Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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5 True empathy is of Him Who knows what it is. You will learn His
interpretation of it if you let Him use your capacity for strength and
not for weakness. He will not desert you, but be sure that you
desert not him. Humility is strength in this sense only—to recognize
and accept the fact that you do not know is to recognize and accept
the fact that He does know. You are not sure that He will do His part
because you have never yet done yours completely. You will not know
how to respond to what you do not understand. Be tempted not in this,
and yield not to the ego’s triumphant use of empathy for its glory.
6 The triumph of weakness is not what you would offer to a brother. And
yet you know no triumph but this. This is not knowledge, and the form
of empathy that would bring this about is so distorted that it would
imprison what it would release. The unredeemed cannot redeem, yet they
have a Redeemer. Attempt to teach Him not. You are the learner; He
the Teacher. Do not confuse your role with His, for this will never
bring peace to anyone. Offer your empathy to Him, for it is His
perception and His strength that you would share. And let Him offer
you His strength and His perception to be shared through you.
7 The meaning of love is lost in any relationship which looks to
weakness and hopes to find love there. The power of love, which is its
meaning, lies in the strength of God, which hovers over it and blesses
it silently by enveloping it in healing wings. Let this be, and do not
try to substitute your “miracle” for this. We once said that if a
brother asks a foolish thing of you, to do it. But be certain that this
does not mean to do a foolish thing that would hurt either him or you,
for what would hurt one will hurt the other. Foolish requests are
foolish for the simple reason that they conflict because they contain an
element of specialness. Only the Holy Spirit recognizes foolish needs as
well as real ones. And He will teach you how to meet both without losing
either.
8 You will attempt to do this only in secrecy. And you will think
that, by meeting the needs of one, you do not jeopardize another because
you keep them separate and secret from each other. That is not the way,
for it leads not to light and truth. No needs will long be left unmet if
you leave them all to Him Whose function is to meet them. That is
His function and not yours. He will not meet them secretly, for He
would share everything you give through Him. And that is why He gives
it.
9 What you give through Him is for the whole Sonship, not for part of
it. Leave Him His function, for He will fulfill it if you but ask Him to
enter your relationships and bless them for you.