LESSON 186 Salvation of the world depends on me.

1. 1Here is the statement that will one day take all arrogance away from every mind. 2Here is the thought of true humility, which holds no function as your own but that which has been given you. 3It offers your acceptance of a part assigned to you, without insisting on another role. 4It does not judge your proper role. 5It but acknowledges the Will of God is done on earth as well as Heaven. 6It unites all wills on earth in Heaven’s plan to save the world, restoring it to Heaven’s peace.

2. 1Let us not fight our function. 2We did not establish it. 3It is not our idea. 4The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. 5All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. 6What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. 7Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.

3. 1Today’s idea may seem quite sobering, until you see its mean­ing. 2All it says is that your Father still remembers you, and offers you the perfect trust He holds in you who are His Son. 3It does not ask that you be different in any way from what you are. 4What could humility request but this? 5And what could arrogance deny but this? 6Today we will not shrink from our assign­ment on the specious grounds that modesty is outraged. 7It is pride that would deny the Call for God Himself.

4. 1All false humility we lay aside today, that we may listen to God’s Voice reveal to us what He would have us do. 2We do not doubt our adequacy for the function He will offer us. 3We will be certain only that He knows our strengths, our wisdom and our holiness. 4And if He deems us worthy, so we are. 5It is but arro­gance that judges otherwise.

5. 1There is one way, and only one, to be released from the imprisonment your plan to prove the false is true has brought to you. 2Accept the plan you did not make instead. 3Judge not your value to it. 4If God’s Voice assures you that salvation needs your part, and that the whole depends on you, be sure that it is so. 5The arrogant must cling to words, afraid to go beyond them to experience which might affront their stance. 6Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice which tells them what they are, and what to do.

6. 1Arrogance makes an image of yourself that is not real. 2It is this image which quails and retreats in terror, as the Voice for God assures you that you have the strength, the wisdom and the holiness to go beyond all images. 3You are not weak, as is the image of yourself. 4You are not ignorant and helpless. 5Sin can not tarnish the truth in you, and misery can come not near the holy home of God.

7. 1All this the Voice for God relates to you. 2And as He speaks, the image trembles and seeks to attack the threat it does not know, sensing its basis crumble. 3Let it go. 4Salvation of the world depends on you, and not upon this little pile of dust. 5What can it tell the holy Son of God? 6Why need he be con­cerned with it at all?

8. 1And so we find our peace. 2We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. 3Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. 4We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. 5Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.

9. 1Is this the Son of God? 2Could He create such instability and call it Son? 3He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. 4All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. 5They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. 6Or like mirages seen above a desert, ris­ing from the dust.

10. 1These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. 2The images you make give rise to but conflicting goals, impermanent and vague, uncertain and ambiguous. 3Who could be constant in his efforts, or direct his energies and concentrated drive toward goals like these? 4The functions which the world esteems are so uncertain that they change ten times an hour at their most secure. 5What hope of gain can rest on goals like this?

11. 1In lovely contrast, certain as the sun’s return each morning to dispel the night, your truly given function stands out clear and wholly unambiguous. 2There is no doubt of its validity. 3It comes from One Who knows no error, and His Voice is certain of Its messages. 4They will not change, nor be in conflict. 5All of them point to one goal, and one you can attain. 6Your plan may be impossible, but God’s can never fail because He is its Source.

12. 1Do as God’s Voice directs. 2And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who it is that asks, and who would make denial. 3Then consider this; which is more likely to be right? 4The Voice that speaks for the Creator of all things, Who knows all things exactly as they are, or a distorted image of your­self, confused, bewildered, inconsistent and unsure of every­thing? 5Let not its voice direct you. 6Hear instead a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.

13. 1His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. 2He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. 3He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. 4He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. 5For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

14. 1These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. 2Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. 3Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. 4In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. 5Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. 6Such is your func­tion here.