God's Atheist

Chapter 11: How Do I Know?

I've read that it doesn't matter one iota to God if we believe in Him or not. The only thing He asks of us is to forgive. How do I know all of these teachings are Divine Truth? Because I have applied them to my daily life and am experiencing a deeply real and continually growing peace. I have discovered the beauty of living in the now. My ego wants me to be living in the past and concerned over the countless mistakes I made, and more importantly desires me to be very worried about the future. If I'm living in the past or worried about the future, I'm not talking to the Holy Spirit now. When we live in the moment, absolutely nothing can harm us. Put this into practice and you will understand by personal experience. ACIM calls this the Holy Instant. So how do we eliminate our ego? The beauty of God's grace informs us we eliminate our ego by the simplicity of forgiveness. This certainly didn't happen overnight, but I started forgiving the guy blaring on his car horn, the cashier talking on the phone, different friends who stole from me, the two ladies who broke off our separate marriage agreements, the manager who fired me because I intimidated him for knowing more about his job than he did. The heroin addicts I lived with for over a decade that cost me everything I owned because I was an enabler. By constantly forgiving, I was systematically and permanently eliminating another of my ego's layers. Another very important tactic to guarantee its elimination is never talk or listen to it because this makes it real to you and it's not. Whenever you're sorrowful, depressed, indulging in self-pity, angry, worried, anxious, hating, jealous or fearful; you're listening to your screaming and lying ego that wants you absolutely miserable. Forgive all and pay it no mind, always.