# A New Vision Of Money - 20: Give genuinely -- do not purchase your relationships We have reached the final lesson of this workshop. In this lesson we will see how the Course asks you to walk a middle path—somewhere between the idea that you must get rid of all interest in money and the idea that money is necessary to carry out your function in this world. We have previously placed great emphasis on giving, healing, and helping, because that is our true function here. In practice, how does that translate into receiving what we need in this world? Let us first look at what the ego calls receiving payment. Consider, for example, medical doctors. Traditionally we see doctors as people with a very noble vocation, since they devote themselves to saving human lives. But anyone who has experienced the stress of waiting for approval from their health insurance also knows that this vocation is not as pure as it seems. Anyone who has lacked the money to buy a medication has also discovered that medicine is not offered freely and generously for the sake of preserving the lives of others. There are clearly two competing goals. One goal is saving lives; the other is obtaining money. The logic of the world quickly steps in to explain why this “injustice” makes sense. Doctors have made a great sacrifice—they have “burned the midnight oil” studying and working to advance their careers. They have invested a tremendous amount of time and effort, and who knows what else they have sacrificed to get where they are. Besides, their daily efforts to save lives are also part of the sacrifice they make for others. It seems natural that such sacrifice must be compensated—both for the doctors and for the insurance companies that have so “generously” provided their services. Doctors also have bills to pay, and they deserve a good life that balances out how much they have sacrificed.  The system that keeps us bound to this world assumes that when we offer a service, payment must come from the people we are serving. From whom else could we demand payment but the one who receives the service? There is a deeper reason behind this seemingly mundane fact. The Course explains that in this world we create special relationships, and the main dynamic we practice in all of them is sacrificing ourselves in order to oblige the other person to sacrifice in return. That is how our ego works. When we want something from someone else, we sacrifice ourselves as a way of signaling that it is now their turn to do the same. The doctor or psychotherapist who expects payment from the person receiving the service is simply activating this ego dynamic. The doctor sacrifices time and energy; the patient must now sacrifice through payment. Someone who eats in a restaurant and cannot pay is sent to the kitchen to wash dishes. The sacrifice of the receiver must be proportional to the sacrifice of the giver. Seen in these terms, it becomes clear that such a mentality can only lead to mutual poverty. Jesus frequently critiques this mentality in the Course. For example, in the psychotherapy supplement He tells us that a healer will fail in his attempts if he heals for money: > Only an unhealed healer would try to heal for money, and he will not succeed > to the extent to which he values it. Nor will he find his healing in the > process. ([P-3.III.2:1-2](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#2:1-2)) “Healing for money” obviously means demanding payment from the other person in exchange for the healing being offered. It is a very transactional way of seeing others, and it carries a coldness you have surely witnessed in people whose role was supposed to be helping, not demanding. The one who comes asking for help is seen as nothing more than the password to trigger a bank transfer, instead of a person with dignity. In the same section of the supplement we find this stark sentence—hard to deny—and it reminds us how easily one can lose sight of the fact that the other person is a brother: > If they believe they need anything from a brother, they will recognize him as > a brother no longer. ([P-3.III.5:9](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#5:9)) If you believe you need something from someone, that person becomes, in some way, your adversary. The therapist who loses sight of his brother and sees him as an adversary also loses his power to heal, for he cannot give genuinely: > The therapist who would do this loses the name of healer, for he could never > understand what healing is. He cannot give it, and so he does not have it. ([P-3.III.2:9-10](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#2:9-10)) When a therapist demands payment—and remember that all of us are therapists to someone in this world—what he receives in return will be an illusion. Healing is the giving of love; if your love is conditional or self-interested, you cannot truly call it love, nor can you expect to receive love in return. When you pay for a relationship—when you try to buy another person—you already know that such a relationship cannot be real. What Jesus is saying here is that if payment becomes a necessary requirement in order to offer therapy, in order to give love, then true healing becomes impossible as well. > The therapists of this world are indeed useless to the world’s salvation. They > make demands, and so they cannot give. Patients can pay only for the exchange > of illusions. This, indeed, must demand payment, and the cost is great. A > “bought” relationship cannot offer the only gift whereby all healing is > accomplished. ([P-3.III.3:1-5](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#3:1-5)) According to the psychotherapy supplement, a purchased relationship—the relationship established through the dynamic “I sacrifice myself to force your sacrifice”—results in something worse than merely missing the healing the relationship could have offered. There is a great difference between payment and cost. Cost is when something takes something from you—when it involves a deeper kind of loss. Jesus tells us that when payment is demanded of you, even