God, please let me win the lottery!
An old man goes into a synagogue and prays, “O Lord, you know the mess I’m in, please let me win the lottery.” The next week he comes back and complains, “O Lord, didn’t you hear my prayer last week? I’ll lose everything I hold dear unless I win the lottery.” The third week, desperate, he laments, “O Lord, this is the third time I’ve prayed to You to let me win the lottery! I beg and plead and still you don’t help me!” Suddenly, a booming voice sounds from Heaven, “Old man, at least meet me halfway. Buy a lottery ticket!”*
My point, in sharing this joke with you, is that your participation in the forgiveness practice offered by Jesus in A Course in Miracles is crucial.
You cannot just give your troubles to Jesus/the Holy Spirit and walk away, leaving Them to clean up your mess. You must hang out with Jesus/HS and look at what you’ve given from Their position.
The Introduction to the ACIM Workbook for Students says, “The workbook is divided into two main sections, the first dealing with the undoing of the way you see now, and the second with the acquisition of true perception.”
The only way to undo how we see now is to look at how we see with Jesus/HS. As we look with Them, eyesight gives way to Vision, and true perception is inevitable.
You must make the effort to “buy the lottery ticket” because if you don’t, you’re wishing and hoping, which will never get you out of the ego thought system. The way out is through. The practical application of forgiveness is using the people and situations in your life to recall your projections.
The Holy Spirit uses anything the ego made to show you how to see through what the ego made. When you find yourself rejecting something because it is not what you consider spiritual, drop all judgment and pause … turn to your Inner Teacher and be attentive to Inner Guidance.
People, books, activities, jobs, health information, travel, politics, psychotherapy, dance, military service, law enforcement, nature, animals, children, hobbies, TV shows, songs, license plates, dreams, and so much more are symbols the Holy Spirit can use to help you see differently, to help you connect with inner peace, to help you tune in consistently to genuine Guidance.
Your human life/earth world classroom is where you put to work the mind training exercises. You practice choosing again, joining with Spirit, seeing from another perspective, experiencing a shift in perception, with everyone and everything without exception, over and over again.
Earth angels (humans who are exceptionally kind, wise, etc) will come along and introduce you to earthly healing interventions. This may seem counter to ACIM teaching. But it is not if it is used by the Holy Spirit.
“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.” C-5.2:1-6
Let’s talk about how to buy the lottery ticket in your life so you are not just reading A Course in Miracles, but actually using its forgiveness practice to encounter inner peace which releases the fear that holds you captive to the ego.
*There are many versions of this joke. This version is adapted from forum-ship-of-fools.com