ACIM Workbook Lesson 25 – for Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Affirmation: “I do not know what anything is for.”
Selected Passage:
“Another way of describing the goals you now perceive is to say that they are all concerned with ‘personal’ interests. Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing. (WB38)”
Reflections:
We do not have “personal” interests because we are part of the Whole, the All, that is God. Our minds are joined, and therefore we cannot choose aright for ourselves in personal interests at all. This interpretation is not stated precisely in the Workbook, but is applied to this passage because it is an interpretation that fits in well with tenets expressed elsewhere in ACIM.
Our goals are usually wrong because they are usually ego-inspired. Until we have walked farther along the pathway, the ego will thwart our good intentions repeatedly. Elsewhere Jesus says that “good intentions” are not enough, and this is secular knowledge in this world as well. We cannot choose aright as long as our minds are wrong, and our minds are wrong as long as they are ego-driven.
Ask the Holy Spirit what goals He would have you achieve. That will save needless effort on our parts (an ACIM tenet). In the Text, Jesus says that when the ultimate goal of Awakening is given us, it comes with just one realization, “I need do nothing.” This is hard to understand in our ego-oriented world, because we think that we are judged by what we “do.” But we are not. Action that is ego-driven is indeed lamentable. No good can come of it. The ego is constantly being undone (an ACIM tenet), and we suffer as a result. And this suffering is so needless. Learn to let go of needless suffering today.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Help me not to be self-centered today. When I think about personal interests, I think only of myself. I would think of my brothers and sisters instead. We are all One; help me always to remember this. And we are One with You. That is the most important point for me to remember always.
Thank You for being here for me each day. In the mornings, I want to dedicate the day to You, and in the evenings, I want to assess whether or not I actually did dedicate the day to You. May today be a true day of dedication.
Amen.