when you cannot pay, “the cost is enormous.” What is the cost of buying our relationships? It costs us our role as healers. It costs us the understanding of what healing means. It costs us our place in the plan of salvation. Instead of offering forgiveness and help to the Son of God, we demand that he climb back onto the cross. This is why Jesus gives us a rule of behavior—in fact, the only rule in the entire Course, which may tell us something about how important this rule is to Him: > One rule should always be observed: No one should be turned away because he > cannot pay. No one is sent by accident to anyone. Relationships are always > purposeful. Whatever their purpose may have been before the Holy Spirit > entered them, they are always His potential temple; the resting place of > Christ and home of God Himself. Whoever comes has been sent. ([P-3.III.6:1-5](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#6:1-5)) ## How to receive payment Up to this point it may seem as if Jesus is asking us to work completely pro bono and never charge for anything we do. Remember that although this specific example concerns psychotherapy, all of us are playing the role of therapists in the world. Remember also that the dynamic of sacrificing yourself in order to demand some kind of payment from the other is a dynamic we enact with almost everyone in our lives. And remember finally that every interaction is an opportunity to heal another person. Are you going to sacrifice yourself and demand payment from everyone the Holy Spirit sends to you? You will surely think that somehow the money has to come back to you in order for you to carry out your functions in this world—and Jesus agrees with that thought. You are certainly not being asked to do everything for free. So let us look at the vision Jesus offers regarding receiving payment. ### 1. You came to the world to heal others, and you remain here only for this. In Chapter 13 Jesus tells us: > You have been told that your function in this world is healing, ([CE T-13.IV.1:3](https://acimce.app/:T-13.IV.1:3)) And in the psychotherapy supplement He reminds us: > He has a mighty part in this one purpose [to heal the world], for which he > came. ([P-3.III.1:8](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#1:8)) ### 2. Offer healing as a gift that comes freely from God Healing truly comes from God; therefore, it is not yours to price. Your only task is simply to deliver the gift God is sending to the person who is meant to receive it. God demands no payment for it, and so you are asked not to demand one either. > No one can pay for therapy, for healing is of God and He asks for nothing. ([P-3.III.1:1](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#1:1)) ### 3. By giving, you allow the Holy Spirit to give you everything you need When you give genuinely—rather than buying your relationships—you create the space for the Holy Spirit to be the One who provides you with what you need in order to carry out your function. What He gives you is not a payment or a reward for your efforts, but the means that allow you to remain in the world while serving the plan more effectively. This refers quite literally to the Holy Spirit’s ability to provide you with all the material means you need so that you may continue your function: > It has well been said that to him who hath shall be given. Because he has, he > can give. And because he gives, he shall be given. This is the law of God, and > not of the world. So it is with God’s healers. They give because they have > heard His Word and understood it. All that they need will thus be given them. ([P-3.III.5:1-8](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#5:1-8)) ### 4. Money is an illusion that is given to you to support your function In case it was not clear in the previous point, the material goods the Holy Spirit provides include money: > 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. ([P-3.III.1:4-6](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#1:4-6)) The Holy Spirit places no importance whatsoever on money. It is neither good nor bad. He knows that money is nothing. In a world filled with what is nothing, the Holy Spirit uses money only to hasten its end. ### 5. What you have comes from God, not from other people This is perhaps the most crucial point regarding receiving payment, so pay close attention. We usually think the money we have comes from the people who give it to us. That makes us believe that if we don’t have enough money, it’s because other people are withholding it. If something is lacking, it’s because someone has not wanted to pay us. The others are to blame. This is the mindset that must be changed. Money does not come from other people. Money may arrive through other people, but it always comes from God. He is the One orchestrating the entire process. It is essential that we understand this; otherwise, we won’t be able to relax in the trust that everything rests in the hands of Someone who wants your good and intends to supply all your needs. If we truly understand this, we would never demand payment as a condition, nor resent the person who doesn’t pay. If we truly understand this, we will see that everything we need will be provided to us. > All that they need will thus be given them. But they will lose this > understanding unless they remember that all they have comes only from God. ([P-3.III.5:7-8](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#5:7-8)) ### 6. What one lacks, the other supplies As we saw earlier, if I think the other person is in my life to give me the money I need, then I am not forming a real relationship. The alternative the Course offers is the holy relationship: a relationship in which each one is there to supply what the other needs — including material needs. The result of this kind of relationship is mutual gratitude. All the separation, tension, and mistrust that usually accompany the exchange of services for money are replaced by a feeling of recognition and appreciation toward the other. > If their relationship is to be holy, whatever