We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Salvation of the world depends on me.  Sounds so arrogant but ACIM claims this is the one statement that will take arrogance away from every mind because…

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…

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.

When we accept the function God has given us, we find our peace.  That function is nothing less than the salvation of the world. :)  Humbling, isn’t it?

Do as God’s Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which 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.

This fully resonates somewhere within my being.  I vaguely remember what it means.  I remember periods of time when I was able to accept whatever it was the day gave me and made my way through it gracefully, not trying to second guess all the consequences of every action.  Or, even more silly perhaps, playing tennis and feeling like I was playing on air because I made so few mistakes.  And even more silly (because I was so terrible at it), playing golf and chanting to myself just before I swung, “The peace of God is in me.”  If I could relax enough, I was fairly accurate.   It’s a trust.  A knowing.  It’s not a belief is different.  To say, “I believe in myself” means I hope I’ll live up to the expectations I’ve set for myself.  That’s really all belief is - the fulfillment of expectations.  Trust is something altogether different.

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.

The Voice isn’t an external voice.  It’s no an internal one, either.  It’s something altogether different.  We don’t hear it in the same sense that we hear.  We don’t understand it in the rational sense.  It’s the willingness, on our part, to walk into that cloud of unknowing and take comfort in the unknowing rather than trying to create meaning where none exists.   “His Name” is not God - what is given in the name of a label cannot be love because labels are nothing more than our attempt to impose collective meaning.   Labels are not based on trust.

“His Name” IS trust.  I can even thump the Bible and prove it.  OK - The proof part is a joke!   But one of my favorite passages in the Bible is from Jeremiah and it speaks to this:

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse–who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Forgiveness begets trust and trust begets forgiveness.  God has no need of forgiveness because he IS trust.  Our trust is God because God is a verb!

These are the forms which never can deceive, because 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.