I have been entrusted with the Gifts of God.
1. You have been given everything. I
²God’s trust in you is boundless.
³He knows His Son.
⁴God gives without exception, and He holds back nothing that could bring you happiness.
⁵Yet unless your will is one with His, you cannot receive His Gifts.
⁶But what makes you think there is a will apart from His?
2. Here lies the paradox at the root of the making of the world.
²This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real.
³But those who think it is cannot help but believe there is another will producing effects opposed to His.
⁴This is, of course, impossible. But every mind that sees the world and thinks it real, solid, dependable, and true, believes in two creators—or rather, in one: itself.
⁵But never in a single God.
3. He who holds such strange beliefs cannot accept the Gifts of God.
²He must believe that accepting them—no matter how evident they may become, or how often he is urged to claim them as his own—is somehow a betrayal of himself.
³And so, he must deny their presence, oppose the truth, and suffer, in order to preserve the world he made.
4. That is the only home he thinks he knows.
²There he believes lies the only safety he can find.
³Without that world he made, he sees himself as homeless, cast out, and afraid.
⁴He does not realize it is in that very place where he is truly afraid and without a home.
⁵In his own world, he is indeed a wanderer, a stranger far from home—so far that he has forgotten where he came from, where he goes, and even who he truly is.
5. Yet the Gifts of God go with him on his senseless, lonely journey, though he does not know it.
²He cannot lose them.
³But he does not want to see what has been given him.
⁴He continues to wander, aware of the emptiness of all he sees, watching the little he has diminish further as he goes, heading toward nothing.
⁵He wanders on in sorrow and in misery, alone—though God is with him, and he carries a treasure so vast that all the world holds nothing of value beside it.
6. He appears in a pitiful state, worn and tired, ragged, his feet bleeding from the stony path he walks.
²There is no one who does not identify with him, for all who come here walk the same road and have felt defeat and hopelessness as he does now.
³But is his plight truly tragic, when you see he walks a path he chose himself, and that he needs only recognize Who walks with him and see his treasures to be free?
7. That is what you have chosen to be—the self you made to take the place of reality. II
²This is the self you defend with such fierce resistance, against all reason, all evidence, and every witness that tells you clearly you are not this.
³But you do not listen.
⁴And so, you walk the path you made, head bowed, lest you catch a glimpse of truth and be set free from your deception.
8. You shrink in fear of feeling Christ’s touch upon your shoulder, and of sensing His loving hand pointing you to your gifts.
²How then could you think yourself a wretched exile?
³He would make you laugh at such a thought of you.
⁴Where would self-pity be then?
⁵And what would become of all the tragedy you planned for one whom God created only for joy?
9. Now your ancient fear has been brought to light, and Justice has at last caught up with you. III
²Christ’s hand has touched your shoulder, and you feel now that you are not alone.
³You even think that the miserable self you thought you were may not be your true identity.
⁴Perhaps the Word of God is truer than your own.
⁵Perhaps the Gifts He gave you are real.
⁶Perhaps your plan to keep His Son in deep oblivion and to walk alone the path you chose apart from your Self did not succeed in deceiving God.
10. God’s Will does not confront.
²It merely is.
³It was not God you imprisoned with your plan to lose your Self.
⁴He knows nothing of a plan so alien to His Will.
⁵There was a need He did not understand, and so He gave an Answer.
⁶That is all.
⁷And you, who have that Answer, need nothing else.
11. Now truly we live, for now we cannot die.
²The wish to die has been replaced, and the gaze that once looked upon death now sees with vision that shows you are not what you pretend to be.
³He Who so tenderly attends your fears walks with you now, with this one gentle answer:
⁴That is not true.
⁵Whenever the thought of lack weighs down upon you, He shows you all the gifts you have.
⁶And when you see yourself alone and frightened, He reminds you that He is always with you.
12. And He reminds you of one more thing you had forgotten.
²For His touch has made you like Himself.
³The gifts you have are not for you alone.
⁴Now you must learn to give what He came to offer you.
⁵This is the lesson contained in all He gives, for He has saved you from the loneliness you sought to make your hiding place from God.
⁶He has reminded you of all the Gifts God gave to you.
⁷And He shows you what your will shall be, when you accept them and acknowledge they are yours.
13. The gifts are yours, entrusted to you to give to all who chose the lonely road you escaped.
²They do not understand they are following only their own desire.
³You are the one to teach them now.
⁴For you have learned from Christ there is another way.
⁵You teach it by the happiness you feel, by the joy that fills those who feel Christ’s touch and recognize the Gifts of God.
⁶Do not let the suffering you see around you tempt you to neglect your trust. IV
14. Your sighs would silence the hope of those who look to you for their release.
²If you weep, your tears will be their own.
³If you are sick, you block their healing.
⁴If you are afraid, your fear affirms that theirs is justified.
⁵Your hand is now the one that gives the touch of Christ.
⁶Your restored mind bears witness that he who accepts the Gifts of God can never suffer.
⁷You have been entrusted with the world’s release from pain.
15. Do not betray it.
²Be the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer to the world.
³God has entrusted all His Gifts to you.
⁴Let your happiness be the witness of how a mind is transformed that chooses to accept them, and feel the touch of Christ.
⁵This is your mission now.
⁶For all who receive the Gifts of God are called to share them.
⁷He has shared His Joy with you.
⁸And now, you share it with the world.
I This Lesson is not a promise—it is a fact. The gifts of God have been entrusted to you. They will not be offered to you, nor given if you behave well, nor are they on their way. They are already within you. The problem, as always, is that you do not believe it. And so you go through the world like a beggar, asking for recognition, affection, security—as if you had nothing.
