Lesson 186
Salvation of the world depends on me.
1. Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. ²Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. ³It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. ⁴It does not judge your proper role. ⁵It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. ⁶It unites all wills on earth in Heaven’s plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven’s peace.
2. Let us not fight our function. ²We did not establish it. ³It is not our idea. ⁴The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. ⁵All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. ⁶What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. ⁷Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.
3. Today’s idea may seem quite sobering, until you see its meaning. ²All it says is that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He holds in you who are His Son. ³It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. ⁴What could humility request but this? ⁵And what could arrogance deny but this? ⁶Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. ⁷It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.
4. All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God’s Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. ²We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. ³We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. ⁴And if He deems us worthy, so we are. ⁵It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.
5. 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. ²Accept the plan you did not make instead. ³Judge not your value to it. ⁴If God’s Voice assures you that salvation needs your part, and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. ⁵The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. ⁶Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do.
6. Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. ²It 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. ³You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. ⁴You are not ignorant and helpless. ⁵Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.
7. All this the Voice for God relates to you. ²And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basis crumble. ³Let it go. ⁴Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of dust. ⁵What can it tell the holy Son of God? ⁶Why need he be concerned with it at all?
8. And so we find our peace. ²We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. ³Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. ⁴We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. ⁵Our 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.
9. Is this the Son of God? ²Could He create such instability and call it Son? ³He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. ⁴All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. ⁵They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. ⁶Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.
10. These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. ²The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. ³Who could be constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? ⁴The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. ⁵What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?
11. In lovely contrast, certain as the sun’s return each morning to dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. ²There is no doubt of its validity. ³It comes from One Who knows no error, and His Voice is certain of Its messages. ⁴They will not change, nor be in conflict. ⁵All of them point to one goal, and one you can attain. ⁶Your plan may be impossible, but God’s can never fail because He is its Source.
12. Do as God’s Voice directs. ²And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. ³Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? ⁴The 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? ⁵Let not its voice direct you. ⁶Hear 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.
13. His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. ²He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. ³He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. ⁴He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. ⁵For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.
14. These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. ²Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. ³Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. ⁴In 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. ⁵Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. ⁶Such is your function here.
https://acim.org/acim/lesson-186/salvation-of-the-world-depends-on-me/en/s/594