April 16
"Let
me be still and listen to the truth."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Purpose: To not listen to the ego's voice. To instead still your mind
and listen to your Father's Voice, and offer Him your voice to speak to those
who have not heard His Word.Longer: every hour on the hour; 5 minutes
Say: "I will be still and listen to the truth. What does it mean to give and to receive?" Expect an answer, for the answer has waited long to come to you. It will begin your ministry.
Remarks: Because you received the truth it will be given to other minds. Each five minutes you practice a thousand minds will be opened to hear the truth you hear. Thus will you teach the world what giving really means, that giving is not loss but salvation. This will ready the world to give and so receive.
Shorter: as often as possible
Say: "Let me be still and listen to the truth. I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I receive."
COMMENTARY
At first today's lesson does not seem to follow yesterday's theme on giving and receiving, but midway through it switches back to that theme. It seems like an abrupt switch, perhaps. The first part of the lesson, speaking of stilling our minds to listen to God's Voice, doesn't seem to lead naturally into thoughts of giving and receiving.Yet this is what we are listening for; this is what we hear. We are learning of our true nature. This is the message of salvation: "When everything is yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever" (7:1).
What am I in this world for? According to this lesson, it is to hear the Voice for God telling me of God's eternal gift to me, the gift of Christ, the gift of my Self--God's "dear Son, whose other name is you" (4:7). And to extend that same message to the world. This is "the ministry for which you came, and which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to lose" (8:3).
Hearing God's Voice and speaking for it are as inextricably linked in this lesson as are giving and receiving. If I truly hear the Voice, I will give Him my voice to speak through me. If I receive the Word, I will share it, because the message is sharing. God's Word to me is that I am a savior, a healer, and a bringer of truth. I am His Son, His offspring, like Him, extending healing, offering peace and joy to everyone, letting them know they are His offspring as well.
Sometimes I think we take the Course too seriously and need to lighten up. At other times I think we take it too lightly, and need to take it more seriously. For instance, this lesson tells me that every time I pause for five minutes to be still and listen to the truth, one thousand minds are opened to the truth (9:2). Suppose I took that seriously? Suppose I paused every hour, as instructed. In the course of the day, fifteen thousand minds would open to the truth. Suppose everyone reading these comments did that (about 600 people)? Then nine million minds would open to the truth!
I don't take this kind of thing seriously enough. I shrug if off, thinking that if I only practice once or twice during the day, it's enough. Recently on TV, they played the old Charleton Heston movie, "The Ten Commandments." I watched a few minutes of it, enough to remember a line from it that always impressed me. Moses, suffering setbacks in the early days of trying to get Pharoah to release the Hebrews, prays to God, saying, "Lord, forgive me for my weak use of Thy great power." When I read today's lesson I thought about that line. I thought about how I treated these practice times, many days, as if they don't really matter. I imagine myself as of little consequence in His plan, at least most of the time. But if I take this lesson seriously, I could be instrumental today in bringing light into fifteen thousand minds!
I'm not trying to lay guilt on anyone, least of all myself. I am trying to raise my own consciousness concerning the power God has placed into my hands--or, more properly, into my mind. Each of us who connects with the truth in our minds today, listening to the truth, is contributing to the elevation of consciousness on...I was going to say, "on this planet," but it is far more than that, it is the arousal of Christ-consciousness in the whole universe. That little five minutes, in which, perhaps, nothing seems to happen; in which you may be fighting a wandering mind; or which seems at times to be interminable as your ego prods you to "get back to work" or whatever you are doing--that little five minutes is a very significant contribution to the salvation of the world.
"Let me be still and listen to the truth. I am the messenger of god today, My voice is His, to give what I receive."
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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