LESSON 139 I will accept Atonement for myself.

1. 1Here is the end of choice. 2For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. 3And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? 4There is no doubt that is not rooted here. 5There is no question but reflects this one. 6There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”

2. 1Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself? 2Only refusal to accept yourself could make the question seem to be sincere. 3The only thing that can be surely known by any living thing is what it is. 4From this one point of certainty, it looks on other things as certain as itself.

3. 1Uncertainty about what you must be is self-deception on a scale so vast, its magnitude can hardly be conceived. 2To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. 3For what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be alive instead? 4Who is the doubter? 5What is it he doubts? 6Whom does he question? 7Who can answer him?

4. 1He merely states that he is not himself, and therefore, being something else, becomes a questioner of what that something is. 2Yet he could never be alive at all unless he knew the answer. 3If he asks as if he does not know, it merely shows he does not want to be the thing he is. 4He has accepted it because he lives; has judged against it and denied its worth, and has decided that he does not know the only certainty by which he lives.

5. 1Thus he becomes uncertain of his life, for what it is has been denied by him. 2It is for this denial that you need Atonement. 3Your denial made no change in what you are. 4But you have split your mind into what knows and does not know the truth. 5You are yourself. 6There is no doubt of this. 7And yet you doubt it. 8But you do not ask what part of you can really doubt yourself. 9It cannot really be a part of you that asks this question. 10For it asks of one who knows the answer. 11Were it part of you, then cer­tainty would be impossible.

6. 1Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself, and be unsure of what you really are. 2This is the depth of madness. 3Yet it is the universal question of the world. 4What does this mean except the world is mad? 5Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true?

7. 1Nothing the world believes is true. 2It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. 3And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they learn it is impossible to doubt yourself, and not to be aware of what you are.

8. 1Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain. 2It is set forever in the holy Mind of God, and in your own. 3It is so far beyond all doubt and question that to ask what it must be is all the proof you need to show that you believe the contradiction that you know not what you cannot fail to know. 4Is this a question, or a statement which denies itself in statement? 5Let us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings such as this.

9. 1We have a mission here. 2We did not come to reinforce the madness that we once believed in. 3Let us not forget the goal that we accepted. 4It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. 5What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be, along with us. 6Fail not your brothers, or you fail yourself. 7Look lovingly on them, that they may know that they are part of you, and you of them.

10. 1This does Atonement teach, and demonstrates the Oneness of God’s Son is unassailed by his belief he knows not what he is. 2Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. 3It is but this that we are asked to do. 4It is but this that we will do today.

11. 1Five minutes in the morning and at night we will devote to dedicate our minds to our assignment for today. 2We start with this review of what our mission is:

3I will accept Atonement for myself,

For I remain as God created me.

4We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. 5We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. 6And in our memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love contains them all.

12. 1In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His Oneness with all aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as we lay aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. 2For several minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy Son of God. 3And learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep the knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:

4I will accept Atonement for myself,

For I remain as God created me.