Whenever you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God’s creations. Perceiving this as ‘sin’ you become defensive because you expect attack. The decision to react in this way is yours, and can therefore be undone.
T-5.VII.5:1-3
Let us begin with a brief discussion of the opening quotation. Whenever we are not wholly joyous, we believe it is because some worldly situation, event or circumstance has made it impossible to be joyous. Let’s say, for example, I have a dental appointment today to have a tooth filled. I believe my lack of joy is caused by my anticipated dental work. It never occurs to me that the absence of joy is actually caused by my reaction, in my mind, to my thoughts about my dental work. In my fearful condition, I have forgotten that I have a choice between the teacher of fear and the teacher of joy, my wrong mind or my right mind, the ego or the Holy Spirit. Obviously, if I am in a fearful state I have chosen my ego as my teacher and that is the reason I am not joyful.
What if I chose the teacher of happiness and joy? What if I decided to feel gratitude, a form of love, for the availability of having a doctor who can offer me help in a form that I can recognize and accept? Wouldn’t that bring me joy? It would have to if my gratitude is genuine.
For those of you who appreciate logic let me offer you this syllogism (logical argument) from Workbook Lesson 66:
God gives me only happiness.
He has given my function to me.
Therefore my function must be happiness.
W-pI.66.5:2-4The first premise is that God gives you only happiness. This could be false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God as something He is not. Love cannot give evil, and what is not happiness is evil. God cannot give what He does not have, and He cannot have what He is not. Unless God gives you only happiness, He must be evil. And it is this definition of Him you are believing if you do not accept the first premise.
The second premise is that God has given you your function. We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind. One is ruled by the ego, and is made up of illusions. The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides. There are no other guides but these to choose between and no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear that the ego always engenders, and the love that the Holy Spirit always offers to replace it.
Thus, it must be that your function is established by God through His Voice, or is made by the ego which you have made to replace Him. Which is true? Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of the ego. Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts? W-pI.66.6-8.