Lesson 122, Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Forgiveness happens when we do not perceive differences. This might be better said like this, forgiveness is seeing sameness or oneness. Corinthians, Chapter 2 says it even better. “To forgive is to look at a circumstance or event as a whole, without separate parts.” We make a judgement because we perceive an inequality between us and our brother. Typically this inequality looks like unfairness or selfishness. Appearances would say something unfair or unjust has occurred.
But there are times when we simply do not perceive these differences or at least we perceive them as having no real consequence. We all perceive this way, for example, when it comes to our kids. I was asking a man that I know what he did for Father’s Day. He and two of his grown children went out for dinner. Now the guy I know had to pay for the dinner. He bought his own Father’s Day dinner for himself and his two grown children and was just happy that they were there. We can overlook circumstances when it is our own children. When it is our own children we don’t see any unfairness or selfishness. It is okay because we love them. There isn’t a judgement that things should be different than they are. We are grateful for the love that is shared. We aren’t lamenting that we had to buy dinner. In our children, we see the face of Christ. We see the value of acceptance.
Today’s lesson says, “Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up which hides the Face of Christ. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that the remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind.”
With our children we don’t conjure up a list of reasons why our grown sons should have bought dinner, but didn’t. ACIM calls such thoughts, dead thoughts. Those are contracting thoughts. NTI Luke, Chapter 17 identifies them as thoughts to which you have applied meaning within your mind and says, “Without this meaning, you could not be hurt. [Therefore] you acknowledge that the meaning that hurt you is within [YOUR OWN] mind.
With our children we want that happy circumstance to be and, therefore, that is the way appearances play out in the mind. The fact that we make this choice with our children demonstrates our ability to make a similar choice in all times and in all circumstances.
We can do a simple exercise that will drive this point home. Write down everything you want, and then ask ‘why’ you want that. Look deeply at your wants until you discover what you truly want, beneath the surface wants. After you’ve done that, read today’s lesson again and consider if its true that ‘forgiveness offers everything you want,’ but consider what you truly want.
