Ask: Can you interpret "all things work together for good"?

“Please interpret this phrase from the text 4:V:1: ‘All things work together for good. There are no exceptions except in the ego's judgment.’ In the ego-world/battlefield it hardly seems possible that ‘all things works together for good’. I can understand that on a metaphysical level it is possible; however, the world we see with the body’s eyes is a battlefield.” – K.A.

The world you see is always an interpretation. You see forms moving about and decide what they mean. In fact, a practice I learned was to sort out fact from my projection of meaning. For example, let’s say you see John shoot George. The facts is one body shot the other body. But, depending on the context, you may interpret that as good or bad. If it is during war and John is on your side and George is the enemy, you will probably see it as good. Or, if George is someone you judge as a “bad guy” you may also see it as good. Maybe John shot George in self-defense and you think it’s regrettable, but justified. Or you could see things in black and white and think that anybody shooting anybody else for any reason is wrong, so it is bad.

However, you could say, “John shot George” and decide you don’t know, in the big picture, what this means. You may pity one or the other or both. But you could make no judgment on it in the recognition that you don’t know why things unfolded that way.

Now to your quote: The unfolding story of the universe of form is the moment of the idea of not-Truth/the-undoing-of-the-idea-of-not-Truth in the Mind of Truth (God) played out in time. So we are always living in the undoing (Atonement) of the idea-of-not-Truth, even if, in the moment, we cannot see that larger story. So all things, no matter how they appear, do work for good if you judge the Undoing as “good”!

“In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future.” (M-10.3)

When you watch a movie and you don’t know the outcome, you may fret over the protagonist’s every challenge. But if you know there will be a happy ending, you relax and understand that everything that happens leads to that ending. You can look at the world the same way, knowing that, no matter how things appear right now, it is happening as part of the Undoing, the happy ending.

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If you want to benefit from my experience and lighten your process, email me at Liz@acimmentor.com to set up an appointment for mentoring. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com.

New Book! The ACIM Mentor Articles Volume 2

The first volume was a collection of the articles in this newsletter/blog from 2006 thru early 2010. This second volume is a collection of articles from late 2010 thru 2014 and answers direct questions from readers. Now available in paperback and on Kindle at www.amazon.com.