Lesson 315 • November 11

 

Read on the ACIM CE App: https://acimce.app/:W-315

Lesson 315

All gifts my brothers give belong to me.

Practice Instructions

See complete instructions in a separate document. A short summary:

  • Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.
  • Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.
  • Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
  • Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
  • Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in meditation.
  • Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.
  • Read the “What Is” section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

Commentary

In Lesson 97 we are told that if we practice with the lesson’s idea (“I am spirit”) and thus bring reality a little closer to our minds, the Holy Spirit will take the minutes we give to Him in those holy instants “and carry them around this aching world” (W-97.5:1). It says, “He will not overlook one open mind that will accept the healing gift they [the minutes you give] bring, and He will lay them [the gifts] everywhere He knows they will be welcome” (W-97.5:2). He talks about how each gift to Him will “be multiplied a thousandfold, and tens of thousands more” (W-97.6:1). Now, one thousand times ten thousand is ten million. So He will multiply our gifts at least ten million times, except it says “tens of thousands,” plural tens, so that means as much as ninety million times. Perhaps the numbers are simply symbolic of “an extremely large number,” but I’m sure Jesus means, quite literally, that an unimaginably large number of minds will be affected by our choice. Every mind that is open to receive will receive our gift; millions of minds.

Now in this lesson we see the opposite side of the coin. For all those millions who are open, and who, like us, give the gift of their mind to God for a moment, we, in turn, receive their gifts. Thus, every moment, thousands of my brothers and sisters find the way to God for a moment and give a gift, which I receive because all minds are joined, as the first paragraph tells us. A smile between brothers or a word of gratitude or mercy, anywhere in the world, offers a gift to my mind. I can receive the certainty of anyone who finds the way to God.

All minds are joined. Every moment, a thousand gifts arrive at the portal of my mind, given by other minds. If I am open, I can receive every one of them! In a study group where this concept was discussed, a student remarked, “That sounds like a full-time job!” Indeed. Sounds like my kind of job, too.

Ever wonder where some of those blessed thoughts come from? Ever wonder why suddenly, in the midst of a rather blah day, something comes into your mind and gladdens your heart? We usually think, if we think of it at all, that it must be the Holy Spirit. But it could equally well have been your sister whose mind found the way to God at just that moment and smiled at someone, and in so doing sent her gift to you. The Holy Spirit was just the postman. Someone you never knew, halfway around the world, just gave you a blessing!

This cosmic exchange of gifts within the greatest “Internet” in the universe is going on all the time. Everyone is wired in; you just have to read your mail.

So let us lift our hearts in gratitude and thanks to every Son of God. Let us this morning and this evening spend some time in thanks to our brothers, who are one with us, for all their multitude of gifts, most of which have gone unacknowledged for most of our lives.

Let me say to all of you who read this: “Thank you for remembering, my sister or my brother!” Thank you for loving instead of fearing. Thank you for being aware, for being alive. Thank you for smiling, for letting joy through. Thank you for showing mercy. Thank you for forgiving. Thank you for joining with another. Let my meditation today be on all the ways I am constantly being blessed by my brothers and sisters, and on the reality that I gain from each and every one.

I thank You, Father, for the many gifts that come to me today and every day from every Son of God. (2:1)