Part 1

Undoing the Way We See Things Now

Lesson 86

These ideas are for review today:

1. (71) Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

     It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen it in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was not there. I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what it is. I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God’s plan for salvation will work. And I will rejoice because His plan can never fail.

2. These are some suggested forms for applying this idea specifically:

God’s plan for salvation will save me in this.

This is no exception in God’s plan for my salvation.

Let me perceive this only in the light of “God’s plan for salvation.

3. (72) Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.

     Holding grievances is an attempt to prove that God’s plan for salvation will not work. Yet only His plan will work. By holding grievances, I am therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness. I would no longer defeat my own best interests in this insane way. I would accept God’s plan for salvation and be happy.

4. Specific applications might be in these forms:

I am choosing between misperception and salvation as I look on this.

If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for my salvation.

This calls for salvation, not attack.^[1]

[1] A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.

Personal Notes:

Today I would like to share (with permission) the personal applications for these two reviews from my study partner and author Eckie at www.eckiefriar.com. I felt they were so in depth and illuminating of today’s review ideas. Hope they will bring more light to these reviews for you as they did for me.

[15 minutes of meditating upon and writing the thoughts and ideas that come from Lesson 71:

Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

I have tried to find salvation in a lot of different things throughout my life, but I have found that only God’s plan of salvation will work.  I have tried to find my salvation through reading books.  I did not find salvation there.  I have tried to find salvation through getting an education.  I did not find salvation there.  I have tried to find salvation through relationships, and I did not find salvation there.  I have tried to find salvation through separation, and I did not find salvation there.  I have tried to find salvation through many different means.  Through money, through good food, through travel, through comforts and friends and when they did not bring me salvation, I tried to find salvation by tossing them to the side – friends, possessions, clothes, cars.  When travel did not bring me salvation, I stayed home.  Staying home did not bring me salvation, so I went back to school and finished my degree.  When that did not bring me salvation, I went back to work.  When that did not bring me salvation, I went and got a master’s degree.  When that didn’t bring me salvation, I joined clubs.  When that didn’t bring me salvation, I started to do workshops and programs and when that didn’t bring me salvation, I quit my job.  When quitting my job didn’t bring me salvation, I started, finally, to get serious about finding my salvation.  I started to study the Course.  I started to get right with God.  I started to realize that God’s plan for salvation is the only one – only God’s plan for salvation will bring me lasting joy and meaning and happiness.  Only God’s plan for salvation will work. 

God’s plan for salvation will save me from the ego’s perception of ????  God’s plan of salvation will give ??? and me real love and affection for one another.  God’s plan of salvation will offer forgiveness and forgetfulness and it-never-happened and heal our relationship.  God’s plan for salvation works.  Today when God told me to stop and see ???, I obeyed.  She was not home.  God’s plan of salvation works.  God will give me another opportunity to see ???? and give and receive from her salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ in us. 

There is no exception in God’s plan for my salvation.  I cannot hold on to any grievances in God’s plan for my salvation.  It doesn’t matter what someone said or what they did.  It doesn’t matter if they slandered me or beat me or left me for dead.  I must always let grievances go and let God’s plan of salvation shine its light in my mind.  Today I thought of ____ from work and how she ate that bag of nuts in front of me on our way home from grant-writing training in Reading.  She never offered me any and I had such a grudge toward her for her lack of good manners.  There is no exception in God’s plan for my salvation.  I cannot hold a grievance against ____ who has passed from this life into the next – let her enjoy her peanuts and let me always remember that nobody is obligated to offer me any of their nuts!  Let me have and be the Holy Spirit who shares only love and forgiveness with others.  Let me not be the voice for the attacker but let me be the Voice for God.  Let me be a holy spirit and not an unholy one that would hold grudges and bear ill will toward others.  I thought of how I held a grudge toward___ for “setting me up” at her friends’ art show, how she invited me to speak at her friend’s art show when it was clearly not about me or my book, and it made me look bad, as if I were trying to steal the limelight or something.  ___ had no ill-intent.  _____ only wanted me to share my book.  I will give the grudge no more energy and let it go. 

