Occasionally I’ll walk in and the guys are watching a favorite movie they’ve already seen. “Maybe the hero won’t die this time,” I say. Well of course he will! It’s a MOVIE! It’s already over and it’s never going to change.

The Course says the time of our death is known. Well of course it is! It’s a MOVIE! It’s already over and it’s never going to change. My running up to the screen and becoming emotionally involved and wanting it to be different has no effect, other than to eliminate MY ability to stand back and look at the big picture. That’s the only thing all of my agony can change.

To muddy the waters, yes, it is a multiple-choice moving picture. Yes, Decision Maker Me can break away at any point and,  from that point on, create a DIFFERENT movie with a DIFFERENT ending (and the old one will still play on to its end).  CHOICE.  But the Decision Maker is way in the back of the theater, detached and whole, not nose-to-nose with the screen and acting hysterical. YOU are the Decision Maker, and that little ego figure screeching at the foot of the screen is a lie. Don’t watch Life through the lie anymore. Back away from the screen and get Real.

This is forgiveness.  “Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory.”  The truth being the DM/Observer who stands in the back of the theater.  Nothing the ego thinks, does or says has anything to do with You.  We get so involved with the antics of the caricature we made up that we carry a lot of guilt and shame without even knowing what it’s about.  And we don’t have to.  From our perspective as the Observer, the guilt and shame fall away (because you’ve forgiven yourself for having them; you’ve let them go), and the clear issues can come up to be handled without distortion.  They’re now impersonal.

To “call upon the strength of Christ in you” is to step out of the caricature and see through the Observer–both of whom are present in us Now.  CHOICE.  “It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness.”  We don’t have to “do” anything except look at the Bigger Picture from the Bigger Mind.  “It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light.”  And everybody loves a happy ending.(Quotes from Lesson 64.)