LESSON 64
Let me not forget my function.
Today's idea is merely another way of saying "Let me not wander into temptation." The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. It is the temptation to abandon God and His Son by taking on a physical appearance. It is this the body's eyes look upon.
Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.
To review our last few lessons, your function here is to be the light of the world, a function given you by God. It is only the arrogance of the ego that leads you to question this, and only the fear of the ego that induces you to regard yourself as unworthy of the task assigned to you by God Himself. The world's salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does the Son of God escape from all illusions, and thus from all temptation. The Son of God is you.
Only by fulfilling the function given you by God will you be happy. That is because your function is to be happy by using the means by which happiness becomes inevitable. There is no other way. Therefore, every time you choose whether or not to fulfill your function, you are really choosing whether or not to be happy.
Let us remember this today. Let us remind ourselves of it in the morning and again at night, and all through the day as well. Prepare yourself in advance for all the decisions you will make today by remembering they are all really very simple. Each one will lead to happiness or unhappiness. Can such a simple decision really be difficult to make? Let not the form of the decision deceive you. Complexity of form does not imply complexity of content. It is impossible that any decision on earth can have a content different from just this one simple choice. That is the only choice the Holy Spirit sees. 10 Therefore it is the only choice there is.
Today, then, let us practice with these thoughts:
Let me not forget my function.
Let me not try to substitute mine for God's.
Let me forgive and be happy.
At least once devote ten or fifteen minutes today to reflecting on this with closed eyes. Related thoughts will come to help you, if you remember the crucial importance of your function to you and to the world.
In the frequent applications of today's idea throughout the day, devote several minutes to reviewing these thoughts, and then thinking about them and about nothing else. This will be difficult, at first particularly, since you are not proficient in the mind discipline that it requires. You may need to repeat "Let me not forget my function" quite often to help you concentrate.
Two forms of shorter practice periods are required. At times, do the exercises with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the thoughts you are using. At other times, keep your eyes open after reviewing the thoughts, and then look slowly and unselectively around you, telling yourself:
This is the world it is my function to save.
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Lesson 64
“Let me not forget my function.”
The physical world is the ego’s attempt to replace God. When I make the physical world real, I am joining with the ego’s thought system and making separation real. As I am willing to let the Holy Spirit move my focus from the physical to the spiritual, I am led to see the Love that lies beyond the physical. The Holy Spirit helps me open to my true nature as Love. As Love, my only function is to extend the Love I am. Love sees past illusions, to Love. It is always my choice to focus on the physical, which is the barrier to love, or let the Holy Spirit help me see the truth.
Love is universal. Love is all. When I remember Love, I am happy. When I forget about Love, I am forgetting about my Self, and this brings unhappiness. Let me remember my function here and be happy. I am willing to practice today.
As a creation of Love, my function is to extend Love. In this world, forgiveness removes the barriers to Love’s extension. Love does not need encouragement to extend itself. Love extends naturally because that’s what Love is. But the forms of this world were made to stand as a barrier to Love’s extension, to make separation appear to be real. Thus the equivalent in this world to Creation in Heaven is forgiveness. Forgiveness removes the barrier so that Love can extend naturally.
Because I was created as Love, the only thing that will make me happy is to extend Love. This is why forgiveness brings me happiness. Forgiveness removes the barrier to happiness. Every time I insist that my perception, based on what my body’s eyes show me is correct, I am resisting my happiness. Since salvation is happiness, forgiveness lets me save the world. Forgiveness lets me bring happiness to the world.
I need the Holy Spirit to help me shift from the physical perception of the body’s eyes to the spiritual perception that shows me my unity with all things. I dedicate this day to receiving Holy Spirit’s vision that I may see and accept my unity with all. This is where I will find lasting happiness.
I’ve come to understand that in any moment that I am unhappy, it is because I am placing blame outside myself or inside myself, which are truly the same. Blame is judgment. It is a statement that implies I don’t have a choice to be free and consequently happy. It is a statement that says someone or something else dictates whether or not I can be in joy. It is so challenging with limited vision to sincerely know that I am invulnerable. But the important key to happiness is that, until I allow myself to accept that it’s my choices that render me happy or unhappy, and not someone else’s, will I actually know the Holy Spirit and the joy that comes in that relationship.
The illusion is a maze, and the walls within it stand tall. I want a loving Guide. I don’t want to be alone, struggling to find my way out. It’s impossible for me to do so alone, simply because that’s not my job. I delight in the joy of sharing my journey Home with Holy Spirit. I delight in the joy of each moment that I come to know more of Who and What I really am.
My function is ever present in my mind. I cannot be without it for it was given me by God. My function is to forgive. I must start with me. I make the world I see. This is the world I am to save. I give meanings to all I see that I often think are real. When I am thinking separation thoughts, I am in the world of insanity. In my insanity, I attack myself mercilessly for imagined faults and slights, for imagined unworthiness and harms, for imagining myself human with human imperfections. When I cannot practice my spiritual perfection in humanly perfect ways, my ego in its insanity attacks me. There are no human perfect ways. I remember to say this, but often the ego obscures the function of forgiveness by setting standards that are insanely impossible. Why? To bring on guilt, fear, shame - the ego's game.
Today, I take this body image to the Light. I take this ego mind to the Light. I rest in the awareness that I am doing the best I can. Everyone is doing the best they can. I forgive myself for being afraid as God forgives me for being afraid in the insanity I have made. With Holy Spirit's help, I come to see fear as the trick it is to keep me from experiencing my glory.
I am willing to be gentle with myself today. I am willing God's gentle grace be present to heal my wounds of insane attack. Holy Spirit pours healing balm of love and comfort that restores me to my Self. Let me not forget today that my function is to allow this return to Love to happen in each moment of my existence. In this I find salvation, as does the world I see.
Holy Spirit, help me have the willingness to not forget my function or to not wander into temptation today. This lesson tells me that my body or physical appearance is a way of obscuring this function and provides justification for doing so. My Heavenly Father did not abandon me and has found another purpose for these illusions I've made and this lesson is an attempt to remind me not to substitute my function for God's.
When I truly dedicate myself to these lessons, my world starts gradually coming together exactly the way the Course dictates and my trust in God increases. I, too, pray for guidance out of this insane maze I've created and my concentration on these lessons do just that. Of course, the time I put into them is the results I get out of them.
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