Now here is the thing about God’s plan for salvation.  When I am willing to let it go, it goes.  All the belief that fueled it is gone.  It may still seem to linger and bother me, but all I have to do is remind myself that I let that go.  That I must have perceived my sister ___ wrongly.  That she is loving and kind and good and never would hurt me intentionally or otherwise. 

God’s plan of salvation is the only one that works.  I can find all kinds of other things that will promise to fulfill me, but only God’s plan of salvation will save me.  Thank you, God.

Practice:

Lesson 72 Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.

15 minutes of meditative writing about this lesson:

As I wrote above, grievances toward my brothers and sisters is at attack on God’s plan for Salvation.  God created us to love one another and to live in peace and joy and love with one another.  There is no other way that eternity can be than an everlasting love and communion between the created beings.  Eternity would not be eternity if there was fighting and blaming and scarcity and blight.  When I bear accusations against others and say mean things about them, this is an attack on God, and I hurt and attack myself.  I want this to be very real to me.  This was made real to me when I worked at Transitions.  I would tell God about XXXXXXXX, projecting all my own seeming failings and shortcomings on to her because I was jealous of her, no doubt.  I felt superior to her and smarter than her and more worthy than her, and I wanted to see her topple off her wobbly throne and be found out for whom she really was.  But the funny thing was when I would go to God and tell on her, God would remind me how much He loved XXXXXXXX.  I could hardly believe it!  I was so taken aback.  Why would He love XXXXXXX like that and not listen to my case against her?   I realize now of course that my Father wants me to, calls me to, insists upon my loving and holding dear all my sisters.  My Father wants me to love my sisters and brothers in Christ no matter what their shortcomings and failures may be in my eyes, because when I build cases against others, I am building them against myself.  I am projecting all my own ill will to others and hiding from myself.  I have learned this about grievances.  Okay but oh they seem so justified dear Lord at times.  I remember thinking of them yesterday – my precious grievances.  Oh let me hold on to a few of them, I thought facetiously, making a joke.  This is just a little one.  Surely, I can hold a little grudge.  But of course there are no levels of grievances as there are no levels of miracles or much of anything else.  A grievance is a grievance.  I must let them all go and hold nobody accountable for their sins and crimes and failures and shortcomings or I am held accountable for mine.  And all of us are in the same boat.  When my brother sins, I sin and so it is a great privilege to be able to deny sin in my brother because when I deny his sin, I am denying my own.  When I stand for a brother, I am standing for myself.  When I cast a stone at a brother, I am casting one at myself.  This has been made so real to me that it fills me with a certain dread because I see the ones I love casting stones and oh I want them to stop.  Please help me to stop the casting of stones, O Most High in a most final and everlasting way.  Let me forgive the sinner so that my sins are forgiven.  Let me love my brothers and sisters and bear them no grudge.  Let me not build cases against but build cases for my brothers and sisters.  I ask for a deep and abiding understanding of this and for fine illustrations of this and so I know, dear Lord, so I know how to accept it for my own life and convey the joy of this relinquishment and salvation to others.  Oh Most High.  Let me love my brothers and sisters.  Let me not bear grievances. 

When I hold a grievance, I am trying to prove that God’s way doesn’t work.  I never want to do this!

When I hold a grievance, it darkens my awareness and excludes my only hope for salvation from it.  I am lost when I hold a grievance.  There is no grievance worth prolonging my time in the hellish realm. 

I will accept God’s plan for salvation and give up my grievances and forgive my enemies and make peace with those who have hurt me. 

I am choosing between misperception (they are my enemies) and salvation (they are my brothers and sisters) as I look on any situation.

If I see grounds for grievances in this, I will not see the grounds for my salvation.] 

I thank you for sharing with me today and I hope you enjoyed the excerpt from our fellow ACIM study brother in adding to light The Way, The Truth, The Life in Christ Jesus. Walk in Love my friend!

God is Love

Love is God

I choose Love