But you have everything. Absolutely everything. What part of this are you unwilling to accept? This is the key question. For as long as you continue playing the role of victim, you will not be able to fulfill your function. As long as you beg for love, you will not be able to offer it. And if you do not give it, you do not know it.
The Lesson reminds you that your happiness is not optional. It is your testimony. Your peace, your joy, your presence are the message. You need not say anything. Simply being what you are is enough. But for that, you must accept what you are. You must stop playing the role of the spiritual exile who has not yet been called. You have already been called. You have already been given everything. All that remains is to use it.
Jesus says it plainly: become the living proof of what the touch of Christ can offer the world. Do not hide. Do not say you are not ready. It is not true. The preparation is not yours—it is His. The only thing asked of you is not to deny it. To accept. To say: “Yes, all right. I trust.”
Because if you do not accept it, who will accept it for you? If you do not take the step, no one can take it in your place. But if you do take it, the world changes with you. For you and the world are not two—you are one. And you are its savior. That is your function: to give what has been given to you. And the more you give, the more you know you have.
Do not be afraid to be happy. Do not be afraid to show your light. Do not believe the world is not ready. The world is starving—starving for witnesses who do not preach theories but live in peace. Do it for yourself. Do it for all. Do not offer pity. Offer testimony.
II You call life the opinion you have about life. All your emotional states revolve around the opinion you hold about yourself, about others, and about what you call “life.” You are not yet fully aware that you relate only to your own opinions—nothing else. In fact, you know nothing else. You have not yet truly accepted the first Lessons of thisCourse, which tell you clearly that all your opinions are false. And remember: that is the only thing you know.
Consider carefully how you construct those opinions that make up your “life.” You take a little piece from here, another from there—a memory from the past, something you have read or been told—and with all those scraps you whimsically assemble a patched-up doll you call reality. Not content with that, you affirm and defend before anyone that this is the truth. This contrivance sometimes makes you happy and sometimes miserable, yet you are never fully aware that your emotions are governed by a Frankenstein of your own making.
It may comfort you to know that what happens to you is not an anomaly within the human collective; that is, in fact, the human condition. If there is anything utterly characteristic of people, it is their incredible tendency to deceive themselves. In this world no one tells himself the truth: everyone tells his own story and then believes it. Every person does this, all the time.
If you want to understand this Course, you must accept that nothing that passes through your mind is true—nothing, absolutely nothing, ever. The personal mind cannot know truth, for its personal nature is precisely the condition of its ignorance, and everything that mind conceives is false. The only thing the mind can do is believe stories, for it neither knows nor can do anything else. To believe is to think that what you imagine is true. You have heard this before, but you still have not fully understood it, and certainly have not accepted its implications.
To imagine is to forge images, and images are symbolic forms of the underlying ideas they express. Images always remain within the mind, for they are born of imagination. It does not matter whether you think they come from an external world perceived through your senses or from the depths of your mind—realize that what differentiates them is only your opinion, nothing more. We admit that what we imagine in our fantasies are whimsical illusions, yet we assert that what we consider external to us is real and, moreover, means exactly what we interpret it to mean. Poor you! It is all the same, and none of it is true. It is nothing but your fantasy—or, as this Course would say, the dream of the world.
Faced with such a scenario, you need guidance—desperately need a guide to help you make decisions and lead you out of this nightmare. But do not worry: you have one. It is within you, and there is no need to attribute to it any esoteric, religious, spiritual, or metaphysical character, for it is so consubstantial with what you are that it is impossible to avoid it.
Consider this: this Course affirms that you were created by God and are the fruit of His Love; you are made of love, and that is your condition. Therefore, even in your dreams, everything that resonates with the love you are will make you feel good, and whatever is discordant will cause you discomfort. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Well then, you need no other guide than this to navigate “life.” When you think something that inspires love, it means you are on the right path; when you do not, correct yourself.
Whatever it is you are thinking, be certain it is not true, for this world is a dream. But if what you think reflects the love you are, then it is a happy dream through which you will move effortlessly. And if what has just crossed your mind does not inspire love, discard it immediately, because not only is it untrue—it does not suit you, and it does you harm.
For a while yet, you will have to coexist with your personal opinions. If at least you are aware that they are capricious and false, you will be able not to give them too much importance. That lack of importance is precisely what will loosen their grip on you; it will leave your mind free to direct your will toward expressing and sharing the Gifts of God that you are able to recognize, and your heart will tell you that now you are on the right path.
Your mind and your will are free and powerful, fully at your disposal for you to do with them what you will. They always have been. Your life, your opinions, and your circumstances are the fruit of your will. Therefore, take responsibility for them—take the reins of your mind and choose well. Never complain or lament, for what you think you are, or what you think happens to you, you have devised yourself. And just as you made it, you can undo it. To believe that your mind governs your life is a belief that—though not strictly true—is aligned with the truth; it is wise to adopt it, for it will set you in the right direction to escape so much fantasy.
III That ancient fear is the fear of God, the fourth of the Obstacles to Peace discussed in T-19.IV.D.
IV The teacher of God can never forget that all the pain he beholds in the world has no real cause. If he yields to the temptation to think that his brothers’ suffering is justified, he will be unable to heal anyone and will lose his miracle-mindedness. Then he himself will need a miracle to rescue him from the dream of affliction. This does not mean, in the least, that God’s teachers are indifferent to the sorrows of their brothers—on the contrary, in fact, they devote their lives entirely to bringing the one final remedy for all suffering. They have nothing else in mind. They know perfectly well that they have come to save the world and that their only mission is to find, protect, and increase their own happiness by carrying it to others.
This, of course, requires great mastery, for a suffering world is reluctant to be freed from its painful condition, since it was, precisely, its own will that imposed it. But the good teacher knows that his mastery does not come from himself, and he listens in confidence, certain that he will be told exactly what to do.