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ACIM Workbook - Lesson 166 (view source)
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<center>'''I am entrusted with the gifts of God.'''</center>
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
All things are given you. God's trust in you is limitless. He knows His Son.
He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to
your happiness. And yet, unless your will is one with His, His gifts are not
received. But what would make you think there is another will than His?
Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is
not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must
still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from
those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world
and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators;
or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.
The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange
beliefs. He must believe that to accept God's gifts, however evident they
may become, however urgently he may be called to claim them as his own,
is to be pressed to treachery against himself. He must deny their presence,
contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made.
Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only safety he
believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he an outcast;
homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed,
and homeless, too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he
does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and
even who he really is.
Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God's gifts go with him, all
unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given
him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere,
perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still
he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a
treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before
its magnitude.
He seems a sorry figure; weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet
that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No one but has identified
with him, for everyone who comes here has pursued the path he follows,
and has felt defeat and hopelessness as he is feeling them. Yet is he really
tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but
realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?
This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This
is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all
the witnesses with proof to show this is not you. You heed them not. You
go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down lest you might catch a
glimpse of truth, and be released from self-deception and set free.
You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ's touch upon your shoulder,
and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How
could you then proclaim your poverty in exile? He would make you laugh at
this perception of yourself. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of
all the tragedy you sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?
Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has caught up with
you at last. Christ's hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel that you
are not alone. You even think the miserable self you thought was you may
not be your Identity. Perhaps God's Word is truer than your own. Perhaps
His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He has not wholly been outwitted by your
plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion, and go the way you chose without
your Self.
God's Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned
in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His
Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an
Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no
more of anything but this.
Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered,
and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which
perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you Who
gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply, "It is not so." He
points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses
you, and speaks of His Companionship when you perceive yourself as
lonely and afraid.
Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten. For His touch
on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have are not for you alone.
What He has come to offer you, you now must learn to give. This is the
lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved you from the solitude you
sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded you of all the
gifts that God has given you. He speaks as well of what becomes your will
when you accept these gifts, and recognize they are your own.
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who chose the
lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their
wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ there
is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the
happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize
God's gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.
Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their
release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick, you but withhold their healing.
What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Your hand becomes
the giver of Christ's touch; your change of mind becomes the proof that who
accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with the
world's release from pain.
Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ's touch can offer
everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness in your
happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept
His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your mission now. For God
entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared
His joy with you. And now you go to share it with the world.
[[Category: Workbook I]]
<center>'''I am entrusted with the gifts of God.'''</center>
I am entrusted with the gifts of God.
All things are given you. God's trust in you is limitless. He knows His Son.
He gives without exception, holding nothing back that can contribute to
your happiness. And yet, unless your will is one with His, His gifts are not
received. But what would make you think there is another will than His?
Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is
not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must
still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from
those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world
and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators;
or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.
The gifts of God are not acceptable to anyone who holds such strange
beliefs. He must believe that to accept God's gifts, however evident they
may become, however urgently he may be called to claim them as his own,
is to be pressed to treachery against himself. He must deny their presence,
contradict the truth, and suffer to preserve the world he made.
Here is the only home he thinks he knows. Here is the only safety he
believes that he can find. Without the world he made is he an outcast;
homeless and afraid. He does not realize that it is here he is afraid indeed,
and homeless, too; an outcast wandering so far from home, so long away, he
does not realize he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and
even who he really is.
Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God's gifts go with him, all
unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given
him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere,
perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still
he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a
treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before
its magnitude.
He seems a sorry figure; weary, worn, in threadbare clothing, and with feet
that bleed a little from the rocky road he walks. No one but has identified
with him, for everyone who comes here has pursued the path he follows,
and has felt defeat and hopelessness as he is feeling them. Yet is he really
tragic, when you see that he is following the way he chose, and need but
realize Who walks with him and open up his treasures to be free?
This is your chosen self, the one you made as a replacement for reality. This
is the self you savagely defend against all reason, every evidence, and all
the witnesses with proof to show this is not you. You heed them not. You
go on your appointed way, with eyes cast down lest you might catch a
glimpse of truth, and be released from self-deception and set free.
You cower fearfully lest you should feel Christ's touch upon your shoulder,
and perceive His gentle hand directing you to look upon your gifts. How
could you then proclaim your poverty in exile? He would make you laugh at
this perception of yourself. Where is self-pity then? And what becomes of
all the tragedy you sought to make for him whom God intended only joy?
Your ancient fear has come upon you now, and justice has caught up with
you at last. Christ's hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel that you
are not alone. You even think the miserable self you thought was you may
not be your Identity. Perhaps God's Word is truer than your own. Perhaps
His gifts to you are real. Perhaps He has not wholly been outwitted by your
plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion, and go the way you chose without
your Self.
God's Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned
in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His
Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an
Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no
more of anything but this.
Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered,
and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which
perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you Who
gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply, "It is not so." He
points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses
you, and speaks of His Companionship when you perceive yourself as
lonely and afraid.
Yet He reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten. For His touch
on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have are not for you alone.
What He has come to offer you, you now must learn to give. This is the
lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved you from the solitude you
sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded you of all the
gifts that God has given you. He speaks as well of what becomes your will
when you accept these gifts, and recognize they are your own.
The gifts are yours, entrusted to your care, to give to all who chose the
lonely road you have escaped. They do not understand they but pursue their
wishes. It is you who teach them now. For you have learned of Christ there
is another way for them to walk. Teach them by showing them the
happiness that comes to those who feel the touch of Christ, and recognize
God's gifts. Let sorrow not tempt you to be unfaithful to your trust.
Your sighs will now betray the hopes of those who look to you for their
release. Your tears are theirs. If you are sick, you but withhold their healing.
What you fear but teaches them their fears are justified. Your hand becomes
the giver of Christ's touch; your change of mind becomes the proof that who
accepts God's gifts can never suffer anything. You are entrusted with the
world's release from pain.
Betray it not. Become the living proof of what Christ's touch can offer
everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness in your
happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept
His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your mission now. For God
entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared
His joy with you. And now you go to share it with the world.
[[Category: Workbook I]]