ACIM Workbook Lesson 128 – for Sunday, May 8, 2011
Affirmation: “The world I see holds nothing that I want.”
Selected Passage:
“Escape today the chains you place upon your mind when you perceive salvation here. For what you value you make part of you as you perceive yourself All things you seek to make your value greater in your sight limit you further, hide your worth from you, and add another bar across the door that leads to true awareness of your Self. (WB233)”
Reflections:
This passage tells us what the ego will do for us, and it is not good. The ego, as we have discussed, is a part of our belief about ourselves. It is partly what is meant by “egotistical,” but that is not the whole of it. We can make choices that are of the ego which are not particularly egotistical. In turning to the ego, we are turning to a persona of ourselves. We are not turning to our real Self, the part that listens to guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In this passage, we learn that when we seek to aggrandize ourselves, we are seeking the worst for ourselves. ACIM says in the Text that we are at our best when we say to God that we do not know who we are. We do not understand. And then our mind and spirit is open to the Holy Spirit to show us the Way. Seeking to make our value greater is clearly of the ego, and it is also usually the egotistical at its worst. This idea does not mean that we will not accomplish things in this world; it just means that we will not attach value to what we say or do. We will still have a healthy self-esteem, but we will walk humbly with our God (as biblical teaching recommends).
We need true awareness of our Self. We will find this through surrender to God, to what and to whom He sends us. We will then fulfill our purpose on earth, our real purpose, which always has something to do with salvation for ourselves and others. A Course in Miracles affirms that it is through forgiveness (or pardon) of the illusions in which we find ourselves that we come to know the way home. Ultimately we will realize that not even forgiveness is needed, because, being illusion, there is nothing to forgive. But most of us have not walked that far along the pathway. Until we do, forgiveness of ourselves and our brothers and sisters is the closest to godliness that we will come.
Prayer:
Dear Mother/Father,
Help me to place no value on the valueless. Not only would I leave behind the egotistical, but I would leave also the special value that I place in those non-eternal things that tie me to this world. I would keep in place my love for my brothers and sisters, and my appreciation for the beauty and wonder of the earth.
Help me to go about my day with an ever-constant awareness of Your presence in my heart and spirit. You are the All, and I am part of You. I would do justice to the potentials that You have placed in me.
Amen.
