 We continue today with Chapter 24. The Forgiveness of Specialness Forgiveness is the end of specialness. Only illusions can be forgiven, and only then they disappear. Forgiveness is released from all illusions, and that is why it is impossible but partly to forgive. No one who clings to one illusion can see himself as sinless, for he holds one error to himself as lovely still, and so he calls it unforgivable and makes it sin. How can he then give his forgiveness holy when he would not receive it for himself? For it is sure he would receive it holy the instant that he gave it so, and thus his secret guilt would disappear, forgiven by himself. Whatever form of specialness you cherish, you have made sin. In violet it stands, strongly defended with all your puny might against the will of God, and thus it stands against yourself, your enemy, not God's. So does it seem to split you off from God and make you separate from him as its defender. You would protect what God created not, and yet this idol that seems to give you power has taken it away, for you have given your brother's birthright to it, leaving him alone and unforgiven, and yourself in sin beside him, both in misery before the idol that can save you not. It is not you who are so vulnerable and open to attack that just a word, a little whisper that you do not like, a circumstance that suits you not, or an event that you did not anticipate upset your world and hurls it into chaos. Truth is not frail, illusions leave it perfectly unmoved and undisturbed, but specialness is not the truth in you. It can be thrown off balance by anything. What rests on nothing never can be stable, however large and overblown it seems to be, it still must rock and turn and whirl about with every breeze. Without foundation, nothing is secure. Would God have left his son in such a state where safety has no meaning? No, his son is safe, resting on him. It is your specialness that is attacked by everything that walks and breathes or creeps or crawls or even lives at all. Nothing is safe from its attack, and it is safe from nothing. It will forevermore be unforgiving, for that is what it is, a secret vow that what God wants for you will never be, and that you will oppose his will forever. Nor is it possible the two can ever be the same, while specialness stands like a flaming sword of death between them and makes them enemies. God asks for your forgiveness. He would have no separation, like an alien will rise between what he wills for you and what you will. They are the same for neither one will's specialness. How could they will the death of love itself? Yet they are powerless to make attack upon illusions. They are not bodies, as one mind they wait for all illusions to be brought to them and left behind. Salvation challenges not even death. And God himself, who knows that death is not your will, must say, Thy will be done, because you think it is. Forgive the great Creator of the universe, the source of life, of love and holiness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son, for your illusions of your specialness. Here is the hell you chose to be your home. He chose not this for you. As not he entered this, the way is barred to love and to salvation. Yet if you would release your brother from the depths of hell, you have forgiven him whose will it is you rest forever in the arms of peace, in perfect safety and without the heat and malice of one thought of specialness to mar your rest. Forgive the Holy One, the specialness He could not give, and that you made instead. The special ones are all asleep, surrounded by a world of loveliness they do not see. Freedom and peace and joy stand there beside the butter on which they sleep and call them to come forth and awaken from their dream of death. Yet they hear nothing. They are lost in dreams of specialness. They hate the call that would awaken them, and they curse God because he did not make their dream reality. Curse God and die, but not by him who made not death, but only in the dream. Open your eyes a little, see the Savior God gave to you that you might look on him and give back to him his birthright. It is yours. The slaves of specialness will yet be free. Such is the will of God and of his son. Would God condemn himself to hell and to damnation? And do you will let this be done unto your Savior? God calls to you from him to join his will to save you both from hell. Look on the print of nails upon his hands that he holds out for your forgiveness. God asks for your mercy on his son and on himself. Deny them not. They ask of you, but that your will be done. They seek your love that you may love yourself. Love not your specialness instead of them. The print of nails is on your hands as well. Forgive your father. It was not his will that should be crucified. And from the workbook, Lesson 186. Salvation of the world depends on me. Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own, but that which has been given you. It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you without insisting on another role. It does not judge your proper role. It but acknowledges the will of God is done on earth as well as heaven. It unites all wills on earth in heaven's plan to save the world, restoring it to heaven's peace. Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility and not deny with self-deceding arrogance that we are worthy. What has given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by one who knows us well. Today's idea may seem quite sobering until you see its meaning. All it says is that your father still remembers you and offers you the perfect trust he holds in you who are his son. It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. What could humility request but this? And what could arrogance deny but this? Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. It is pride that would deny the call for God himself. All false humility we lay aside today that we may listen to God's voice reveal to us what he would have us do. We do not doubt our adequacy for the function he will offer us. We will be certain only that he knows our strength, our wisdom, and our holiness. And if he deems us worthy, so we are. It is but arrogance that judges otherwise. There is one way and only one to be released from the imprisonment your plan to prove the false is true has brought to you. Accept the plan you did not make instead. Just not your value to it. If God's voice assures you that salvation needs your part and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. The arrogant must cling to words afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. It are the humble free to hear the voice which tells them what they are and what to do. Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. It is this image which quails and retreats in terror as the voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom, and the holiness to go beyond all images. You are not weak as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless. Sin cannot tarnish the truth in you and misery can come not near the holy home of God. All this the voice for God relates to you. And as he speaks the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know sensing its basis crumbling. Let it go. Salvation of the world depends on you and not upon this little pile of dust. What can it tell the holy son of God? Why need he be concerned with it at all? And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting. They seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood. And our emotions raise us high indeed or dash us to the ground in hopelessness. Is this the son of God? Could he create such instability and call it son? He who is changeless shares his attributes with his creation. All the images his son appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like windswept leaves that form a patterning and instant break apart to group again and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert rising from the dust. These unsubstantial images will go and leave your mind unclouded and serene when you accept the function given you. The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. Who could be constant in his efforts or direct his energies and concentrated drive towards goals like these? The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. What hope of gain can rest on goals like this? In loving contrast, certain as the sun's return each morning to dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. There is no doubt of its validity. It comes from one who knows no error and his voice is certain of its messages. They will not change nor be in conflict. All of them point to one goal and one you can attain. Your plan may be impossible, but God's can never fail because he is its source. Do as God's voice directs. And if it asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember who it is that asks and who would make denial. Then consider this, which is more likely to be right, the voice that speaks for the creator of all things, who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of yourself, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of everything. Let not its voice direct you. Here instead a certain voice which tells you of a function given you by your creator who remembers you and urges that you now remember him. His gentle voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you although he knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution though he is complete, a gift to you although he knows that you have everything already. He has thoughts which answer every need his son perceives although he sees them not. For love must give and what is given in his name takes on the form most useful in a world of form. These are the forms which never can deceive because they come from formlessness itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love which as it is in heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here. Amen.