We end the year with the final words of the Course and use these words to guide our practice for five days starting on December 27th and ending on December 31st. "This holy instant would I give to You. Be You in charge. For I would follow you, certain that Your direction gives me peace." (W.361-365) This lesson reminds us that the only peace there is is already ours, given us by God. We can't find it outside of ourselves. It is not in our circumstances or outside events but in ourselves.
 
This peace is forever still and undisturbed in us no matter how raucous are the shrieks of the ego demanding its due. Only within is where certainty and peace are found. It is in the deep silence of our minds. It is in the perfection of that Self, which is watching our drama from outside of the dream. The drama itself is the dream that we made up. It contains all of the thoughts that we are thinking, but we are not those thoughts. Let them be what they will, but don't engage with them. They are not YOU. When we realize we are the dreamer, we can truly make choices. "In holiness were we created, and in holiness do we remain," (W.360.1.5) and anything unlike holiness is our own self-created drama.
 
This year is ending. Jesus says that "This is a year of joy, in which your listening will increase and peace will grow with its increase. The power of holiness and the weakness of attack are both being brought into your awareness. And this has been accomplished in a mind firmly convinced that holiness is weakness and attack is power. Should not this be a sufficient miracle to teach you that your Teacher is not of you? But remember also that whenever you listened to His interpretation the results have brought you joy. Would you prefer the results of your interpretation, considering honestly what they have been? God wills you better. Could you not look with greater charity on whom God loves with perfect love?" (T.16.II.7.1-8)(ACIM OE T.16.III.17) 
Those are profound words, which remind us of the progress that we have made. We are reminded that if we really notice what has happened around us that we will see the contrast between the times we chose to attack and those where we made space for peace instead and the miracles that came about as a result. This is the proof that there is power in forgiveness. This is the proof that when we let go of the counsel that the ego mind gives us and listen instead to the wisdom of our deeper Self, we have considerably more peace and joy in our lives. It is ultimately about choosing not to listen to the ego.

There are periods in our lives when doing this Course that things seem to get much worse with many things falling away. We may have gone through a divorce, lost our jobs, or simply noticed more turmoil in our minds. To the ego mind, this is an indication that the Course is not working for us, but we need not be upset. The shifts are always valuable, though at the time we may not see them that way. The situations that arise give us an opportunity more clearly to  see the darkness of the ego, which was always there. We were not aware of it to the same extent as before we started on this journey, and seing the ego dynamics is an important step to undoing them. It is not a time to despair. Despair about how long it will take to undo the ego, and how bound we seem to be to it, is just a defense against the truth. Outside of time, in the holy instant we see that this is so. Just know that the light is shining in quiet constancy behind the darkness and keep moving forward.

What is different now in your life? Take notice. For me, when I am in a state of distress, I can come back to peace much more quickly. I can let anger go much more readily. I can admit that I am wrong and thus am more humble about not knowing. I take more responsibility for my thoughts by taking back my projections from my brother and making space for the miracle instead. I see more and more that I don't know my own best interests and thus accept that everything is unfolding for my highest good. I make fewer judgments. I watch my mind more frequently for signs of distress and have become more willing to give them over. My stubborn nature has increasingly been a source of humor and laughter for me. I have increasingly seen challenges in my life as opportunities to look at what is going on in my mind that is creating this situation and take responsibility for it. I have allowed myself to be a detective of my own experience, watching it with interest, investigating what is going on in my mind and not judging the seemingly negative emotions, but simply being willing to bring them to the light. I have increasingly seen that I do not have to change anyone but myself. My job is to accept and love those who are struggling with themselves and to recognize it all as my own reflection of my own struggle. My job is not to change anyone.

In Chapter 16, Jesus reminds us that we have many gifts offered to us by God, but we ignore them as long as we focus our attention on what we think of as our reality. He reminds us "you have preferred to place still greater faith in the disaster you made." (T.16.II.8.4)(ACIM OE T.16.III.18) In other words, we believe that the lives we have made have some kind of reality and that we are in control of what happens. "Today, let us resolve together to accept the joyful tidings that disaster is not real and that reality is not disaster." (T.16.II.8.5)(ACIM OE T.16.III.18) We plan and strategize to try to deal with what we think is the reality of our lives. When we listen instead to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we accept that what we think of as our life in this world is not real and that what is truly real can never show up as disaster. "Reality is safe and sure and wholly kind to everyone and everything. There is no greater love than to accept this and be glad. For love asks only that you be happy, and will give you everything that makes for happiness." (T. 16.II.8.6-8)(ACIM OE T.16.III.19)
 
This is a time to notice the gifts that have been given you through the application of this thought system. What are the signs in your life that witness for God's Love and care for you? These are the gifts that help us to see that no matter what it looks like in the world, we are always safe. Yes, the body may be jeopardized, but we are not bodies. Our Spirit is never at risk. Yes, we will be confronted by seeming problems, but we don't know what they are for in our lives. They can teach us so much if we are willing to use them for that purpose. I have learned so much about forgiveness and release when I have turned a problem over to the Holy Spirit. He always solves it in ways that seem so counterintuitive. He has guided me to pay off a seeming adversary, when on my own I would have fought the situation in court, and yet His counsel brought peace. It also has brought me recognition that striving for money, status, position, power, and material things only brings pain. True gifts come through forgiveness, which heals the mind by releasing our grievances. They are the gifts that bring joining and healing with our brothers and sisters.

