Lesson 324. I merely follow, for I would not lead.
(1) Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return. Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go.
(2) So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. We walk together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home.
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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.
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Lesson 324. "I merely follow, for I would not lead."
This is the second appearance of this thought, and it will re-appear again shortly. Lesson 317 stated, "I follow in the way appointed me," and we shall soon see Lesson 328, "I choose the second place to gain the first." All three lessons present the same teaching -- our gratitude for not being in charge; for being second and not first. In other words, we are grateful we are the creation of God, not the Creator; the effect, not the Cause. The ego obviously wants to be number one, which means it has to push God off the throne of creation. Usurping God's role, the ego is left alone to proclaim itself as the Deity:
"God's creations are given their true Authorship, but you prefer to be anonymous when you choose to separate yourself from your Author. Being uncertain of your true Authorship, you believe that your creation was anonymous. This leaves you in a position where it sounds meaningful to believe that you created yourself." (T-3.VI.8:7-9)
At this point, then, there is nothing left but to follow the ego, until the pain becomes too great and we finally accept the fact we were mistaken. Moreover, we gladly realize there is Someone Whom we can now follow along the gentle path of forgiveness.
(1:1-4) "Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. I cannot lose the way. I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return."
This is our mistake, right at the beginning. Jesus says we can choose to wander off "a while," because from where he is -- outside time and space -- a billion years is nothing. As he says of God and Christ: "What is a hundred or a thousand years to Them, or tens of thousands?" (T-26.IX.4:1).
(1:5-7) "Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go."
We saw this idea expressed in Lesson 155, "I will step back and let Him lead the way." Truth is ahead of us, calling us out of the dream. As we follow truth's call, its memory in our minds calls to others through our peace, love, and kindness. Jesus makes the same point of the psychotherapist:
"The psychotherapist is a leader in the sense that he walks slightly ahead of the patient, and helps him to avoid a few of the pitfalls along the road by seeing them first. Ideally, he is also a follower, for One should walk ahead of him to give him light to see." (P-2.III.1:1-2)*
(2) "So let us follow One Who knows the way. We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. We walk together, for we follow Him. And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home."
Thus we walk with Jesus, along with all our brothers. The ego does not know the way, and to follow it <is> to walk alone, because its theme song is <one or the other>. Following the Holy Spirit, however, we walk with everyone, for we <are> everyone. The popular and inspiring song from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel says it all -- "You'll Never Walk Alone."
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11. What is Creation?
(1) Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God's Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.
(2) God's Thoughts are given all the power that their own Creator has. For He would add to love by its extension. Thus His Son shares in creation, and must therefore share in power to create. What God has willed to be forever One will still be One when time is over; and will not be changed throughout the course of time, remaining as it was before the thought of time began.
(3) Creation is the opposite of all illusions, for creation is the truth. Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete in every aspect, making every part container of the whole. Its oneness is forever guaranteed inviolate; forever held within His holy Will, beyond all possibility of harm, of separation, imperfection and of any spot upon its sinlessness.
(4) We are creation; we the Sons of God. We seem to be discrete, and unaware of our eternal unity with Him. Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For love remains with all its Thoughts, its sureness being theirs. God's memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator. Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God's Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as God created us.
(5) Our Father calls to us. We hear His Voice, and we forgive creation in the Name of its Creator, Holiness Itself, Whose Holiness His Own creation shares; Whose Holiness is still a part of us.
