Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Lesson 342: “What is a Miracle?” “I let forgiveness rest upon all things. For thus will forgiveness be given me.”
The Course’s most important teaching is the demonstration of what forgiveness is. We often in the world have such a harsh view of how to give and receive forgiveness. The ego is largely into making us feel guilty when we do something that is perceived as an error. We then feel like we need to endure some major punishment in response to our faulty behavior. Then our guilt gets accentuated because we have had faulty learning that forgiveness concludes in an act of making our error real. When we believe that our error was anything that needs to be apologized for then we actually make the issue of making a mistake in the first place bigger instead of negating it from our memory and mind state.
Forgiveness in the world’s view seems quite far from a gentle thing. We can’t imagine forgiveness resting on anything. The world’s forgiveness is more like a sharp knife. It feels like when it is delivered there is a great chance we will get injured or even killed simply in the accepting of it. Forgiveness seems far from something we would invite to rest with us. We think it is harsh always because we learn from the world that forgiveness always comes with a high price. Sometimes we even imagine that forgiveness comes only at the cost of our lives. We think we have to sacrifice our backs to lashings or we won’t get the outcome of our forgiveness. We see instead the world’s insanity. The world is a place of cruel ego tricks that leave us out of touch with anything calm and comfortable and easy. We always think forgiveness of the gentle sort is out of our reach.
The Course says that forgiveness is always gentle in God’s world. Forgiveness comes with no ulterior agendas. Forgiveness comes rather with a grateful heart that we have in giving it and receiving it. We don’t make forgiveness into some behavior that is something we will regret and try to stave off. Forgiveness in God’s way is the kind, gentle way we accept each other with open minds and open hands. Forgiveness is the thing that we give plenty to others and we always save plenty for ourselves since forgiveness is the happy reality of being abundant.
When we give forgiveness of God’s style then we want to allow this energy to swell up within our minds, let this be a happy experience of sharing in with all because then we feel it fully and also give it to ourselves as well. When we live by God’s rules, we know that forgiveness is boundless and we can share it with everyone. This is why we are invited to make sure that we make forgiveness giving the only priority in the world as this is the way to join fully in the purpose of God in the world.