Day 122: Forgiveness offers everything I want.

Below is the meditation which A Course in Miracles instructs us to remind ourselves every fifteen minutes throughout the day today:

Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Today I have accepted this as true.
Today I have received the gifts of God.

Here is an excerpt from the workbook further elaborating on today's lesson:

What could you want forgiveness cannot give?  Do you want peace?  Forgiveness offers it.  Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world?  Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always?  Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?

All this forgiveness offers you, and more.  It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day.  It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack.  And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace.  All this forgiveness offers you, and more.

As we all know, forgiveness does not always come easily.  This is because we have become accustomed to seeing ourselves as separate from each other.  In doing so, we have lashed out and perceived ourselves as victims of attack.  The world has drawn itself as a cruel place, full of monsters to be avoided and tragedies to be suffered.  But this does not have to be so.  In Reality, it isn't, for we never were nor ever will be separate from one another.

To attain forgiveness, we must travel through the darkness we have constructed.  Once we know the Truth of our being, this becomes easier.  We know then that we are not alone, and that the helping Hand of God is there to guide us through the shadows.  The act of forgiving is to See past the darkness, and to allow the Light hidden within to shine through and bless us with its presence.  Remember, the purpose of forgiving is for giving: We give love and joy and peace to the person or situation we perceive as attacking; and as giving and receiving are one and the same, we will receive back the love and joy and peace we give.  The process of doing so is to bring Light unto the darkness; and as all shadows disappear in the presence of light, so will our dark illusions be vanquished in the presence of forgiveness.

Indeed, what more could we want than for our world to be rid of the terrible things which now seem to inhabit it?  Forgiveness guarantees this.  Once forgiveness has been offered, a pearl of Peace awaits to take its place.  In time, forgiveness will no longer be necessary, for none living on this world will then regard themselves as separate.  It is then that we will have achieved our Salvation.  It is then that only our creations of Love, Joy and Peace will reign the earth, right alongside us, God's own creations of the same, eternally expanding and extending the Holy Light within us all.  Forgiveness is the path which leads us to that Blessed Place.

Let us remember this as we go about our day today, and for all the days to come.  Let us not forget that we are never alone, and though in the presence of fear and attack we may be accustomed to react in a separatist frame of mind, let us instead hold our hand firmly to the Hand of God and move through the darkness to perceive the Pure and Innocent Light within.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman