IX. Faithfulness
1 The extent of the teacher of God’s faithfulness is the measure of his advancement in the curriculum. Does he still select some aspects of his life to bring to his learning, while keeping others apart? If so, his advancement is limited, and his trust not yet firmly established. Faithfulness is the teacher of God’s trust in the Word of God to set all things right; not some, but all. Generally, his faithfulness begins by resting on just some problems, remaining carefully limited for a time. To give up all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely. And that alone is faithfulness. Nothing but that really deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth achieving. Readiness, as the text notes, is not mastery.
2 True faithfulness, however, does not deviate. Being consistent, it is wholly honest. Being unswerving, it is full of trust. Being based on fearlessness, it is gentle. Being certain, it is joyous. And being confident, it is tolerant. Faithfulness, then, combines in itself the other attributes of God’s teachers. It implies acceptance of the Word of God and His definition of His Son. It is to Them that faithfulness in the true sense is always directed. Toward Them it looks, seeking until it finds. And having found, it rests in quiet certainty on that alone to which all faithfulness is due.
Does he still select some aspects of his life to bring to his learning, while keeping others apart?
I have reached the point where I no longer deliberately hold anything back from the Holy Spirit. Those things that I have unconsciously held back are being brought to my attention one at a time, and I am gladly doing the work when I see them. My faithfulness has become true and doesn’t deviate.
But it was not always like that for me. My faithfulness grew slowly, taking one problem at a time to the Holy Spirit, and with each achievement, the joy and peace that I experienced encouraged me to continue. I slowly came to see what surrender looked like as Jesus gently guided me through the words in A Course in Miracles. He told me not to plan on my own and to make no decisions with the ego. He told me that it is in my defenselessness that my safety lies.
He assured me that everything is in my best interest. He asked me what could I not accept, if I but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is my good? And he assured me this is true, and then proved it to me over and over again until finally, I accepted it. Jesus offered to take my body and my ego and it took until now for me to take him up on this. It took this long for me to accept that he was not asking me to sacrifice anything of value. Now I am confident in both of us to each do our part without fail.
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