LESSON 80
March 21

"Let me recognize my problems have been solved."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Longer: 2 times for 10-15 minutes.

Close your eyes and claim the peace that comes from recognizing your problem and accepting God's answer, which cannot fail. Let the peace you deserve be given you. Recognize that your problems are gone, that you are free of conflict. Remember you have one problem, which has one solution. This is why salvation is so simple and guaranteed to work.

Shorter: as frequently as possible.

Repeat idea with deep conviction and gratitude. Tell yourself over and over that your one problem has been solved.

Response To Temptation: Whenever a specific problem arises, say: "Let me recognize this problem has been solved."

Remarks: Be determined today to not gather grievances, to be free of non-existent problems. Simply be honest about what the problem is and you will see it has been solved.

COMMENTARY

"One problem, one solution" (1:5). "The problem must be gone, because God's answer cannot fail" (4:2). So I must be at peace--whether I know it or not. I have no more problems. Seeing and understanding this, accepting it wholly, is the essence of salvation (1:8; 2:5; 5:6).

To see a problem as unresolved is to accumulate another grievance and to block the light from my awareness. An unresolved problem is an occasion of unforgiveness. It represents something I do not like or do not approve of, a cause of judgment in my mind. "Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form" (W-pI.193.4:1,2). When the Course speaks of our forgiving the world, it means the same thing as our recognizing that all forms of problems are only separation, which has already been resolved. The answer to every problem, therefore, is forgiveness. The answer is accepting the Atonement, recognizing that nothing, whatever form nothing takes, can separate me from the love of God; nothing can take away my peace.

I have spent this past weekend (1995) sleeping on an air mattress at my son's home in California. I am writing this on my last day here. Last night, the air mattress sprang a leak, and I woke about five o'clock with most of my body on the ground and my arms and legs still half floating several inches higher, a most uncomfortable position. I never got back to sleep and got up feeling short of sleep and worrying a bit about driving from Phoenix to Sedona late tonight, two hours in the dark desert, alone, and sleepy.

That seemed to be a potential problem. How is that a form of unforgiveness? How is this problem of short sleep a manifestation of separation?

If I recognize that my only problem is separation and that it has been solved, I can realize that a lack of sleep cannot separate me from God's love and peace. I can forgive the air mattress, or forgive my son for providing a flawed bed. I can forgive myself for worrying about the drive. I can accept that nothing is wrong and that my life is in the hands of God, and all will work out just as it should. Perhaps my body will be energized enough that I will not be sleepy as I drive home. Perhaps I will spend the night with friends in Phoenix even though that is not "my" plan. Perhaps I will pull off the road and sleep in my truck. Whatever happens, I do not need to be pulled out of peace by this event; my problem has been solved. I can be at peace now.

Or, if I so choose, I can destroy my last day with my son and grandchildren by obsessing about my problem. I can worry about falling asleep at the wheel. I can be upset because I may be forced to change my plan. I can be grumpy and grouchy and miss out on the love that is around me with my grandchildren. Is that really a choice I want to make?

A collapsing air mattress is not my problem. The only problem is allowing that, or anything like it, to disturb the peace of God that is always mine if I choose to have it. The only problem is separation from God. The events in our lives do not, and cannot, cause us to separate from Him. When we seem to be upset it is always a choice we make; the events we connect to that loss of peace are only a convenient excuse. Forgiveness involves recognizing our responsibility and lifting the blame for loss of peace from the persons and events of our lives and accepting that the peace of God has not been taken from us, cannot be taken from us, and indeed has never left us. We have merely closed our eyes to it. And we can open them again at any instant we choose to do so.

The events and persons may or may not change as a result. The Atonement does not plug the leak in the mattress, necessarily. It may or may not supply me with more energy to make the drive to Sedona. Sometimes those things happen, sometimes they don't; it depends on what plan the Holy Spirit has for me. What happens externally is not the problem, and the solution lies not in externals, but within me. Will I choose peace, or choose upset? Will I forgive, or will I project my rejection of peace onto the external things and blame them?

Peace lies in acceptance. I accept God's peace whatever happens. I refuse to believe that anything can separate me from the love of God. I refuse to deceive myself about what the problem really is. I recognize the problem is within me, and I bring the problem to the answer. And I rest, trusting the Holy Spirit to arrange the circumstances as He sees fit, not as I think they should be. I am out of conflict; I am free and at peace.