My gratitude permits my love to be

   accepted without fear. And thus am I

   restored to my Reality at last.

   All that intruded on my holy sight

   forgiveness takes away. And I draw near

   the end of senseless journeys, mad careers,

   and artificial values. I accept

   instead what God establishes as mine,

   sure that in that alone I will be saved;

   sure that I go through fear to meet my Love.

    Father, I come to You today, because

    I would not follow any way but Yours.

    You are beside me. Certain is Your way.

    And I am grateful for Your holy gifts

    of certain sanctuary, and escape

    from everything that would obscure my love

    for God my Father and His holy Son.

   
   The real world is a symbol, like the rest

   of what perception offers. Yet it stands

   for what is opposite to what you made.

   Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings

   the witnesses of terror to your mind.

   The real world cannot be perceived except

   through eyes forgiveness blesses, so they see

   a world where terror is impossible,

   and witnesses to fear can not be found.

   The real world holds a counterpart for each

   unhappy thought reflected in your world;

   a sure correction for the sights of fear

   and sounds of battle which your world contains.

   The real world shows a world seen differently,

   through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace.

   Nothing but rest is here. There are no cries

   of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing here

   remains outside forgiveness. And the sights

   are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds

   can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.

   What need has such a mind for thoughts of death,

   attack and murder? What can it perceive

   surrounding it but safety, love and joy?

   What is there it would choose to be condemned,

   and what is there that it would judge against?

   The world it sees arises from a mind

   at peace within itself. No danger lurks

   in anything it sees, for it is kind

   and only kindness does it look upon.

   The real world is the symbol that the dream

   of sin and guilt is over, and God's Son

   no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive

   the sure reflection of his Father's Love;

   the certain promise that he is redeemed.

   The real world signifies the end of time,

   for this perception makes time purposeless.

   The Holy Spirit has no need of time

   when it has served His purpose. Now He waits

   but that one instant more for God to take

   His final step, and time has disappeared,

   taking perception with it as it goes,

   and leaving but the Truth to be Itself.

   That instant is our goal, for it contains

   the memory of God. And as we look

   upon a world forgiven, it is He

   Who calls to us and comes to take us home,

   reminding us of our Identity

   Which our forgiveness has restored to us.

   ~ Original Handscript of ACIM
 

This lesson today is about the pain we experience when we keep love from our awareness. The way we are restored to our reality is by allowing love back into our awareness which can only be done by looking at how we currently block it. This is a lesson in gratitude. Just as in lesson 292 where gratitude is also expressed  "We thank You Father, for your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere". So we can see here that it is only our own interference that brings about anything other than a happy outcome. It is when WE decide how things should be and plan and strategize accordingly that we can only continue with the same old cycle of guilt and fear. It is when we try to stay  in control instead of being willing to surrender and allow the flow to be what it is. It is when we hold onto goals that lead us nowhere except into senseless journeys, mad careers and artificial values. We are pursuing goals that deliver nothing. This is so beautifully illustrated in the book I just finished reading called "One Again" by Linda Jean McNabb. It is the story of her life, a story of   undoing a past of abuse, alcoholism, prostitution through forgiveness and living a life of trust.        

Trust is the primary attribute of the Teacher of God. (Manual for Teachers) We have a fear of love, because its acceptance puts an end to the ego thought system which clearly threatens our independent will. So why is gratitude an important aspect of our restoration to our reality?  There are many references in the course to gratitude such as the following:

·        Through your gratitude you come to know your brother, and one moment of real recognition makes everyone your brother because each of them is of your Father. 4.VI.7

·        I do not need gratitude,(Jesus speaking) but you need to develop your weakened ability to be grateful, or you cannot appreciate God. 6.I.17

·        The unhealed healer wants gratitude from his brothers, but he is not grateful to them. 7.V.7

·        Look with peace upon your brothers, and God will come rushing into your heart in gratitude for your gift to Him. 10.V.7

