LESSON 38
February 7

"There is nothing my holiness cannot do."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Longer: 4 times, for 5 full minutes (preferably).

Repeat the idea, then close your eyes. Search your mind for a sense of unhappiness or loss, for situations that are difficult for yourself or for others. Say, "In the situation involving_______in which I see myself, there is nothing my holiness cannot do. In the situation involving_______in which_______sees himself, there is nothing my holiness cannot do." You may want to add some relevant thoughts of your own, but keep focused on the theme, "There is nothing my holiness cannot do."

Shorter: Frequent.

Repeat idea.

Response To Temptation: If specific problem, involving you or someone else, occurs to you, use the specific form from the longer practice period.

COMMENTARY

Toward the end of the lesson there is this informative line: "The purpose of today's exercises is to begin to instill in you a sense that you have dominion over all things because of what you are" (5:5). In a much later lesson (190) the same idea is echoed:

There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are (W-pI.190.5:5-6).

Now, if you are like me, you probably don't feel as though you have the power to dominate all things or that you are "unlimited in power." You probably don't feel as though the power of God is made manifest through your holiness, that because of what you are you can "remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems" (2:4). If you did feel that way, you'd probably suspect in some part of your mind that you were suffering from delusions of grandeur.

That's exactly why we need this kind of lesson. What we are, in reality, is so far above what we normally think we are that when we hear words like this lesson there is a part of us that whispers, "This is getting a little freaky here." We have no idea of the power of our minds, which were created by God and given the same creative power as His. When we get hints of how powerful we are, it scares us, and we try to forget about it.

What we really are is "beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind" (1:2). We really do have the power to solve all problems, our own and anyone else's. If practicing today's lesson simply begins to instill this sense in us, it has been successful.

When I face a situation that is troubling me and repeat, "In this situation, there is nothing that my holiness cannot do," even if 90 percent of my mind is protesting against the idea, something shifts within me. A little faith is generated. Maybe the percentage shifts from 10 percent belief to 11 percent belief. And when I do it again, 12 percent. We've all read stories of people who overcame unbelievable odds just because they believed in themselves; that only hints at what the Course is talking about, but it illustrates the principle.

The Course is talking about the power of belief, but much more as well; it is talking about the power of what we honest-to-God are. And it is talking about the power of our holiness, not just belief. You and I are made out of God-stuff. When we actually get that, we can change the world.

True learning is constant, and so vital in its power that a Son of God can recognize his power in one instant and change the world in the next (T-7.V.7:5).