ACIM Workbook Lesson 219 – for Sunday, August 7, 2011
Affirmation: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.”
“I am not a body. I am free. (WB397)”
Reflections:
1 – We Are Spiritual Creatures
We are, first, spiritual creatures inhabiting a body temporarily. The fact that this affirmation is given repeatedly is, in all likelihood, meant to impress upon us this fact.
2 – To Be Free
What does it mean to be free, not being a body, but inhabiting a body? It means that we do not have to look to our various ailments a defining our identify. We do not have to look to our weight or our height as indicative of the real person. We are free of all such attachments, if we wish to be so. Marianne Williamson’s book, A Course in Weight Loss, makes clear this assertion. We are spirit first and always.
3 – No Imprisoned Will
What does it mean just to be free? We are no longer bound by a “imprisoned will” (a quotation from ACIM). When the ego is in ascendancy, we are in fact bound by an imprisoned will, and we suffer as a result. Sooner or later, we reach the point that co-scribes of ACIM, Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman, reached, and we decide, as they did, that there must be “another way” (from the introduction to ACIM). Helen agreed, with Bill, to try to find this other way, and A Course in Miracles was the answer. And these volumes (Text, Workbook, Manual) have been helping several million people since.
4 – Our Real Will vs. Our Imprisoned Will
It is important to note that an “imprisoned will” is not following our real will, the will that is shown to us by the Holy Spirit. An imprisoned will is not a punishment from God; it is simply the cause-and-effect relationship of following a way in this world that will not work. The threshold for pain, Jesus says in the Text, may be high, but it will not remain so forever. We will turn, and the sooner we do, the more smoothly our lives will flow. This is the practical result of turning to the Holy Spirit for guidance.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Thank You for this good day. May I not rue it with meaningless fears and anxieties, pain and suffering. You are with me, and regardless of how bad things get, objectively, You will be there with me, ready to lift me above the fray. May I learn more today about what it means to be free, to be a spirit–not a body. May I walk lightly in my spirit.
Help us all to be there for one another. We need each other in this world, as I am sure we need each other on the Other Side. May we take the better way that A Course in Miracles point out, and adapt its tenets wholly to our lifestyle.
Amen.