·        Gratitude is due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of bringing love into your awareness if you perceive them truly. T.12.I.6

·        As you learn, your gratitude to your Self, Who teaches you what He is, will grow and help you honor Him. T.16.III.7

·        And by this lack of thanks and gratitude you make yourself unable to express the holy instant, and thus lose sight of it. 17/V.11.10

·        And gratitude to God becomes the way in which He is remembered, for love cannot be far behind a grateful heart and thankful mind. M.23.4.6

So what we see here is the importance of a grateful heart and thankful mind as foundational to remembering God's love . And as lesson 293 says that we should not be deaf to "all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear" It is essential to our happiness that we let in the fact that God's Love surrounds us all the time. His Love for us has not wavered. He has sent the Holy Spirit as an emissary to us in this far country. This is the Christ, the true Self Who has come to search us out. "Today we offer thanks that Christ has come to search the world for what belongs to Him"  (lesson 160) It is the part of our mind that has never left God and calls to us to return to where we already are but are not aware of this.

In this lesson when he says "I love Your Son" what is meant? Since the Christ is the true Self that we are, it is the one Self that everyone is. It is a shared Self. So when I accept this as the truth then I accept everyone as part of that One Self. When we see 'others' who we do not love, then we are seeing parts of ourselves that we reject. This offers us another forgiveness opportunity which is to look at these aspects of the unhealed self that we project on others with our condemnation and blame.  It is very important that we look at all of our hatred that we project on others and take responsibility for it. It is all of this that intrudes on our holy sight. "All that intruded on my holy sight, forgiveness takes away" (1.3)

This lesson reminds us that we must "go through fear to meet my Love". We are fearful of letting go all that we have made, our constructs, beliefs, self concepts, expectations, values, uniqueness, specialness. We are afraid of what we will lose and most important the loss of this individual self. What then will become of us? Yet the lesson clearly affirms that we are nearing the end of "senseless journeys, mad careers and artificial values". As increasingly we see that this is indeed the situation in our lives, we become more willing to find another way that brings us the certainty, joy and happiness that we seek. As long as we still think that there is something to strive for in this world, we will have our feet in both camps-that of the ego and that of the Holy Spirit. And in straddling two thought systems we experience conflict. So we must look at our fears if we are to know the love that we are.

As we pray, "Father, I come to You today, because I would not follow any way but Yours"we are actually making this commitment and dedication to our own right mind. We affirm once again that we will not follow any way but His because His way is certain. In forgiving all that "would obscure our love for God" and for our brother and being forever grateful for God's holy gifts to us, we can be assured of a certain sanctuary where we are eternally safe. "You are beside me. Certain is Your way. And I am grateful for Your holy gifts of certain sanctuary, and escape from everything that would obscure my love for God my Father and His holy Son." (2.1-4) Thus we are called on today to be grateful for our brother and to express that gratitude so that we may no longer keep our love, that is our inheritance, from our awareness. It is fear that keeps it from our awareness. When we express love and  gratitude to our brother, we are expressing it to God. When we offer our brother guilt then we are not experiencing the love of our Father. In other words, if I love God then it follows that I would be loving everyone else. If I don't love everyone else then I must be saying I don't love God. I can't reach God and hate my brothers.  Forgiveness is the answer because it allows the reflection of God's love to come through as we look at our egoic thoughts and are willing to have them released.

Our fear of being vulnerable with our brother and joining with him,  is a fear of God. We fear being vulnerable to this big, powerful force. What will happen to us if we open to this immense love that we are?   We fear the end of control. We fear annihilation. As we read in Chapter 13.III.4 "You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be helpless in God's Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love because you think it would crush you into nothingness."   Be grateful that you are wrong.

