ACIM Workbook Lesson 218 – for Saturday, August 6, 2011
Affirmation: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”
“Only my condemnation injures me. (WB396)”
Reflections:
This passage expresses a severe warning. “Condemnation” is attack, and we are told in A Course in Miracles that attack is never warranted. Why not? It is inherently unfair, for we are creatures of the God who is only loving. We are innocent (a concept that we may have a hard time wrapping our minds around). If innocence seems not a self-image to which we can subscribe, then let us dwell on the fact that we live in a world of illusion, where bad things only seem to happen. Of course, we experience these bad things as reality, and this experiencing can bring us much pain and suffering. But the Higher Self has not been affected. And if we commune with God, He will help us to rise above anything that this world can throw at us.
Our condemnation of these “bad things,” though, would be what would injure us. We must be accepting, first of all, and then try to improve on what we have experienced. This is an oft-repeated refrain in self-help literature, first espoused by Dale Carnegie (How to Stop Worrying and Start Living).
May we leave condemnation aside today, once and for all. It can only exacerbate the conflict within us. It is, at its base, a blaming of God for what has happened. And God is not to blame. His love outshines any negativity that we have invited into our lives.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Forgive me, and help me to forgive myself, for condemning the wrongs that I see in this world. Sometimes the wrongs may be valid, but my condemnation of them is still unwise–even if I am right in seeing where there is injustice. I realize, actually, that You do not forgive for You have never condemned. May I turn to You for my Model of non-condemnation.
May this day be good. May I respond with tolerance to the wrongs that I perceive, being aware that it is my ego that is seeing these wrongs. Love would not even perceive a wrong, but would note the insanity, and therefore see the innocence in these thoughts and actions that so disturb me. May today’s lesson be something that I take to heart. Help me. I surely need You now.
Amen.
