Salvation of the world depends on me.
Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. It does not judge your proper role. It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. It unites all wills on earth in Heaven's plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven's peace.
Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.
Today's idea may seem quite sobering, until you see its meaning. All it says is that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He holds in you who are His Son. It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. What could humility request but this? And what could arrogance deny but this? Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.
All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God's Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. And if He deems us worthy, so we are. It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.
There is one way, and only one, to be released from the imprisonment your plan to prove the false is true has brought to you. Accept the plan you did not make instead. Judge not your value to it. If God's Voice assures you that salvation needs your part, and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do.
Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image which quails and retreats in terror, as the Voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go beyond all images. You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless. Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.
All this the Voice for God relates to you. And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basis crumble. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of dust. What can it tell the holy Son of God? Why need he be concerned with it at all?
And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.
Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call it Son? He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.
These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?
In lovely contrast, certain as the sun's return each morning to dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who knows no error, and His Voice is certain of Its messages. They will not change, nor be in conflict. All of them point to one goal, and one you can attain. Your plan may be impossible, but God's can never fail because He is its Source.
Do as God's Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.
His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.
These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 186
"Salvation of the world depends on me."
A sentence that stands out to me is, "Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice Which tells them what they are and what to do... You are not weak as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless."
If I feel I am ignorant and helpless or weak, I am playing dumb. It is really arrogance to try to change what I really am. My true Self will guide me out of belief in weakness and limitation if I am willing to receive the help. That is my job today -- to be willing to receive the help.
As I open to the help of the Holy Spirit, I am led to receive God's gifts which are peace, love and joy. If I am anxious or sad or disgruntled, I am refusing to receive God's gifts. I would now let my mind quiet of all the ego's chatter and open up my mind to the Holy Spirit. I would rest in the peace that is there. I would receive the Holy Spirit's thoughts, which encourage me to lay ego thoughts down. The Light of God is all I am in truth. The Light of God is what everyone is in truth.
Am I willing to see the truth today? I will be able to tell by how much peace and happiness I feel. Forgiveness is my function here. Through forgiveness I am the salvation of the world.
I cannot know freedom until every thought of unforgiveness has been cleared from my mind. Unforgiveness turns me into a jailer and the jailer is always bound to the prisoner. Without the jailer the prisoner is free. And without the prisoner, the jailer is free. As I let go of condemnation, of refusal to accept God's gifts to me, I am released. I am free to be my Self as I was created.
Salvation could be defined as release from bondage. The world's release from bondage depends upon my releasing it. It is only my mistaken belief in made up images of isolation and independence from my Source that holds the world in isolation and and makes it a substitute for the eternal and all encompassing Love of God. Salvation is not about blame. It is about the recognition of where the source of bondage is and hence is the source of release. The limited images of the world is only in my mind and it can only be released in my mind.
The experiences I have had in which I completely forgave a perceived wrong brought me profound peace. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I felt lighter, happier. Love grew stronger in my heart. All this came from a change in my mind. Nothing external changed except my perception of it. This is why salvation of the world depends on me.
The ego would like to characterize this as a burden. But this statement brings me the recognition of the power of my mind to be healed and to heal. It is a declaration of independence from the ego and a recognition that my complete freedom lies in my total dependence on my unity with my Creator. The Holy Spirit celebrates with us each time we take another step toward freedom through forgiveness.
I think that the most important lines in this lesson are the last ones. "Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive." I think that if I remember what forgiveness really means (as opposed to the world's definition), and choose forgiveness at each opportunity, I wouldn't need anything else, not even the Course. The thing is, my resistance to forgiveness is strong. It is too late for me to pretend I don't know that forgiveness is and what is called for, so I complicate the simple and tell myself I can't figure out what's going on.
I did this when I read the first line of this lesson. My first thought was "Oh, poor world if it is depending on me to save it." I thought about all the little things I can't seem to do, all the mistakes I seem to make. Obviously Jesus expects that reaction because he goes on to encourage us and to answer those fears and objections. Still, as I read I kept thinking how impossible it all seems. How do I do this or that? What about all these other things? When I got to the last lines it was like a cool summer shower washing away the cobwebs of confusion. So simple.
I already know how to do this! I am just committing to giving this action priority in my life. I am accepting that it is, indeed, possible for me to forgive in every instance. Not only possible, but the reason I am here. My purpose. Not only that, it is a purpose I am assured of completing because it is a purpose God has blessed.
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