Love and blessings, Sarah

²⁸ What waits in perfect certainty beyond salvation is not our concern. For you have barely started to allow your first uncertain steps to be directed up the ladder separation led you down. The miracle alone is your concern at present. Here is where we must begin. And having started, will the way be made serene and simple in the rising up to waking and the ending of the dream. When you accept a miracle, you do not add your dream of fear to one that is already being dreamed. Without support, the dream will fade away without effects. For it is your support that strengthens it.

²⁹ No mind is sick until another mind agrees that they are separate. And thus it is their joint decision to be sick. If you withhold agreement and accept the part you play in making sickness real, the other mind cannot project its guilt without your aid in letting it perceive itself as separate and apart from you. Thus is the body not perceived as sick by both your minds, from separate points of view. Uniting with a brother's mind prevents the cause of sickness and perceived effects. Healing is the effect of minds which join, as sickness comes from minds which separate.

³⁰ The miracle does nothing just because the minds are joined and cannot separate. Yet in the dreaming has this been reversed, and separate minds are seen as bodies which are separated and which cannot join. Do not allow your brother to be sick, for if he is, have you abandoned him to his own dream by sharing it with him. He has not seen the cause of sickness where it is, and you have overlooked the gap between you, where the sickness has been bred. Thus are you joined in sickness, to preserve the little gap unhealed, where sickness is kept carefully protected, cherished, and upheld by firm belief, lest God should come to bridge the little gap that leads to Him. Fight not His coming with illusions, for it is His coming that you want above all things that seem to glisten in the dream.

³¹ The end of dreaming is the end of fear, and love was never in the world of dreams. The gap is little. Yet it holds the seeds of pestilence and every form of ill because it is a wish to keep apart and not to join. And thus it seems to give a cause to sickness which is not its cause. The purpose of the gap is all the cause that sickness has. For it was made to keep you separated in a body which you see as if it were the cause of pain.

³² The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its effect. Yet separation is but empty space, enclosing nothing, doing nothing, and as unsubstantial as the empty place between the ripples that a ship has made in passing by. And covered just as fast, as water rushes in to close the gap and as the waves in joining cover it. Where is the gap between the waves when they have joined and covered up the space which seemed to keep them separate for a little while? Where are the grounds for sickness when the minds have joined to close the little gap between them where the seeds of sickness seemed to grow?

³³ God builds the bridge, but only in the space left clean and vacant by the miracle. The seeds of sickness and the shame of guilt He cannot bridge, for He cannot destroy the alien will that He created not. Let its effects be gone and clutch them not with eager hands, to keep them for yourself. The miracle will brush them all aside and thus make room for Him Who wills to come and bridge His Son's returning to Himself.

³⁴ Count, then, the silver miracles and golden dreams of happiness as all the treasures you would keep within the storehouse of the world. The door is open, not to thieves but to your starving brothers who mistook for gold the shining of a pebble and who stored a heap of snow that shone like silver. They have nothing left behind the open door. What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear eternity apart and break it into days and months and years? And what are you who live within the world except a picture of the Son of God in broken pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay?

³⁵ Be not afraid, but let your world be lit by miracles. And where the gap was seen to stand between you, join your brother there. And sickness will be seen without a cause. The dream of healing in forgiveness lies and gently shows you that you never sinned. The miracle would leave no proof of guilt to bring you witness to what never was. And in your storehouse it will make a place of welcome for your Father and your Self. The door is open that all those may come who would no longer starve and would enjoy the feast of plenty set before them there. And they will meet with your invited Guests the miracle has asked to come to you.

³⁶ This is a feast unlike indeed to those the dreaming of the world has shown. For here, the more that anyone receives, the more is left for all the rest to share. The Guests have brought unlimited supply with Them. And no one is deprived or can deprive. Here is a feast the Father lays before His Son and shares it equally with him. And in Their sharing there can be no gap in which abundance falters and grows thin. Here can the lean years enter not, for time waits not upon this feast, which has no end. For Love has set Its table in the space that seemed to keep your Guests apart from you 

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