Lesson 169 states, “By grace I live. By grace I am released.”
Because this lesson is long and complex, one of the most effective ways to get into the lesson and retain a structure that allows us to keep using it and unpacking it resourcefully over time is applying metaphors. I have two that I would like to use to organize and break down the lesson.
A common, everyday metaphor that I can use to break down this lesson would be driving. You can learn to drive by taking a driver’s education course, you can practice on your own, or you can be taught by someone you know. You will learn all the various elements of driving, such as parking, signaling, approaching different roads and situations. There are many things you have to learn in order to maneuver a car safety and effectively. Like driving, this lesson has a lot of moving parts about the forgiveness process.
I am comparing forgiveness to driving, and all of the subparts that are included in this lesson make up the different elements of the driving experience. Forgiveness is one of the terms used in the lesson, as well as atonement, holy instant, miracle, revelation, heaven and finally, grace, which is the main focus of this lesson. You could write a whole book on each of these terms, but the thing that ties all of these things together is forgiveness, or in my metaphor, driving. And all of the other terms listed are aspects of what is required to “drive” and become a good “driver.” Someone may know how to drive, but may not be skilled in certain parts of driving. You may be familiar with forgiveness, but not all of its components outlined in this lesson in the course.
What the lesson is trying to do is bring our attention to the fact that there is something (grace) so far beyond the mechanics of forgiveness (or driving) and all of the pieces that go into learning it. grace is beyond learning and beyond what learning and forgiveness are trying to teach. Forgiveness is comprised of a number of essential skills, but there is a level of ecstasy and freedom that is beyond all of that. When you truly master driving, you are not focused on the mechanics of driving, but you are in a transcendent state in which you are not thinking about each of the moving parts or individual pieces.
All of the skills that lead up to grace, and grace itself, come from God’s love; there is nothing we do to make it happen. There is an entire parallel reality full of abundance. Just as if, for example, your parents left you fortune in their will and you were instantaneously entitled to a treasure simply due to your existence. Likewise, there is this infinite and incredible love that exists outside of space and time and beyond all of our learning. That is the state of grace.
There is a section of this lesson that I found especially challenging and I will explain why. In paragraph 7 of the lesson, it says:
“This is beyond experience we try to hasten. Yet forgiveness, taught and learned, brings with it the experiences which bear witness that the time themind itself determined to abandon all but this is now at hand. We do not hasten it, in that what you will offer was concealed from Him Who teaches what forgiveness means.”
This last sentence sounded like a riddle to me; everything we do in ACIM is intended to accelerate our process of unloading and shedding all of the negative illusory thinking we have from the malicious ego so that we can enter into the state of grace. I was thrown for a loop with this final sentence because it sounds like it’s saying we can’t hasten our process into the state of grace. But what I believe the Course is trying to get at is that, because we as humans have our own free will, no one truly knows when each of us will decide to enter into the state of grace that already exists.
The second metaphor I wanted to relate to this lesson that helps with this specific riddle is the story of the “Prodigal Son” or “Prodigal Child.” The main arc of the story is that child wants to leave home against the parents’ wishes. He leaves the home and the home is a symbol of grace that he leaves behind. He goes on a long journey that ends up being full of pain, suffering, and misfortune. He eventually decides to go back home, to his safe refuge from the trials of life.
Note that in this story, the parent does not chase after the child or go into the trials, but uses grace as a magnet to attract and draw the child back. So going back to the lesson, God doesn’t know when you will enter the state of grace because it’s your choice at any given moment in time. However, whenever you do return to grace, God will be elated and welcome you with open arms. This story shows that at the end of the day, the ultimate goal is not just to learn how to drive on the road back to grace, but to learn how to experience grace nonstop for the rest of our existence as this state is always available to us.
grace is always there and available, and the “illusion” separates you from that reality. The journey and separation are one big illusion generated by the malicious ego to get us off track with the promise of something better in a far country away from our home in grace. And once you grasp this, you can fathom the non-dualistic reality of grace where this power and abundance is constantly available. Everything in the illusion is binary.
It can be difficult to wrap your mind around this infinite capacity of love and abundance, and even more difficult to explain or converse about it with people in your life. But I challenge you to remember this truth: that Source energy has unlimited potential to take advantage of and so you can find people in your life who can become your allies in practicing this mindset. That’s why I created a Facebook group as an online community of miracle-minded individuals. It’s young and emerging but growing daily. Click here to join the Facebook group and connect with like-minded leaders and professionals.
To conclude this conversation on Lesson #169, the lesson ends with the following passage:
“By grace I live. By grace I am released.
By grace I give. By grace I will release.”
The passage is indicating that we use grace to get released from our negative illusions about ourselves: how bad, unlucky, sinful, we are. Once we get released from this illusion and then our new assignment becomes to help others do the same. Source helps us to get free and then our duty is to help others to get free too. When you’ve fulfilled your purpose, which is to embrace and embody the truth of what you already are, then you as the student, can become the teacher.
