Forgiveness and the Awareness of God
by Tom Baker
Lesson: Lessons 46 and 47 in the Workbook
Date: April 11, 2010
Tonight will be focused on the process of forgiveness as outlined in Lesson 46, God is the Love in which I forgive. Notice that we do not forgive of ourselves. It is not you or I alone forgiving. We are forgiving in the Love which is God. Just as a Christian prays through Jesus so the Course in Miracles student forgives in the Love which is God. Another way to think of this is to imagine seeing the person you are forgiving in God or through God or as God might see them. The lesson is very careful to note that I, the one forgiving, am also forgiven, blessed, not guilty, have already been forgiven by love. Notice that traditional Christianity has focused on being worthy of God's forgiveness. Here, there is no question of God's forgiveness: God's forgiveness is a given. Of course He forgives us! In Chapter 15, section VIII, p. 321 Jesus says that God does not even understand how love could be limited to the special relationship. This implies that God could not understand how love would not forgive. Despite the Old Testament where the image of God is obviously a projection of the ego consciousness, holding grudges or nursing grievances is totally foreign to the divine consciousness. When we make war on ourselves, another, or a people God is puzzled: "My dear child has temporarily lost his or her holy bearings" or words to that effect.
Lesson 47 is one of the basic lessons in that it teaches us to trust in the strength of God and only the strength of God. This is central to the Course's sense of the awareness of God. God is not a theory in which we have faith. God is our "safety in every circumstance." We have formalized this sentiment in regard to our money by printing "In God We Trust" on the very thing that often symbolizes our lack of trust in God. I think of myself wearing myself out with worry and sleep depriving anxiety about earning a living, instead of relying on God's Voice telling me "exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection." All the world religions teach "trust in God" as the first lesson taught but usually the hardest truth to practice. When coupled with forgiveness, the strength of God is the promise of peace on earth and, a good night's rest.
© Copyright Tom Baker 2010