Today's lesson, review lesson number 83, My only function is the one God gave me, and My happiness and my function are one.

Today's lesson, number 83 in A Course In Miracles, is a review lesson of lessons 65 and 66 which are: "My only function is the one God gave me," and "My happiness and my function are one."

Our function is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the realization that the things on the path of the ego are a part of the dream world and only the nondualistic Oneness is real. In other words we have come to realize that the things of the ego world are all bull shit.

At the time of our separation from the Oneness of God, God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us back home. It is the acceptance of the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the rejection of the illusions and idols of the ego that is our function for ourselves and our fellow beings.

We are all a part of the Sonship. This is our Universalist faith taught in the USA since the late 1700s. We, Universalists, have called this "universal salvation." Accepting this understanding and extending it into the world is our function.

The second lesson, "My happiness and my function are one" reminds us that in accepting this faith in universal salvation and extending it into the world is where our happiness lies.

Salvation is achieved when everybody loves everybody all the time. This is the basis of our covenant to affirm and promote our seven principles. Engaging in this covenant which is, at a deep level, another way of defining what ACIM calls "forgiveness" is the source of great happiness and our bliss.

Today, it would do us well to remind ourselves what our function is. We will have tens, if not hundreds, of opportunities to practice this forgiveness. Everytime we find ourselves annoyed, angry, resentful, vengeful, afraid we can choose the path of the ego or the path of the Holy Spirit. We can reflect on what our function is and what will make us truly happy. If we stumble and make a mistake and give in to anger, grievance, anxiety, we can, of course, always choose again.

Unitarian Univeralism is a religion of second chances as we practice our third principle which is the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.