April 8
"I
will accept my part in God's plan for salvation."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Purpose: To make this a day of special dedication. To firmly dedicate
yourself to salvation and to happily take your mighty part in salvation's plan.
To cease arguing it is something else, seeking for it where it is not and
vacillating between it and illusions.Longer: every hour on the hour; 5 minutes
Repeat idea. Give Him the words and let Him do the rest. He will join with you in practicing. He will accept your words and give them back to you bright with all His faith and confidence. He will make every repetition a total dedication, made with deep conviction, sincerity and certainty, and full understanding of the words you say. You will understand your special function and share His faith, joy and certainty that you truly accept it.
Remarks: Is it not worth five minute an hour to receive a reward without measure--to accept God's happiness, to recognize your special function, to find full release from pain, joy the world does not contain, peace of mind, certainty of purpose and promise of success? And since time is illusory you are giving nothing in exchange for everything. You have made a thousand losing bargains, but here is one you cannot lose. Those who have fully accepted their part in God's plan will be with you, offering you everything they learned. Those who have not yet accepted will also join with you, borrowing you acceptance and so making it stronger. Even those yet unborn will benefit from your gift when they come.
Shorter: often
Repeat idea, remembering that as you do you are preparing for your next hourly time with Him.
Remarks: Spend each hour in happy preparation for the next five minutes you will spend with Him. And as the hour strikes, gratefully lay down all earthly tasks and little thoughts and spend a happy time with Him.
COMMENTARY
"Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One..." (1:1-3)."How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come" (2:1-2).
Perhaps as I read these lines about certainty, I find myself doubting that very certainty. "Am I certain?" The thought surely arises. Perhaps I feel as if I don't belong with this lesson. My ego reminds me slyly that I am not beyond vacillation. How can I say, "Doubt is gone?"
Yet even in the words of the lesson is the recognition of my condition: "All our doubts we lay aside today" (2:2). Yes, doubts are there. Of course they are. Jesus knows that. He is only suggesting that in these five minutes we spend with him, we lay them aside. Just put them down and be without them for a few minutes. See what it is like. You can doubt later if you want; for now, see how happy it is to be certain.
Within me there is a place that is always certain. It has never doubted. It cannot doubt because it knows. This is my true Self. The doubts are thoughts that question the reality of that Self, the reality of the part of me that is certain, which is the only real part. I am brought by this lesson to question my questioning. I am brought to listen to the certainty, the eternal silence of spirit which knows.
When I am willing, even for a moment, to lay aside my doubts, to still the nattering mind (the "yama yama" as Werner Erhard called it), I encounter a still sureness. It is not a certainty of ideas and words; it is an assurance of being, a majestic calm. The stillness is beyond space and time. It has nothing to do with the drama played on this planet.
It is of this we speak today. It is of those who know to touch this eternal calm of which the lesson says,
"They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what is given them to do. They do not doubt their ability because they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time and place" (3:3-4).
I take my stand with those who, before me, have come to this place. It is the same place for all of us. It is the same Self we come to know. And I know, in that holy instant, that if one has been here before me, all will come to find it. If one has been here--and I know that many have been here--all will be here, for one could not come unless it were the reality for all. The nature of this place, this quiet certainty, is a shared nature. It could not be here for me if it were not here for you as well. It could not have been there for Jesus if it is not also here for me.
"They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard, and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today" (4:1-4).
In the center of the storm of doubts and uncertainty there is an eye of calm. The storm rages on. We still can perceive it. Yet here, here, we are calm. We are quiet. We rest.
Of course you have doubts and uncertainty. That is what you are supposed to notice as you do this lesson! Just for the moment, be willing to have them disappear. There is One within you who is always certain, and He is you; you have forgotten that. Let yourself, however briefly, identify with His certainty, and let go of your identification with the doubts. Make that choice; this is all that is asked.
"He will give the words you use in practicing today's idea the deep conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours, and make each repetition of today's idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean" (7:2-4).
"Give Him the words, and He will do the rest" (9:1).
Give Him the words, and He will do the rest! He is simply asking you to say your faltering "Yes." You are not being asked to turn your doubt into faith. He will do that. "My part in God's plan" is very simple: acceptance. My part is not an active role, but passive. It is to be willing to receive, and that is all. My part is to say, "OK. Yes. I will accept." Give Him those words; that is all. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that what you say is true.
Over and over through the day, over and over throughout life, give Him those words: "I will accept my part. Yes."
This is surrender. This is all we do. There is nothing else to do. So simple. So difficult to be so simple. So difficult to stop trying to make it on our own. Let go, and let God. "Yes, God. Yes, Holy Spirit. I accept my part."
Tell Him once more that you accept the part that he would have you take and help you fill, and He will make sure you want this choice, which He has made with you and you with Him.
Perhaps I'm not sure I want it. But He will make sure I want it. Come to Him just as you are, with all your doubts, all your fears. Just come. Just say, "Yes. I accept."
(Just a note of interest: If you can recognize iambic pentameter, you'll be able to detect that after the title and first line, most (but not quite all) of today's lesson is written in that meter. Tomorrow's lesson begins the first full lesson in I.P., and the entire rest of the Workbook follows suit.)
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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