one needs is given by the other; > whatever one lacks the other supplies. Herein is the relationship made holy, > for herein both are healed. The therapist repays the patient in gratitude, as > does the patient repay him. There is no cost to either. But thanks are due to > both, for the release from long imprisonment and doubt. Who would not be > grateful for such a gift? Yet who could possibly imagine that it could be > bought? ([P-3.III.4:4-10](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#4:4-10)) ### 7. Everyone who enters your life comes with a purpose Imagine how you would feel if you could recognize that everyone who comes into your life was sent by God. If you knew this was true, would you reject them? Would you impose conditions on your encounter with them? Would you not immediately consider the importance of the fact that this person was sent with a purpose or a message for you? > No one is sent by accident to anyone. Relationships are always purposeful. > Whatever their purpose may have been before the Holy Spirit entered them, they > are always His potential temple; the resting place of Christ and home of God > Himself. Whoever comes has been sent. ([P-3.III.6:2-5](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#6:2-5)) ### 8. Some are sent with the intention of paying you, at no cost to them The psychotherapy supplement categorizes the people who come into your life in two ways: those who are sent with the intention of paying you, and those who are not. > There will be those of whom the Holy Spirit asks some payment for His purpose. > There will be those from whom He does not ask. It should not be the therapist > who makes these decisions. There is a difference between payment and cost. To > give money where God’s plan allots it has no cost. ([P-3.III.2:3-7](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#2:3-7)) That it “does not constitute a cost” means that the one who pays is not sacrificing himself by paying you. They are blessing themselves in the act, just as you are. This point is confirmed a few paragraphs later: > Perhaps he was sent to give his brother the money he needed. Both will be > blessed thereby. ([P-3.III.6:6-7](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#6:6-7)) ### 9. Some are sent with the intention not to pay you, at no cost to you God also sends you people who are not able to pay you. This inability may be material or emotional. Yet, since they were sent by God, each one of them enters your life with a blessing for you. In fact, Jesus explains that part of the blessing you receive comes precisely from the fact that they cannot pay you, because this allows you to learn the lesson of how little value money truly has. > Perhaps he was sent to teach the therapist how much he needs forgiveness, and > how valueless is money in comparison. Again will both be blessed. ([P-3.III.6:8-9](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#6:8-9)) ### 10. Do not reject those who cannot pay you Instead of denying healing to those who come to you and cannot pay, Jesus asks us to receive them as patients. Every person who comes to you arrives with a gift—the gift of salvation that has been sent to you by God through that person. In gratitude for that gift, God asks that you receive His Son. This is the great conclusion Jesus reaches in the Psychotherapy supplement, and the conclusion that opens the way to a new vision of money. The conclusion is expressed with absolute clarity: > One rule should always be observed: No one should be turned away because he > cannot pay. ([P-3.III.6:1](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#6:1)) Jesus knows that we consider this rule completely impractical, but we have already studied in depth how impractical it is to chase after strips of paper as if they were valuable. Instead of thinking that these “patients” will represent a loss for our finances, we need to accept the precious gift they bring us: > Then stop a while, long enough to think of this: You have perhaps been seeking > for salvation without recognizing where to look. Whoever asks your help can > show you where. What greater gift than this could you be given? What greater > gift is there that you would give? ([P-3.III.7:7-10](https://acim.org/acim/en/s/915#7:7-10)) ## Conclusion And here, finally, is the new vision of money. It is a vision that answers the question: What are you really here for? If money is what ultimately matters to you, you will end up buying your relationships, and you will not be able to receive genuinely. You may have money, but your happiness will not last. You would also lose your ability to heal others and to heal yourself. But if you understand that you are in this world in the role of a healer, offering God’s healing—which He gives freely—then not only will you be helping the world to heal, but you will also see that God Himself will take care of all your earthly needs. Is that not something entirely desirable? Can you make room in your mind and in your heart for this new vision?  ## Practice ### In the morning On this final day of the workshop we will practice with this prayer from Lesson 355. Memorize one line, close your eyes, and feel that you are saying that line directly to God. He is listening to you: > Why should I wait, my Father, for the joy You promised me? For You will keep > Your Word You gave Your Son in exile. I am sure my treasure waits for me, and > I need but reach out my hand to find it. Even now my fingers touch it. It is > very close. I need not wait an instant more to be at peace forever. It is You > I choose, and my identity along with You. Your Son would be himself, and know > You as his Father and Creator and his love. ([CE W-355.1](https://acimce.app/:W-355.1)) Then spend a few minutes in silence, feeling that your fingers are already touching the treasure of peace, joy, and love that God offers you now. ### During the day Throughout the day, recall this phrase as often as you can: > "The peace, joy, and miracles I will extend when I accept the new vision are > unlimited. Why not accept it today?"