A Course in Miracles defines Atonement as perfect Love. It also calls It the undoing. God created the Self we share as perfect Love. Thus when we accept Atonement, we accept our Self. If we weren’t rejecting Love, there would be no need for Atonement, no need for undoing false perceptions. But to experience Atonement, to experience perfect Love, we need to undo our denial of It.
That is why forgiveness is central to the Course. Forgiveness is the undoing of the denial of Love, our Self. When I judge someone, that person represents my denial of Love. It is this I must take to the Holy Spirit and let Him help me see the Love behind the behavior and to answer the call for Love with Love.
When I disapprove of someone’s behavior, I may tell myself, “I would never do that.” This is one of the tricks of the ego. It encourages us to look at form (behavior) and disregard content.
As I learn to take these judgments to the Holy Spirit, I learn to see the common content. Always in some way the behavior represents a belief in separation and the lack and loss that seem to come with it. If I see someone as needy or demanding or manipulative or any of myriad labels I might apply, they all cover a basic sense of loss, which the behavior is trying to rectify. The behavior is trying to solve the problem on the level of form, where it cannot be solved. When I judge the behavior, I am thinking that changing the behavior will solve the problem, which is also trying to solve the problem at the level of form, where it cannot be solved.
As I learn to recognize the problem is a sense of lack that comes from believing in separation from Love, then I can take that problem to the Holy Spirit and ask for help to recognize that I am the Love that I seem to have lost. And in that seemingly “other” person, I can answer the behavior, the call for Love, with Love. Thus I teach myself that I am Love and that Love is always the answer.
The problem is the belief in separation from Love. The answer is the acceptance of my Self, perfect Love. That is Atonement. That is accepting my Self as the Son God loves. That is seeing that I am joined with all my brothers in that one Self that is the Son God loves.
Today, Holy Spirit, help me not to be fooled by behavior. Help me to see my unity with all in the one Self that is God’s beloved Son. Thus will I let my sinlessness protect me from all harm. (A Course in Miracles, Excerpt from ACIM Lesson 337 Insights. © 2003)
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