There was a time when I thought my purpose in life was something I had to discover—a calling hidden somewhere in the future if only I searched hard enough.

This lesson offers something much simpler.

My function is forgiveness.

Not forgiveness in the ordinary sense of overlooking someone else's mistakes, but the willingness to see beyond them. Beyond the stories. Beyond the defenses. Beyond the fearful identity we all sometimes wear.

I've noticed that whenever I hold someone in judgment, I don't just keep them trapped there. I stay there with them.

The Course says the jailer cannot leave the prison while guarding the prisoner. I've found that to be true. The resentment I believe I'm directing outward quietly settles into my own heart.

Forgiveness isn't pretending hurt never happened. It is remembering that what is deepest and truest in another person has never been damaged by fear. And if that is true of them, it must also be true of me.

Perhaps this is why forgiveness is our function. Every moment offers another opportunity to practice seeing with different eyes.

Sometimes I remember quickly. Sometimes it takes me hours—or days.

But every small willingness loosens another bar of the prison I built myself.

Today I don't need to solve the whole world.

I only need to meet the next person, the next memory, or the next difficult moment with a quiet prayer:

"Help me see what Love sees here."

That is enough.