Here is the end of choice. For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as
God created us. And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? There is
no doubt that is not rooted here. There is no question but reflects this one.
There is no conflict that does not entail the single simple question, "what am
I?"
Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself?
Only refusal to accept yourself could make the question seem to be sincere. The
only thing that can be surely known by any living thing is what it is. From this
one point of certainty it looks on other things as certain as itself.
Uncertainty about what you must be is self-deception on a scale so vast its
magnitude can hardly be conceived.
To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. For
what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be alive instead? Who
is the doubter? What is it he doubts? Whom does he question? Who can answer him?
He merely states that he is not himself and therefore, being something else,
becomes a questioner of what that something is.
Yet he could never be alive at all unless he knew the answer. If he asks as if
he did not know, it merely shows he does not want to be the thing he is. He has
accepted it because he lives; has judged against it and denied its worth; and
has decided that he does not know the only certainty by which he lives. Thus he
becomes uncertain of his life, for what it is has been denied by him.
It is for this denial that you need Atonement. Your denial made no change in
what you are. But you have split your mind into what knows and does not know the
truth. You are yourself. There is no doubt of this, and yet you doubt it. But
you do not ask what part of you can really doubt yourself. It cannot really be a
part of you that asks this question, for it asks of one who knows the answer.
Were it part of you, certainty would be impossible.
Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself and be
unsure of what you really are. This is the depth of madness. Yet it is the
universal question of the world. What does this prove except the world is mad?
Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true?
Nothing the world believes is true. It is a place whose purpose is to be a home
where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it
is they are.
And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they learn it
is impossible to doubt yourself and not to be aware of what you are. Only
acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain. It is set forever
in the holy Mind of God and in your own. It is so far beyond all doubt and question that to ask what it must be is all the proof you need to show that you believe the contradiction that you know
not what you cannot fail to know.
Is this a question or a statement which denies itself in statement? Let us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings such as this. We have a mission here. We did not come to reinforce the madness which we once believed in. Let us not forget the goal that we accepted. It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be along with us.
Fail not your brothers, or you fail yourself. Look lovingly on them that they
may know that they are part of you and you of them. This does Atonement teach,
and demonstrates the oneness of God's Son is unassailed by his belief he knows
not what he is. Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to
accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love
of God. It is but this that we are asked to do. It is but this that we will do
today.
Five minutes in the morning and at night we will devote to dedicate our minds to
our assignment for today. We start with this review of what our mission is:
"I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me."
We have not lost the knowledge that God
gave to us when He created us like Him. We can remember it for everyone, for in
creation are all minds as one, and in our memory is the recall how dear our
brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful
they have really been to us, and how our Father?s Love contains them all.
In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His Oneness with all
aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as
we lay aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. For several
minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world
would weave around the holy Son of God. And learn the fragile nature of the
chains that seem to keep the knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness, as
you say:
"I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me."
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