A Happy Outcome to All Things Is Sure

ACIM Workbook Lesson 292 – for Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Affirmation:  “A happy outcome to all things is sure.”

“We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end.  Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.  (WB444)”

Reflections:

1 – The Solution Is Always with the Problem

One reassurance from A Course in Miracles that I return to when comforted with a problem is the statement that the solution is always with the problem.  And solutions do not wait; there is an answer coming, and it is quick to arrive.  When we find ourselves cornered, supposedly, by insoluble problems, we need only relax and ask what we need to do.  An answer will come into our minds shortly.  If not, then we are too emotional to hear the answer.  We need to relax, take our minds off the problem, and get involved in some kind of distraction.  Sometimes prayer helps, but if we are too worried, I have found that my mind will lose the prayer, and I will returning to worrying.  But after a very short while, a next step will appear apparent.  And then the next and the next steps.  We are only shown one step at a time.

2 – We Will Not Have to Wait Long for the Solution

The solution always comes.  Sometimes I find that over a day or two, one thought will occupy my mind in regard to the problem.  If it is a solution, I have come to believe that this is the action that I should next take.  Of course, I can misinterpret, and if the answer is not loving, I am listening to the fears of the ego.  We need to test out our interpretations, lest we mislead ourselves.

3 – Trials

We sometimes think that we have trials ahead, when in actuality we are making the difficulty by our own reactions.  This is especially true if one magically thinks that worry will protect against the thing about which one is worrying.  Forget not that this is magic, and ACIM warns repeatedly against magical thinking.  If we just keep in mind that no problem comes without a solution, right with it, then we will be alright.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I realize that when I am healed, when there are no trials in place, it is my mind that has been healed.  Suffering and pain are never truly of the body; they are of the mind and the choice of the mind.  We would not live this way.  Let us turn to You with our pain and suffering, and wait, only a brief time, to see our attitude change.  The attitude toward pain and suffering is what is amiss.

What of the pain that may be physical?  It is still the mind that must be healed.  We must open ourselves to You and Your healing, and accept that it is ourselves that have chosen the pain–for whatever insane reason.  May we adopt the love in our attitude that will assuage any and all suffering.  Thank You for helping me to do this, and to do this today.

Amen.