A Course in Miracles: Lesson 347

Lesson 347

Anger must come from judgment.  Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, To keep the miracle away from me.

“Father, I want what goes against my will, and do not want what is my will to have.  Straighten my mind, my Father.  It is sick.  But You have offered freedom, and I choose to claim Your gift today.  And so I give all judgment to the One You gave to me to judge for me.  He sees what I behold, and yet He knows the truth.  He looks on pain, and yet He understands it is not real, and in His understanding it is healed.  He gives the miracles my dreams would hide from my awareness.  Let Him judge today.  I do not know my own will, but He is sure it is Your Own.  And He will speak for me, and call Your miracles to come to me” (ACIM Lesson 347 1:1-11)

Think of the speed in which you live your life.  In what areas are you quick?  Slow?  This is not a question of judgment but rather one of internal inquiry, as I am certain we could all tweak the areas in which we move rapidly in the world, in particular in our mental and heart processes.  We are often quick to react and slow to love, while the Will of God is the reverse:  slow to anger, slow to judge, and quick to forgive, quick to love.  Today, this is where we ask our Holy Mother to straighten our minds and ask Her to show us where we are still holding onto our own agenda and will.  Where are we still using judgment to attack ourselves, keeping away the truth of miracles?

“Listen today.  Be very still, and hear the gently Voice for God assuring you that He has judged you as the Son He loves” (ACIM Lesson 347 2:1-2).

Let us reflect for a moment on the difference between discernment and judgment.  Discernment serves a purpose while judgment does no good but to increase the capacity for anger and guilt.  Discernment is also abiding in sense of knowing, while judgment is pure uncertainty, thinking we must be control and flex our own will in order to find peace in an illusory world.  Yet, has peace ever come by the force of your own will?  True peace is found in the law of love, which is absent of any need to separate and judge, for how can one judge what is already perfect and whole.  In perfection, there is nothing to critique or appraise.

Luckily while we have played the game of judge and jury (leading to our own fury) our heavenly Mother has been guarding our Truth for the moment in which we were ready to let go of judgment and all its different shades:  anger, sadness, fear, guilt, etc.  She has patiently waited for the moment in our realization when we grew tired of our senseless will and woke up to the fact that there must be more.  And there is, a place where there is only love and no attack.  There is a beautiful song from the group, NEEDTOBREATHE, entitled, “More Heart, Less Attack,” that speaks wonderfully to the journey we are on today:  less attack on our innocence and more love towards this soul that has come to the be the Light of this human experience.  Every line of this song is appropriate to the prayer we say today as we release the will that we have used to attack ourselves, leaving us to embody more love and less attack.