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-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is
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 of 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
strengths, 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. Judge 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. Yet
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 can not 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 crumble. 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, and they seem to change
from mourner to ecstatic bliss of loved 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 wind swept leaves that form a patterning an
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 toward 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 lovely 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 His Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you that 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. Hear 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, although 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.