ACIM Workbook
Healing Perspectives

Lesson 73

“I will there be light.”

In this lesson, Jesus is helping me to build the habit to see the Christ in everyone I meet or even think of. Jesus is helping me focus on the truth in everyone and not the idle wishes and grievances that come from the ego split mind. Seeing the idle wishes and grievances have cost me the awareness of What I am. Remembering that my real will is one with God’s Will brings me back into alignment with my true happiness, my true unlimited freedom.

Saying to myself all through the day, “I will there be light,” reminds me of my true will. This helps me behold the Light that reflects God’s Will and mine. I need this practice to free up my mind from the idle wishes and grievances of the ego thought system.

Idle wishes and grievances have imprisoned my will and have been the cause of my seeing darkness. I really do not want to continue seeing darkness. I will there be light. This is where I wake up to the light. The light has always been there. I am now training my mind to behold it.

This is a very important lesson for me. This is very important work. Beholding the Light brings me true happiness. Beholding the Light reflects my true will and helps me remember my true identity as part of God. I am determined to practice this consistently today.

This lesson is helping me disconnect from identification with the ego. It is strongly emphasizing that I will there be light and this will I share with God. Because I share this will with God, I also share God’s strength and power.

If this is what I am, then I cannot be the darkness, conflict, guilt and grievances that the ego shows me. What a relief that pain and fear and guilt is not me. I have believed it was me and have experienced it as though it were true. But belief does not make reality.

If I am experiencing anything but the peace and Light of God, I am seeing only a reflection of the ego thought system. The world I see gives me instant feedback, showing me what I believe about myself. If I see conflict, pain, unhappiness, lack of peace of any kind, I am identifying with the ego. If I see light, innocence and peace, I am identifying with my Self and seeing the reflection of the light that is my Self.

It’s very simple, always one or the other. All I need do is pay attention to the feedback and if I am not seeing peace, if I am not seeing the reflection of light, if I am not seeing innocence, I have identified with a false image — the ego thought system. Then it is time to remind myself, “This is not my will. I will there be light. Let me behold the world that reflects this light.”

I know that I am making real progress doing these lessons. It would be hard for me to put this progress into words that someone else would understand, but I can see it clearly. But, as I do each lesson it seems that something comes up that proves this lesson isn't true or that I can't do it.

For instance, I am going to buy my son a car since he is graduating from high school this year and will be going away to college. I have been doing the preliminary work; getting prices, checking on insurance. As I am reading today's lesson, my mind is straying to my budget. The more it does, the more trouble I have reading the lesson, the more worried I become.

At one time I would have seen this as proof I really am an ego and I would never reach the lofty heights the Course says are my rightful place. At one time, I would have quit trying to do the lesson and told myself I would do it later when I was better able to concentrate. I would then have been free to indulge in some real fear.

I thought of it differently this morning. I realized that this isn't proof I can't see the light, it is a perfect circumstance to help me learn today's lesson. I did my lesson right through the fear. I'm not going to say it was easy, but I stuck with it and did the best I could. When I felt like giving it up, I reminded myself that I was setting the course for my whole day with this lesson. I reminded myself that there was nothing I would do today that was as important as what I was attempting to accomplish right here. This lesson deserved all the effort I could put into it.

It is comforting to me to realize that when these seeming setbacks come up, they are really opportunities. They are a chance for me to make the daily lessons concrete in my mind, to see how I can use what I am learning to grow.

Today I can see clearly the ego game of idle wishes to manufacture the world I see -- wanting this thing or that thing. Then manufacturing grievances based on judgments to maintain the world -- not getting the thing and its someone's fault or this thing is better or worse than someone else's.

Getting idle wishes is junk food joy which then requires another fix or not getting it, in either case onto the next step in the ego's tiresome game. This is darkness, suffering, anxiety and pain. This is not the real me. I will there be light. Darkness is not my will. I want salvation. I want true joy.

True joy is the creation that comes from the Light -- being one with the Father. It does not come from the idle wants of the ego. True joy comes from listening to the sound of the Voice for God. It does not come from the voices of the ego aspects. True joy is found within. This is where salvation comes alive and ego dissolves. This is where we are resurrected. This is where peace radiates from the connection with the Source of Love within. It comes from the core of our Self like a beacon of light that shines out from within in all directions like a lighthouse.

I will that the Light shines. I am one with God in the willing for this to be. I am the Light that shines. This is my salvation. This is my Life. This is my true joy.

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