all arrogance away from every mind.
Here is a 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 parts
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 our parts,
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 His Voice
reveal to us what He would have us do.
We will not doubt our adequacy for
the function He will offer us. We will
be certain only that He knows our strength,
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
which 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 that 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 in 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
that answer every need His Son perceives,
although He sees them not. For Love must give,
and what is given in Its 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.
