This Lesson is a beautiful prayer where Jesus is asking us to join in with him. "My brothers, join with me in this today. This is salvation's prayer." (W.264.2.1-2) So the question is, will we join him today, in this prayer, using it to start our morning, end our day, but as important, to remind ourselves all day that "I am surrounded by the love of God?" It raises the question in my mind, what is it that I really and truly want? What is the prayer of my heart? Do I want to know the love that I am and nothing else?

As I read and reflect on this prayer I realize how we are being asked to forget all things except for His Love. When everything disappears from my mind, except this beautiful experience of being surrounded by His Love, it is an experience of the holy instant. This is where we have an instant of recognition that our reality is not in this body with all its needs, fears and issues. Nor are we confined to time and space. It is a deeply touching experience to feel surrounded by this kind of Love. The image crumbles in His Presence and there is a field of awareness that shines away all boundaries.

What is it that keeps us from this experience? It is our investment in our thoughts. It is our investment in our stories. It is our focus on our worries, our plans, our solutions, and our problems that keeps the mind invested. It is all a lot of chatter, and with it there is no peace of mind. We are being called to stop giving it all of this attention because when we lose interest in its stories, its worries, and its problems, it will become still, not by force but by lack of interest. It is like when we are watching television and a TV commercial comes on. It can be blaring, but if we have no interest in it, we simply ignore it.

As long as we think we know something, we won't be open to being shown the truth of who we are. Our own perceptions will stand in the way. What I think I know is what I have made up by my thinking mind. We are reluctant to release what we think we know because we think there is safety in our own thoughts. We think they protect us, but now we are called to give respite to our investment in the ego mind and to find the stillness behind our thoughts. Resistance comes up because we fear the light. We want to be right about who we think we are, but we are wrong about ourselves and are invited to see this is so. Only in releasing all of our control and surrendering our way can the miracle show up. Yet this requires a kind of vulnerability we protect ourselves against by managing time and space for our purposes, as we see them. Thus, we fear the miracle, but only through the miracle can we experience a new perception, where there is a recognition that we are not these characters in the dream we thought we were. We are not our body, our personality, our self-concepts, our values, beliefs or any thoughts we hold.

This prayer affirms there is not a God separate from this self-concept I hold as Sarah living in a body with God working through me. Instead, "In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief." (W264.1.3) There is only love and nothing else. There is no me, no you, only  "the Love which holds all things within itself." (W264.1.5) Thus, we can "be at peace within Your everlasting Love." (W264.1.7) That is the only truth. Everything else is a construct in my mind, and when I identify with all of the constructs of time, space, where I think I am, who I think I am, and what seems to be going on in my life, I forget the truth.

This prayer reminds us of that truth. The love of God that surrounds me is about what I really am and not the construct I have made of who I think I am. It is the One Self, the Son of God, living in the experience of God.

To know the Self that we are requires that we bring everything we are not to the healing light of truth where our self-concepts are dissolved in the light. What we project on the world is this false self, but the projections can be valuable when we learn to look at them with the Holy Spirit and realize they are all hallucinations of our own minds. When we see the world as a classroom for healing, then all things that need to be healed will be pulled to the surface. Why be unhappy about anything we experience here? It is all valuable for undoing the ego mind.

We have not yet come to see the realization of our wholeness has more value than the "comfort" of the ego, which is about the comfort and safety of the body. When our comfort is threatened in any way, we think we are having a bad day. If my car breaks down while I am on my way to an appointment, grievances come up. Now I throw my peace away because of what has happened, but this event can teach me that peace is available in my mind as a constant. Whatever comes up for healing in our day is a perfect opportunity to learn who we are, but we are not guilty if we fail to learn the lesson. It will simply come up again and again until we are ready to get it.

Everything in our day has a holy purpose when used for healing. And how easily can grace heal all things with our willingness, our welcome and our recognition that we truly are supported in all things. It may not be the ego's idea of what support looks like, but if the ego had its way, true transformation would be impossible. We would forever feel vulnerable to the vagaries of the world and the weakness of these bodies. "Love is your safety." (W.PII.Q5.5.4) Only in the recognition of who we are can we be safe, and to recognize is to know again what we have always known.
 
"Is it not strange that you should cherish still some hope of satisfaction from the world you see? In no respect, at any time or place, has anything but fear and guilt been your reward. How long is needed for you to realize the chance of change in this respect is hardly worth delaying change that might result in better outcome? For one thing is sure; the way you see, and long have seen, gives no support to base your future hopes, and no suggestions of success at all. To place your hopes where no hope lies must make you hopeless. Yet is this hopelessness your choice, while you would seek for hope where none is ever found." (T.25.II.2.1-6)(ACIM OE T.25.III.13)
 
The only blocks there are to love are those we put there. That is the only reason love seems unavailable to us. When we seem to be having all kinds of problems and are not doing well, we are actually rebelling against Love. The rebel is behind every single problem we have in this world. It is the deepest part of the ego mind to be healed. Our authority conflict with God is the basis of our seeming separation. We have made it real by our beliefs when, in fact, it is all illusion. We can now choose to give over our false beliefs and have them replaced for us. All that is required is that we ask the Holy Spirit in everything, "how would you have me see this situation, this person, this event?"

When we focus on our specialness, on our dark stories, on the idols we think we need, and when we indulge our emotional tantrums on how things should be for us to be happy, we are actually choosing to give up God's peace, joy and the love that surrounds us. When we go for ego gratification, this maintains the separation from each other and from God and continues our self-defeating patterns. Being willing to look at them is what allows us to open to God's Love. It is the only real safety there is for us. All the ego thought system does is seemingly 'protect' us from love, and it does so by telling us we are safer in the body and in the world than we would be in God's presence.

Today, pray the prayer by joining with Jesus who is in our minds, standing with us as a symbol of God's love, as he reminds us this is salvation's prayer. He wants us to experience the perfect safety of God's embrace, even if it is just for the moment. He is the All in all. He is where we stand. There is nothing else but God. Time and space are illusion. When we go into the silence with this prayer, acknowledging Love surrounds us always, we can experience His everlasting love. That is the truth and that is where our peace is. Whatever shows up today that is unlike this peace, we can bring it to awareness and be willing to release it all to the light of truth.