"This is the year for the application of ideas that have been given you. For the ideas are mighty forces to be used and not held idly by." (T.16.II.9.4-5)(ACIM OE T.16.III.20) That is the biggest lesson of all---to apply the lessons we are given. They are of no use to us simply as beautiful words on the page. They are there to motivate us to apply them in every situation without exception. "They have already proved their power sufficiently for you to place your faith in them and not in their denial. This year invest in truth and let it work in peace. Have faith in Him Who has faith in you. Think what you have really seen and heard and recognize it. Can you be alone with witnesses like these?" (T.16.II.9.6-10)(ACIM OE T.16.III.20)

Certainly I have seen that these ideas are mighty and powerful forces that have changed my life. Why do I still hold doubt thoughts? I have seen seeming enemies become lasting friends. I have seen my marriage saved. I have seen angels appear on my path when disaster seems to be looming---whether a flat tire, financial loss or the death of my brother and my husband within three months of each other. Yet, while I have all kinds of evidence of His presence, I still wonder about the next time and still often rely on my own solutions. Now it is time for strong resolve to trust, to give up the "I know" mind and to be gently led every moment. We all have had proof of the Holy Spirit working through us, knowing that what has happened has nothing to do with our plans and intentions and cannot be judged by us as good or bad because we simply don't know what anything is for. It is getting out of our own way and allowing Him to radiate His Love, through us. "And the results have been to bring peace where there was pain, and suffering has disappeared to be replaced by joy." (T.16.III.1.7)(ACIM OE T.16.IV.21) As we give the love, we know it is in us. We know it by giving it.
 
Let's embrace these final lessons and commit to live them as much as we can by trusting in the Power that is behind them, always working in our lives with total consistency. Our peace and joy have increased, as has our confidence in our Teacher. There truly is a gift behind each seeming disaster. There is a doorway that is provided by the Holy Spirit that leads us out of each difficult situation. A miracle is waiting behind every problem. It waits our acceptance to come forth and give us the message that we are forever loved and never abandoned. Have faith in this Power. Extend the gift to others even when there appears to be lack of appreciation and even attack. By extending love and forgiveness we bring these gifts to our own awareness. Our brothers will accept them from us when they are ready. We don't need any more evidence. The evidence comes when we apply these lessons. The Course does work when we work it. Look at the data of your own lives. It is time to set your intention for another year. It is time to recognize that there are no accidents in salvation. Everyone who shows us or who has shown up in our lives is there for a divine purpose. They are all our gifts for our learning purposes.

Finally, we recognize that procrastination hurts us. "His is the only way to find the peace that God has given us. It is His way that everyone must travel in the end, because it is this ending God Himself appointed. In the dream of time it seems to be far off. And yet, in truth, it is already here; already serving us as gracious guidance in the way to go. Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us. And let us be the leaders of our many brothers who are seeking for the way, but find it not."  (W.PII.FL. IN.2.1-6)
 
How ready are we to come with total honesty to God and admit that we don't know, that we are lost in the illusion, and that our own answers for our lives are like flying with the wings of a sparrow when the wings of the eagle are always available to us. "We come in honesty to God and say we did not understand, and ask Him to help us to learn His lessons, through the Voice of His Own Teacher. (W.PII.FL.IN.6.1) And He will hear and answer me, because He speaks for God my Father and His holy Son." (W.361-365.1.5)
 
Our final five days of lessons, which we give to the Holy Spirit, require that we allow space in our minds for His Presence. It is a time to go beyond words, as Jesus tells us in the introduction to these final lessons. Each practice period is now about entering the holy instant as much as possible. We are putting the Holy Spirit in charge of these practice periods and following Him on the way to peace. Words mean little now. While He will give them to us as we need them to focus our practice, the main focus is to go beyond words to experience. "He is in charge by my request." (W.PII.361-365.1.4) We must now actively choose to go to Him when we are tempted to be right and feel superior, making comparisons and wanting to win at someone's expense. Now we enter a state where we remember our purpose every day, which is to forgive. That is the only reason to be here in this world.
 
We remember that the Atonement is fully present in us now. The Teacher is within. We can't know that when we blame others. Blame and Atonement are mutually exclusive states. We are one with our brothers, with the same goal and the same need. "The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none." (T.12.II.2.1-2)(ACIM OE T.11.III.15) We recognize that in order to remember that we are the way, the truth, and the life, the same as Jesus, we must commit daily to forgiveness.
 
Love and blessings, Sarah