A Course in Miracles.
Lesson 193.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
God does not know of learning.
Yet,
God's will extends to what he does not understand.
In that,
God wills the happiness his child inherited from him be undisturbed.
Happiness,
Eternal and forever gaining scope.
Happiness,
Eternally expanding in the joy of full creation.
Happiness,
Eternally open and wholly limitless in God.
Happiness,
That is his will.
And thus,
God's will provides the means to guarantee that his will be done.
God sees no contradiction,
Yet his child believes God does see contradiction.
Thus,
We have a need for one who can correct the error in our sight.
We have a need for one to give us vision that will lead us back to where perception theses.
God does not perceive at all.
Yet,
It is God who gives us the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of heaven shine upon us.
It is God who answers what we would contradict.
It is God who keeps our sinlessness forever safe.
These are the lessons God would have us learn.
His will reflects all lessons.
Our lessons reflect God's loving kindness to the child he loves.
Each lesson has a central thought,
The same thought in all of them,
A form alone is changed,
With different circumstances and events,
With different characters and different themes,
Apparent but not real.
All lessons are the same in fundamental content.
It is this.
Forgive,
And you will see this differently.
Say to yourself,
Repeat in your mind,
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
It is certain that all distress does not appear to be anything but unforgiveness.
Yet,
That is the content underneath the form.
It is this sameness which makes learning sure,
Because the lesson is so simple that it cannot be rejected in the end.
No one can hide forever from a truth so very obvious that it appears in countless forms.
And yet,
This lesson can be recognized easily,
In all forms,
If one but wants to see the simple lesson there.
Forgive,
And you will see this differently.
These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all our tribulation,
All our pain,
All suffering,
Regardless of its form.
Forgive,
And you will see this differently.
These are the words with which temptation ends,
And guilt,
Abandoned,
Is revered no more.
Forgive,
And you will see this differently.
These are the words which end the dream of sin.
These are the words that rid the mind of fear.
These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.
Forgive,
And you will see this differently.
Shall we not learn to say these words when we are tempted to believe that pain is real,
When death becomes our choice instead of life?
Shall we not learn to say these words when we have understood their power to release all minds from bondage?
Let's practice.
Say in your mind,
Say after me,
When I forgive,
I will see all events differently.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
When I forgive,
I will see all events differently.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
These are the words which give you power over all events that seem to have been given power over you.
You see all events rightly when you hold these words in full awareness,
When you do not forget that these words apply to everything you see,
Or any brother or sister you look upon incorrectly.
How can you tell when you are seeing wrong?
How can you tell when someone else is failing to perceive the lesson they should learn?
Does pain seem real?
If it does,
Be sure the lesson is not learned.
The lesson is not learned if there remains unforgiveness hiding in the mind that sees the pain through the eyes the mind directs.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
When I forgive,
I will see this event differently.
God would not have us suffer.
He would help us forgive ourselves.
We,
God's children,
Do not remember who we are.
God would have us not forget His love and all the gifts His love brings with it.
Would you now renounce your own salvation?
Would you fail to learn the simple lesson Heaven's teacher sets before you?
That all pain may disappear and God may be remembered by His child.
All things are lessons God would have us learn.
He would not leave an unforgiving thought without correction.
God would not let one thorn or one nail hurt His holy child in any way.
God would ensure our holy rest remain untroubled and serene without a care in an eternal home which cares for us.
And God would have all tears be wiped away with no tears remaining unshed and no tears but waiting their appointed time to fall.
For God has willed that laughter should replace each tear and that His child be free again.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
When I forgive,
I will see all things differently.
We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day.
Let mercy come to you more quickly.
Do not try to hold it off.
Another day,
Another minute,
Or another instant.
Time was made for this.
Use it today for what its purpose is.
Morning and night,
Devote as much time as you can to serve its proper aim.
Do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need.
Give all the time you can,
Then give a little more.
Now we would arise in haste and go into our Father's house.
We have been gone too long and we would linger here no more.
As we practice,
Let's think about all the things we say to settle by ourselves and kept apart from healing.
Let's give all these things we say to our higher self.
Our higher self knows the way to look upon them so that they will disappear.
Do this now.
Identify the things you say to settle without forgiveness.
I'll be silent.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
When I forgive,
I will see all things differently.
What things have you said to settle without forgiveness?
Identify them now.
What have you identified that you have said to settle without forgiveness?
Truth is the message of our higher self.
Truth is our higher self's teaching.
The lessons of our higher self are the lessons God would have us learn.
Each hour,
Spend a little time today and in the days to come practicing the lesson in forgiveness in the form established for the day.
Try to apply the lesson to the happenings the hour brought so that the next lesson is free of the previous lesson.
The chains of time are easily unloosed in this way.
Let no one hour cast its shadow on the one that follows.
When that hour goes,
Let everything that happened in its course go with it.
Thus,
You remain unbound.
You remain in peace,
Eternal,
In the world of time.
This is the lesson God would have you learn.
There is a way to look on everything that lets it be to you another step to God,
Another step to the salvation of the world.
To all that speaks of terror,
Say to yourself and answer thus,
I will forgive and this will disappear.
I will forgive and this will disappear.
To every apprehension,
To every care,
To every form of suffering,
Repeat these selfsame words,
I will forgive and this will disappear.
Repeat these words and you hold the key that opens heaven's gate.
These words bring the love of God,
The Father,
Down to earth at last to raise earth up to heaven.
God will take this final step himself.
The little steps God asks you to take to him.
All things are lessons God would have me learn.
I will forgive and this will disappear.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
