Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind.
Here is the thought of true humility which holds no function as your own but
that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to
you, without insisting on another role. It does not judge your proper role. It
but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. It unites
all wills on earth in Heaven's plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven's
peace.
Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The
means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are
asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with
self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do we have the
strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us
by One Who knows us well.
Today's idea may seem quite sobering until you see its meaning. All it says is
that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He holds
in you who are His Son. It does not ask that you be different in any way from
what you are. What could humility request but this? And what could arrogance
deny but this? Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the Call of God Himself.
All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God's Voice
reveal to us what He would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the
function He will offer us. We will be certain only that He knows our strengths,
our wisdom and our holiness. And if He deems us worthy, so we are. It is but
arrogance that judges otherwise.
There is one way, and only one, to be released from the imprisonment your plan
to prove the false is true has brought to you. Accept the plan you did not make
instead. Judge not your value to it. If God's Voice assures you that salvation
needs your part, and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. The
arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice Which tells them what they are
and what to do.
Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image which
quails and retreats in terror as the Voice for God assures you that you have the
strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go beyond all images. You are not weak,
as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless. Sin can not
tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.
All this the Voice for God relates to you. And as He speaks, the image trembles
and seeks to attack the threat it does not know; sensing its basis crumble. Let
it go. Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of
dust. What can it tell the holy Son of God? Why need he be concerned with it at
all?
And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all
illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our
self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic
bliss of loved and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome
or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.
Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call it Son? He Who
is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son
appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like
wind swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again,
and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.
These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene
when you accept the function given you. The images you make give rise to but
conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be
constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward
goals like these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that
they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest
on goals like this?
In lovely contrast, certain as the sun's return each morning to dispel the
night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. There
is no doubt of its validity. It comes from One Who knows no error. And His Voice
is certain of Its messages. They will not change and nor be in conflict. All of
them point to one goal, and one you can attain. Your plan may be impossible, but
God's can never fail because He is its Source.
Do as His Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you that seems impossible,
remember Who it is that asks and who would make denial. Then consider this;
which is more likely to be right? The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all
things Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of
yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything? Let not
its voice direct you. Hear instead a certain Voice Which tells you of a function
given you by your Creator, Who remembers you and urges that you now remember
Him.
His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort
you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution though He is
complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He
has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them
not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most
useful in a world of form.
These are the forms which never can deceive, although they come from
Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love which as it is in
Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In
this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean
to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of
the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here.
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