You are my goal, my Father. Only You.
1. Where would I want to go but to Heaven? I
²What could take the place of happiness?
³What could I possibly prefer to the Peace of God?
⁴What treasure would I wish to seek, to find, and to keep that could compare with my Identity?
⁵And why would I choose to live in fear instead of in Love?
2. You are my goal, my Father.
²What else but You could I desire?
³What path but the one that leads to You would I wish to follow?
⁴And what could remembering You mean to me,
but the end of dreams
and of the useless things that have taken the place of truth?
⁵You are my only goal.
⁶Your Son longs to be as You created him.
⁷How else could I come to know my Self
and reclaim my Identity?
I It is possible that this Lesson may seem difficult for you to embrace with complete honesty—and acknowledging that is a good beginning.
To say that God is your only goal in this world may sound excessive, for to desire something with such conviction requires knowing clearly what it is that you desire and being convinced that attaining it is realistic. That approach works for worldly goals, but not for God, because to know God and to be in God are the same. Whoever knows God is already in Him and does not need to have Him as a goal.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the one who cannot make God his goal is not your true Identity. You are not that personal mind distracted by a thousand secondary aims. You are the Son of God, who has never been separated from His Father and therefore does not need to “find” Him. That is why the final words of the Lesson are so revealing: “…and to reclaim my Identity.”
How could it not be difficult for you to have God as your goal if you still do not know who you are? You can repeat with your lips that you are the Son of God, but immediately your mind fills with trivialities that cannot be the expression of your true condition.
Do not be troubled. That is precisely the purpose of this Course: to help you remember what you are. If you had already accepted your true Identity, you would not need forgiveness or Atonement, for the Son of God knows neither sin nor separation. But you, who are He, while you remain identified with an illusory self, do need them.
In this state of confusion, having God as your goal is an act of will. It is your way of declaring that you wish to align your will with the Will of the Father. Though in the deepest truth your will and His are forever one, this gesture of surrender within time has immense value, for it reopens you to the remembrance of the eternal.
You may express it in a simple prayer that turns this declaration into a living act: “My Father, I want You, and only You, to be my goal.” This plea resounds in Heaven and moves the angels of God to assist you in your rightful purpose. For this is the path of the mystics: to focus the whole mind on a single aim, to purify it of scattered objectives, until it is free to recognize the only thing that is real.
My Father, may my will be one with Yours today, and may You alone be my goal and my rest.