"Review V: Lessons 151 - 170"
Review Five
We now review again. This time we are ready to give more effort and more
time to what we undertake. We recognize we are preparing for another
phase of understanding. We would take this step completely, that we may
go on again more certain, more sincere, with faith upheld more surely.
Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk
uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we
hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose and a
surer goal.
*Steady our feet, our Father; let our doubts be quiet and
our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to
You. We would but listen to Your Word and make it ours. Lead our
practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not
understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father
leads the way for him*.
*So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble,
You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure
remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back.
Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly
unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing,
as we review the thoughts that You have given us*.
This is the thought which should precede the thoughts that
we review. Each one but clarifies some aspect of this thought or helps
it be more meaningful, more personal and true, and more descriptive of
the holy Self we share and now prepare to know again:
*God is but Love, and therefore so am I*.
This Self alone knows love. This Self alone is perfectly
consistent in Its thoughts, knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is
perfect in Its knowledge and Its love, and never changes from Its
constant state of union with Its Father and Itself.
And it is This that waits to meet us at the journey's
ending. Every step we take brings us a little nearer. This review will
shorten time immeasurably if we keep in mind that This remains our goal,
and as we practice, it is This to which we are approaching. Let us raise
our hearts from dust to life as we remember This is promised us, and
that this course was sent to open up the path of light to us, and teach
us, step by step, how to return to the eternal Self we thought we lost.
I take the journey with you. For I share your doubts and
fears a little while, that you may come to me who recognize the road by
which all fears and doubts are overcome. We walk together. I must
understand uncertainty and pain, although I know they have no meaning.
Yet a savior must remain with those he teaches, seeing what they see,
but still retaining in his mind the way that led him out and now will
lead you out with him. God's Son is crucified until you walk along the
road with me.
My resurrection comes again each time I lead a brother
safely to the place at which the journey ends and is forgot. I am
renewed each time a brother learns there is a way from misery and pain.
I am reborn each time a brother's mind turns to the light in him and
looks for me. I have forgotten no one. Help me now to lead you back to
where the journey was begun, to make another choice with me.
Release me as you practice once again the thoughts I
brought to you from Him Who sees your bitter need and knows the answer
God has given Him. Together we review these thoughts. Together we devote
our time and effort to them. And together we will teach them to our
brothers. God would not have Heaven incomplete. It waits for you, as I
do. I am incomplete without your part in me. And as I am made whole, we
go together to our ancient home, prepared for us before time was and
kept unchanged by time, immaculate and safe, as it will be at last, when
time is done.
Let this review be then your gift to me. For this alone I
need—that you will hear the words I speak and give them to the world.
You are my voice, my eyes, my feet, my hands, through which I save the
world. The Self from Which I call to you is but your own. To Him we go
together. Take your brother's hand, for this is not a way we walk alone.
In him I walk with you and you with me. Our Father wills His Son be one
with Him. What lives but must not then be one with you?
Let this review become a time in which we share a new
experience for you, yet one as old as time, and older still. Hallowed
your name. Your glory undefiled forever. And your wholeness now
complete, as God established it. You are His Son, completing His
extension in your own. We practice but an ancient truth we knew before
illusion seemed to claim the world. And we remind the world that it is
free of all illusions every time we say,
*God is but Love, and therefore so am I*.
With this we start each day of our review. With this we
start and end each period of practice time. And with this thought we
sleep, to waken once again with these same words upon our lips to greet
another day. No thought that we review but we surround with it and use
the thoughts to hold it up before our minds and keep it clear in our
remembrance throughout the day. And thus when we have finished this
review, we will have recognized the words we speak are true.
Yet are the words but aids and to be used, except at the
beginning and the end of practice periods, but to recall the mind as
needed to its purpose. We place faith in the experience that comes from
practice, not the means we use. We wait for the experience and recognize
that it is only here conviction lies. We use the words, and try and try
again to go beyond them to their meaning, which is far beyond their
sound. The sound grows dim and disappears as we approach the Source of
meaning. It is here that we find rest.