ACIM Workbook Lesson 226 – for Sunday, August 14, 2011
Affirmation: “My home awaits me. I will hasten there.”
“Father, my home awaits my glad return. Your Arms are open and I hear Your Voice. What need have I to linger in a place of vain desires and of shattered dreams, when Heaven can so easily be mine? (WB404)”
Reflections:
This passage does not mean that we invite death. Death is indeed nothing (an ACIM tenet). This passage refers to the Heaven on earth that we can know, instead of the “place of vain desires and of shattered dreams” to which the ego always leads us.
We know joy when we let the ego wither away. By the “ego,” we do not mean a stable core (which we all need). The ego, as outlined by A Course in Miracles, is defined somewhat differently from the way in which the psychologist Sigmund Freud, defined it. The ego is a part of our belief about ourselves (a Text definition), but it is not a valid belief. It represents the detour into fear that we believe we took when we believed that we separated from God. (These are ACIM paraphrases.) We did not actually separate from God, for this would be impossible, since we are living out a physical manifestation of the God within (in our better moments). God is the All, the One, and in that sense everything is God. He is not various gods, as pantheism would say, though. In fact, it might be better if we refrain from trying to define God, for who could do so successfully? And the attempt would only divide us, as theology is likely to do.
We are concerned only with what everyone can accept, which is an experience that ACIM leads us to have. We are usually concerned with the practical, with what works in daily life. And when we focus on what everyone can accept, we do not focus on the divisions among us.
Heaven can “easily” be ours. Let us take to heart this promise! We may not fully understand, but Jesus will take us by the hand and lead us the Heaven. This is not an “idle fantasy” (a quotation from ACIM), but the greatest good sense. It is the promise that we are meant to claim in our lives, day-by-day.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I know Heaven on earth, and may I not know it in a far-off time, but immediately, today. Help me to ready my mind and spirit for this experience. I believe that it is Your will. Help me to spend today in a constructive way, among individuals who affirm me as I affirm them. This camaraderie of our brothers and sisters is a great step forward to Heaven on earth.
Be with me today. Do not let me attack for any reason. Take anger from me. Neither of these actions/thoughts can allow Heaven on earth. And I would do what I can to allow that great blessing today.
Amen.
