# A New Vision Of Money - 19: Dedicate your life to your function in God's plan One of the most surprising ideas in A Course in Miracles is that everyone in this world is a psychotherapist. This idea seems to make little sense, since each of us has different professions. However, the Course says that in every encounter we have with another person, we are practicing psychotherapy. As it states in the supplement “Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice”: > How could a separate profession be one in which everyone is engaged? And how > could any limits be laid on an interaction in which everyone is both patient > and therapist in every relationship in which he enters? ([P-3.II.1:2-3](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/914#1:2-3)) The idea that you must be a psychotherapist—or that you already are one—may cause resistance, but its logic is very clear. The only thing that needs healing is the mind; therefore, psychotherapy is the only form of therapy that exists: > Psychotherapy is the only form of therapy there is. Since only the mind can be > sick, only the mind can be healed. Only the mind is in need of healing. ([P-in.1:1-3](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/901#1:1-3)) If your function in this world is to heal, if the mind is what must be healed, and if the method for doing so is psychotherapy, then it follows that your true profession is to be a psychotherapist. To heal your own mind, it is necessary to help heal the minds of others. This is how your function is carried out. It does not have to look like traditional psychotherapy as practiced in the world, but it is crucial to understand that every interaction you have with every person—no matter how trivial it seems—is a psychotherapy session, where you have the opportunity to offer healing to another’s mind so that it may also be received by your own.  Whatever form psychotherapy takes, your function is to bless your brothers and help them regain peace by recognizing that they are not victims of the world. Psychotherapy is simply a series of encounters in which both people are blessed and move a little further along their path: > Ideally, psychotherapy is a series of holy encounters in which brothers meet > to bless each other and to receive the peace of God. And this will one day > come to pass for every “patient” on the face of this earth, for who except a > patient could possibly have come here? The therapist is only a somewhat more > specialized teacher of God. He learns through teaching, and the more advanced > he is the more he teaches and the more he learns. But whatever stage he is in, > there are patients who need him just that way. They cannot take more than he > can give for now. Yet both will find sanity at last. ([P-2.I.4:1-7](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/905#4:1-7)) It may also seem strange to think that every interaction, no matter how small, is a psychotherapy session. But the Course emphasizes again and again that there are no accidental encounters or coincidences regarding the people who enter your life. Whoever comes is someone with the potential to heal together with you. This is not hard to accept if we remember that, as we said earlier, we are here to heal. If that is our only function, why would there be meaningless or random encounters? Just as the Holy Spirit selects who comes into your life, we must also let Him tell us what that person needs from us—how they are to be helped: > Everyone who is sent to you is a patient of yours. This does not mean that you > select him, nor that you choose the kind of treatment that is suitable. But it > does mean that no one comes to you by mistake. There are no errors in God’s > plan. It would be an error, however, to assume that you know what to offer > everyone who comes. This is not up to you to decide. ([P-3.I.1:1-6](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/913#1:1-6)) Almost everyone who works in a profession expects to be compensated for it. If psychotherapy is our divine profession, so to speak, can we expect some form of divine compensation? That question is also answered in the psychotherapy supplement, and the answer is something few would anticipate: > No one can pay for therapy, for healing is of God and He asks for nothing. It > is, however, part of His plan that everything in this world be used by the > Holy Spirit to help in carrying out the plan. Even an advanced therapist has > some earthly needs while he is here. Should he need money it will be given > him, not in payment, but to help him better serve the plan. Money is not evil. > It is nothing. But no one here can live with no illusions, for he must yet > strive to have the last illusion be accepted by everyone everywhere. He has a > mighty part in this one purpose, for which he came. He stays here but for > this. And while he stays he will be given what he needs to stay. ([P-3.III.1:1-10](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#1:1-10)) We have finally reached the conclusion we have been building. As you read above, money is neither good nor bad—money is nothing. Every student of A Course in Miracles should decide to keep this vision in mind. It makes no sense to reject money, and it makes no sense to orient your actions toward obtaining it. Why? Because money is simply nothing. Who in their right mind would seek something that isn’t there? Yet the Course, in its deep sobriety, offers us the middle way. It is true that money is nothing, but in this world of illusions we cannot deny that we need illusions in order to remain here. Instead of orienting our actions toward staying in the world—such as working for money to sustain ourselves—our actions will be oriented only toward awakening. As a result, everything we need along the way will be given to us. If we dedicate ourselves fully to our function as healers of the world, then there is nothing the Holy Spirit will be unable to provide. Not as payment, but as the support that allows us to carry out our work more effectively. We tend to think in terms of “love doesn’t last on an empty stomach,” and God understands this concern. We think that if we dedicate ourselves to our function, the realities of the world will crush us. Yes, we want peace, but first there are so many other problems demanding attention. God, however, asks us to think differently: > You may wonder how you can be at peace when, while you are in time, there is > so much that must be done before the way to peace is open. Perhaps this seems > impossible to you. But ask yourself if it is possible that God would have a > plan for your salvation that does not work. Once you accept His plan as the > one function that you would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy > Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. > > He will go before you, making straight your path, and leaving in your way no > stones to trip on and no obstacles to bar your way. Nothing you need will be > denied you. Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it. > You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only > purpose that you would fulfill. ([CE T-20.IV.9-10](https://acimce.app/:T-20.IV.9-10)) So let us concern ourselves with nothing except carrying out our role as saviors of the world. We came here to help the Son of God heal. What could be holier than that? What more could we want? ## Practice ### In the morning As we enter silence this morning, we will spend a few minutes committing ourselves to our only function in this world. 1. Close your eyes and slowly repeat: “My only function is the one God gave me.” 2. Now allow thoughts to arise. Observe each one and confront it with: “This thought reflects a goal that is keeping me from fulfilling the only function God gave me.” 3. When your mind becomes quiet, say: “On this blank slate I will let God write my true function.” The blank slate is your calmed mind. 4. Repeat this phrase slowly, leaving long periods of silence to receive whatever God wants to communicate. 5. Allow thoughts to come as long as they feel related to your true function. 6. Now focus on how deeply you want to fulfill that function, and how important it is for you and for the world. You may think of the relief it would bring to you and to the people in your life. 7. If thoughts arise that are not compatible with your function, confront them again with: “This thought reflects a goal that is keeping me from fulfilling the only function God gave me.” ### During the day Using your phone’s timer, repeat every 20 minutes: > "My only function is the one God gave me. I want and have no other." If your peace feels threatened for any reason, say to yourself with determination: > "Let this not be an excuse to stop fulfilling my only function."