LESSON 362
December 28

"This holy instant would I give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

FINAL LESSONS

PURPOSE: To receive the gift that God promised His Son. To dedicate your mind to following in the way of truth and leading your brothers there. To forgive the world and so hasten the ending of the dream that God appointed.

MORNING/EVENING QUIET TIME: as long as needed

  • Use the words only at the beginning, and only to remind yourself you are trying to go beyond them.
  • Leave the rest of the lesson to the Holy Spirit. Put Him in charge. Whatever you need, be it a thought, a word, or stillness and tranquility, He will give it to you.

HOURLY REMEMBRANCE

No specific instructions

FREQUENT REMINDER

No specific instructions

RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION

No specific instructions

COMMENTARY

The Workbook leads us to this point: "...to Him we give our lives henceforth" (W-FL.Int.1:4, which translates as Workbook, Final Lessons, Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 4). If the idea of giving our lives to God seems unappealing, consider the alternative: "For we would not return again to the belief in sin that made the world seem ugly and unsafe, attacking and destroying, dangerous in all its ways, and treacherous beyond the hope of trust and the escape from pain" (W-FL.Int.1:5).

The idea that we want something other than God is what made all this mess. There is nothing other than God. "The belief in sin" referred to is nothing more than our belief that we succeeded in making something separate from Him. We don't really want this, although we have believed we did. This belief is the source of all our pain, so let us return our lives to the Source of all joy instead. Let us give our lives to be directed by His Voice, the Holy Spirit.

Let me give this holy instant and every instant into His hands. "His is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. It is His way that everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending God Himself appointed" (W-FL.Int.2:1-2). Don't let those words, "the only way," scare you off. This isn't saying ACIM is the only way to God; it is saying that the route of forgiveness, the truth that we are all innocent before God, is the only way, whatever the form it may take. God created us all to be His expression, and His Will will be done in the end. As it says in the Text Introduction, we don't have any choice about the content of the curriculum, just about when we learn it.

"In the dream of time it seems to be far off. And yet, in truth, it is already here; already serving us as gracious guidance in the way to go" (W-FL.Int.2:3-4). My partner Robert wrote an article for our newsletter on the topic, "How Long Until We're Out of Here?" or, in other words, "How long until we reach the end of the journey?" The Course is full of the paradox stated baldly in this sentence: the truth is already here, and yet--in time--it seems to be far off. Both are true, each in its proper context. A dream that lasts only a few seconds can seem, within the dream, to last for years. Isn't it possible that a dream that lasts only for a "tiny tick of time" can seem to last billions of years? Within the dream of time, our journey home seems to be taking a very long time. In reality it is already over, and the power of its ending is present now, guiding us through the dream.

So what should we do? How, then, should we live? Should we proclaim, "It's all over!" and just kick back and relax? No; to us the dream is still real. Therefore: "Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us. And let us be the leaders of our many brothers who are seeking for the way, but find it not" (W-FL.Int.2:5-6).

In his article Robert reaches the conclusion that "how long" is an irrelevant question, and that we should be equally content whether we go home tomorrow or in 10,000 AD. Our function, in the meantime, is to be the light of the world as long as we are in it. We are to lead home all our brothers who are still lost, still floundering. We are to forgive the world; to bring the message of guiltlessness to everyone; to extend the peace and love we have found to all the world.

This is what we do when we say, "For I would follow You, certain that Your direction gives me peace." What direction? The direction of forgiveness, the direction of forgiving the world. That is the direction which "gives me peace". Working out our forgiveness of the world becomes the content of our days. It is when we have accepted this as the one function that we want to fulfill that the Holy Spirit will arrange everything for us, providing everything we need as we go.

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