Lesson 314. I seek a future different from the past.
|
Lesson 314. I seek a future different from the past.
From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the
past. The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. Past
mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its
images, and being formless, it has no effects. Death will not claim the future
now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided.
Who can grieve or suffer when the present has been freed, extending its security
and peace into a quiet future filled with joy?
Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free.
Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past mistakes, and
sure that You will keep Your present promises, and guide the future in their
holy light.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, is from Kenneth Wapnick's commentaries on this lesson, from "Journey
Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can be purchased at the
following site:??~ M. Street.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson 314. "I seek a future different from the past."
*This is the last of the series on the ego and its undoing. The emphasis here is
on our future expectations. To the ego, a sinful past results in a guilty
present and inevitable punishment in the future. To seek a future different from
the past means to see the future as the extension of God's timeless Love, which
means there is no future. Lesson 194 taught that placing the future in God's
Hands corrects the ego's belief that in them we will be destroyed because of our
sins. This lesson helps us undo that strange ego concept.*
(1:1) "From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from
the past."
*Once we choose the new perception (Lesson 313), we look at everything
differently -- from the perspective of timelessness extended into the dream of
time. In Lesson 184, Jesus spoke of our need to use the world's symbols, but
without regarding them as real. Thus we use time's symbols, yet knowing our
reality is outside them.*
(1:2-3) "The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. Past
mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its
images, and being formless, it has no effects."
*Love exists only in the present, with the future now being its right-minded
extension. Outside the dream, we realize this extension is not a linear event,
as were our past mistakes that cast a shadow on a future that held our
punishment. In the holy instant there is no past or future -- only the Love of
God. Thus everything that seemed to come from fear has disappeared into its own
nothingness.*
(1:4-5) "Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all
the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer when the present
has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with
joy?"
*The end of death is the end of the ego, along with its thought system of pain
and misery.*
(2:1) "Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be
free."
*This idea of our mistakenness is implicit throughout A Course in Miracles, but
here Jesus is explicit in asking us to admit we were wrong, not because God
wants to lord it over us, but simply because being "right" has not resulted in
our happiness. We want to reach the point where we can sincerely say we are glad
and grateful we were mistaken.*
(2:2) "Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past
mistakes, and sure that You will keep Your present promises, and guide the
future in their holy light."
*Once again, placing the future in God's Hands has nothing to do with giving Him
our future. We simply correct the mistake of having given our future to the
ego's god which we did to avoid the punishment that would prove our sin and
demonstrate our existence. The body may not survive death, but the thought
system of individuality remains alive and well in the mind. That is why Jesus
speaks of undoing the mind's thought system in which sin, guilt, and fear are
reflected in our worldly state of past, present, and future. Thus are God's
<present> promises kept.*
Love and Blessings,
Lyn Johnson 719-369-1822
|
