Lesson 186

W-pI.186.1. Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. ² Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. ³ It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. ⁴ It does not judge your proper role. ⁵ It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. ⁶ It unites all wills on earth in Heaven's plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven's peace.

W-pI.186.2. Let us not fight our function. ² We did not establish it. ³ It is not our idea. ⁴ The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. ⁵ 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. ⁶ What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. ⁷ Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

W-pI.186.3. Today's idea may seem quite sobering, until you see its meaning. ² All it says is that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He holds in you who are His Son. ³ It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. ⁴ What could humility request but this? ⁵ And what could arrogance deny but this? ⁶ Today we will not shrink from our assignment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. ⁷ It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.

W-pI.186.4. All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God's Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. ² We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. ³ We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. ⁴ And if He deems us worthy, so we are. ⁵ It is but arrogance that judges otherwise.

W-pI.186.5. 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. ² Accept the plan you did not make instead. ³ Judge not your value to it. ⁴ If God's Voice assures you that salvation needs your part, and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. ⁵ The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. ⁶ Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do.

W-pI.186.6. Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. ² 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. ³ You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. ⁴ You are not ignorant and helpless. ⁵ Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.

W-pI.186.7. All this the Voice for God relates to you. ² And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basis crumble. ³ Let it go. ⁴ Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of dust. ⁵ What can it tell the holy Son of God? ⁶ Why need he be concerned with it at all?

W-pI.186.8. And so we find our peace. ² We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. ³ Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. ⁴ We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. ⁵ 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.

W-pI.186.9. Is this the Son of God? ² Could He create such instability and call it Son? ³ He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. ⁴ All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. ⁵ They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. ⁶ Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.

W-pI.186.10. These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. ² The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. ³ Who could be constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? ⁴ The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. ⁵ What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?

W-pI.186.11. 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. ² There is no doubt of its validity. ³ It comes from One Who knows no error, and His Voice is certain of Its messages. ⁴ They will not change, nor be in conflict. ⁵ All of them point to one goal, and one you can attain. ⁶ Your plan may be impossible, but God's can never fail because He is its Source.

W-pI.186.12. Do as God's Voice directs. ² And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. ³ Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? ⁴ 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? ⁵ Let not its voice direct you. ⁶ 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.

W-pI.186.13. His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. ² He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. ³ He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. ⁴ He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. ⁵ For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

W-pI.186.14. These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. ² Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. ³ Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. ⁴ 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. ⁵ Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. ⁶ Such is your function here.