the body which I made. I awoke with tears of joy releasing the memories that made me believe the body was the vehicle for shame, guilt and self-hatred and deserved to be in pain.

The rest of the of the instructions for Lesson 46 states: “I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God. (6:3) I have already been forgiven. (6:4) No fear is possible in a Mind beloved of God. (6:5) There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me.” (6:6)

As Linda practiced with these messages, images of shame were replaced with images of joy and happiness. As she was sleeping, she was given images of Linda dancing joyously and effortlessly while singing praises of glory and gratitude to God. As these images came, the shame, guilt, along with the memories were slipping away.

Holy Spirit then reminded Linda that as the guilt and self-hatred are released, the body then can be used by the Holy Spirit for a Holy Purpose — a vehicle through which Love can be extended into the world to help awaken the Sonship from its nightmarish dream of guilt and fear. She was also reminded that the body, when it has served its purpose, can be gently laid down without suffering or sacrifice.

Thank you Holy Spirit for showing me how to practice with this lesson. God is the Love in which I forgive. God’s Will for us is happiness, not guilt, fear or pain. As we forgive, the blocks to Love are removed and we return to Love, our natural state.

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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