“Here, then, is where you need to make the choice that those in my time could not make, the choice to end suffering. This is the choice I made ‘for all.’ This is a choice you make for all as well. (A Course of Love: Dialogues, p. 95)”
Affirmation: “May I choose to end suffering for all, and may I include myself in this.”
Reflections:
This passage makes the point well that many of us who are on the mountain top (the setting of these 40 days and nights) feel that we are not worthy of this experience to which Jesus calls us. We think of the many things that we have done wrong, or that were done wrong to us, and we do not accept these things and put them in the past. Acceptance is the great call that Jesus makes to us on this day.
Jesus says that his example life was meant to bring the end of suffering, that he did not suffer, because he knew who he was. We will find this assertion hard to believe, but we need to trust that Jesus is leading us aright.
We are worthy, we have experienced Atonement, and we are ready to elevate the Self of form. The self and the Self are meant to be combined. We will not recognize that we are worthy of this great blessing until we reach acceptance of all that has gone before. Our mistakes have been forgiven; that is all that we really need to know. Then we will be ready to take our place as Awakened beings. In this 40 days and nights, this call is made by Jesus to all of us who are his readers of the Dialogues and who accept his word, as expressed therein.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I accept myself as I am. May I know that the Atonement that You have offered me is freely given to all, including myself. If there are things about myself that I want to change for the better, help me to make these changes in the midst of my acceptance.
May I assist in ending suffering in this world, for others and myself. Until I have taken my place in this great endeavor, I will feel that something is missing. May nothing be missing today.
Amen.
ACIM Workbook Lesson for Day 95:
I am one Self, united with my Creator.
Mari Perron
/ April 6, 2010I love today’s prayer, especially “help me to make these changes in the midst of my acceptance.” And also, “May nothing be missing today.”
I haven’t lived an easy life. Let’s just say my life wasn’t always guided by healthy decision making. While regrets have been quelled, I am still working with the physical and emotional and practical aspects of some of those decisions, and I think a lot of us do. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that having to do that creative work – more or less to set things right in your life – isn’t about non-acceptance.
That’s part of my path, anyway, and yet I feel it’s not so much about the past as the present. We begin the acceptance of a new self here. When you change deeply from within, there’s a great desire to create the external environment in which you can live in accord with the new nature of who you are NOW. That becomes the impetus for your creative challenges…to create peace in your own life and extend it from there.
So I’d just like to add this one sentence from Day Two that I feel clarifies what is meant by suffering: If you do not accept your Self, all of yourself, you cling to suffering.
“Accept your Self, all of yourself.” Accepting old and new. Accepting what is passing and what is being born. Giving it all room. Being spacious.
celiaelaine
/ April 6, 2010Dear Mari,
Thank you for leaving comments on this blog. Your insight is invaluable!
Most fondly, Celia