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Lesson 139

I will accept Atonement for myself.

1. Here is the end of choice. ²For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. ³And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? ⁴There is no doubt that is not rooted here. ⁵There is no question but reflects this one. ⁶There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”

2. Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself? ²Only refusal to accept yourself could make the question seem to be sincere. ³The only thing that can be surely known by any living thing is what it is. ⁴From this one point of certainty, it looks on other things as certain as itself.

3. Uncertainty about what you must be is self-deception on a scale so vast, its magnitude can hardly be conceived. ²To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. ³For what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be alive instead? ⁴Who is the doubter? ⁵What is it he doubts? ⁶Whom does he question? ⁷Who can answer him?

4. He merely states that he is not himself, and therefore, being something else, becomes a questioner of what that something is. ²Yet he could never be alive at all unless he knew the answer. ³If he asks as if he does not know, it merely shows he does not want to be the thing he is. ⁴He has accepted it because he lives; has judged against it and denied its worth, and has decided that he does not know the only certainty by which he lives.

5. Thus he becomes uncertain of his life, for what it is has been denied by him. ²It is for this denial that you need Atonement. ³Your denial made no change in what you are. ⁴But you have split your mind into what knows and does not know the truth. ⁵You are yourself. ⁶There is no doubt of this. ⁷And yet you doubt it. ⁸But you do not ask what part of you can really doubt yourself. ⁹It cannot really be a part of you that asks this question. ¹⁰For it asks of one who knows the answer. ¹¹Were it part of you, then certainty would be impossible.

6. Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself, and be unsure of what you really are. ²This is the depth of madness. ³Yet it is the universal question of the world. ⁴What does this mean except the world is mad? ⁵Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true?

7. Nothing the world believes is true. ²It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. ³And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they learn it is impossible to doubt yourself, and not to be aware of what you are.

8. Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain. ²It is set forever in the holy Mind of God, and in your own. ³It is so far beyond all doubt and question that to ask what it must be is all the proof you need to show that you believe the contradiction that you know not what you cannot fail to know. ⁴Is this a question, or a statement which denies itself in statement? ⁵Let us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings such as this.

9. We have a mission here. ²We did not come to reinforce the madness that we once believed in. ³Let us not forget the goal that we accepted. ⁴It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. ⁵What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be, along with us. ⁶Fail not your brothers, or you fail yourself. ⁷Look lovingly on them, that they may know that they are part of you, and you of them.

10. This does Atonement teach, and demonstrates the Oneness of God’s Son is unassailed by his belief he knows not what he is. ²Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. ³It is but this that we are asked to do. ⁴It is but this that we will do today.

11. Five minutes in the morning and at night we will devote to dedicate our minds to our assignment for today. ²We start with this review of what our mission is:

³I will accept Atonement for myself, for I remain as God created me.

⁴We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. ⁵We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. ⁶And in our memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love contains them all.

12. In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His Oneness with all aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as we lay aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. ²For several minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy Son of God. ³And learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep the knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:

⁴I will accept Atonement for myself, for I remain as God created me.

(ACIM, W-139.1:1–12:4)

Posted in ACIM Lessons

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