Today's idea is merely another way of saying, "Let me not wander into
temptation." The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of
forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. It is the
temptation to abandon God and His Son, taking on a physical appearance. It is
this which the body's eyes look upon.
Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation,
since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have learned that the Holy
Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He
sees another purpose in them. To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you
learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. In this perception,
the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of
salvation.
To review our last few lessons, your function here is to be the light of the
world, a function given you by God. It is only the arrogance of the ego that
leads you to question this, and only the fear of the ego that induces you to
regard yourself as unworthy of the task assigned to you by God Himself.
The world's salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does the Son
of God escape from all illusions and thus from all temptation. The Son of God is
you. Only by fulfilling the function given you by God will you be happy. That is
because your function is to be happy by using the means by which happiness becomes inevitable.
There is no other way. Therefore every time you choose whether or not to fulfill
your function, you are really choosing whether to be happy or not. Let us
remember this today. Let us remind ourselves of it in the morning and again at
night, and all through the day as well.
Prepare yourself in advance for all the decisions you will make today by
remembering that they are all really very simple. Each one will lead to
happiness or unhappiness. Can such a simple decision really be difficult to
make? Let not the form of the decision deceive you. Complexity of form does not
imply complexity of content. It is impossible that any decision on earth can
have a content different from just this one simple choice. That is the only
choice the Holy Spirit sees. Therefore it is the only choice there is.
Today, then, let us practice with these thoughts:
"Let me not forget my function."
"Let me not try to substitute mine for God's."
"Let me forgive and be happy."
At least once devote ten or fifteen minutes
to reflecting on this with closed eyes. Related thoughts will come to help you,
if you remember the crucial importance of your function to you and to the world.
In the frequent applications of today's idea to be made throughout the day,
devote several minutes to reviewing the thoughts, and then to thinking about
them and about nothing else. This will be difficult at first particularly, since
you are not proficient in the mind discipline which it requires. You may need to
repeat "Let me not forget my function" quite often, to help you concentrate.
Two forms of shorter practice periods are required. At times, do the exercises
with your eyes closed, trying to concentrate on the thoughts you are applying.
At other times keep your eyes open after reviewing the thoughts and look slowly
and unselectively about you, telling yourself:
"This is the world it is my function to
save."
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