When Derek Accidentally Did His Function and ...
Got Promoted Again (Spiritually)
ACIM LESSON 83: REVIEW:
(65) MY ONLY FUNCTION IS THE ONE GOD GAVE ME
(66) MY HAPPINESS AND MY FUNCTION ARE ONE
DAILY SUBSTACK LOVEBUG EDITION #227: TUES MAR 24, 2026
Tuesday. 9:02am. Derek: in a meeting.
Not just any meeting. The first proper Senior Project Lead meeting where Derek was actually running the thing rather than sitting in it. Richard present. Two other senior managers. The Hendricks client on the phone.
Derek: with his agenda. His prepared points. His carefully considered opening remarks designed to establish competence, authority, and the general impression that the promotion had been an excellent decision by all involved.
The lesson: sitting in his pocket. Metaphorically.
My only function is the one God gave me.
Derek: ignoring this temporarily. Because he had a meeting to run.
THE MEETING:
Eight minutes in. Derek: presenting the updated timeline. Professionally. Competently. Performing Senior Project Lead with what he felt was reasonable accuracy.
The Hendricks client: interrupting. A question. Not hostileā¦ genuine. About a dependency in the timeline that Derek hadnāt accounted for.
Old (unaware) Derek: wouldāve felt the flash of exposure. The this-is-where-they-realize-it-was-a-mistake panic. Would have immediately over-explained, apologized for the gap, performed contrition while simultaneously trying to appear unfazed.
Today (aware) Derek: my only function is the one God gave me.
Which was not: perform competence flawlessly. Which was not: never have gaps in timelines. Which was: forgiveness. Presence. Seeing people truly.
Derek: looking at the clientās question. Actually looking at it. Not as a threat. As: a human who knew something useful and was trying to contribute.
āThatās a really good catch,ā Derek said. Not performed. Just: true. āI hadnāt accounted for that dependency. Can you walk us through it?ā
The client: slightly surprised. Then: expansive. Clearly someone who had been waiting for permission to be helpful rather than difficult.
The room: shifting.
What had been a slightly tense timeline presentation becameā¦ a collaboration. The client contributing. Richard nodding. The two senior managers leaning in. The gap in the timeline: solved in four minutes by the human Derek had been managing as a problem rather than seeing as a colleague.
Afterward, Richard stopping Derek in the corridor. āGood meeting.ā
Not the ambiguous kind. Authentic.
Derek: not immediately analyzing it for twenty-two layers of subtext.
Just: receiving it. The way you receive something that belongs to you.
10:47am MARCUS:
Marcus: appearing at Derekās desk. Slurping what appeared to be a green smoothie through a straw with the particular intensity of a man who had decided wellness was happening whether his colleagues liked it or not.
Slurp.
Derek: looking up.
Slurp.
The flash: arriving. Small. The particular irritation of the smoothie-slurp, which had replaced the coffee-slurp, which had replaced the tea-slurp, which suggested Marcus was less a specific-beverage-slurper and more a committed slurper of all liquids in all forms for all time.
My happiness and my function are one.
Derek: catching himself. Then: looking at Marcus properly.
Marcus: holding the smoothie with genuine enthusiasm. Clearly pleased with himself. The man who had been crying at his desk six weeks ago, who was seeing a therapist, who had said different outfit, same problem with Derek on Friday afternoonā¦ now committed to green smoothies and apparently thriving.
The irritation: not gone exactly. But underneath it:
Something warm.
My happiness and my function are one.
Because Derekās functionā¦ seeing people truly, seeing the lightā¦ produced this. The happiness of watching Marcus go from broken at his desk to insufferably enthusiastic about kale.
That was: the function. And it was making Derek quietly, completely happy.
āWhatās in it?ā Derek asked.
Marcus: immediately, delightedly launching into a detailed breakdown of the smoothieās contents that lasted approximately four minutes and involved the word āadaptogensā three times.
Derek: listening. Actually listening.
The slurping: ongoing.
The happiness: genuine āØ
LUNCHTIME:
Derek: bench. Sandwich. Reviewing the morning.
All things that come from God are mine. They come from oneness and must be received as one. Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both come from the same source.
Heād been treating them as separate. Still. Even after lesson 66. The old habit: function is the spiritual bit, happiness is the reward if the spiritual bit goes well.
But the meeting this morning: the moment Derek stopped performing and just... saw the client as a person trying to helpā¦ thatā¦ was the function. And the room shifting, the problem solving, Richardās genuine good meetingā¦ that was the happiness.
Not sequence. Not reward. Same thing. Same moment.
The smoothie: the function was seeing Marcus as light. The happiness was the warmth of watching someone choose kale over collapse.
Same thing. Same moment.
Marianne had said it: all unhappiness comes from thinking youāre someone other than the representative of Godās love on earth. Thinking you have some function other than to give love.
Derek: thinking about the two versions of himself in that meeting room.
Performing-function Derek: careful, managed, competent, slightly tense, waiting to be found out.
Actual-function Derek: present, curious, seeing the client truly, turning a gap into a collaboration.
One: exhausting. One: easy.
One: a Tuesday heād have to recover from. One: a Tuesday heād carry lightly.
With one purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say, and what to think.
Derek: reading that sentence properly for the first time.
Always certain.
Not sometimes certain, when the lesson is fresh and the weekend has been extraordinary and the lamp is fully on. Always. Because the function doesnāt change with circumstances. Doesnāt need Derek to be at his best, or rested, or spiritually sparkling.
Just: one purpose. Forgiveness. Love. Seeing truly.
That purpose: available in every meeting, every smoothie conversation, every Monday tube elbow.
Derek: finishing his sandwich.
The function and the happiness: the same thing, the same Tuesday, the same bench.
That wasā¦ everything āØ
TODAYāS PRACTICE šŖš¼
THE FUNCTION CHECK: In your next interactionā¦ any interactionā¦ ask first: what is my function here? Not what do I need to achieve, perform, or produce. What is my actual function? Then do that. Notice what changes.
THE HAPPINESS AUDIT: Where today did you feel genuinely, unexpectedly happy? Trace it back. Was it connected to your functionā¦ a moment of real seeing, real presence, real love given or received? It always is. Thatās the data.
THE ONE PURPOSE PRACTICE: The lesson says: with one purpose only, I am always certain. Try it. Pick one upcoming situation that feels complicated. Apply the one purpose. My function is forgiveness. My function is love. My function is seeing truly. Watch the complexity dissolve into: what to do next.
JOURNAL PROMPTS š
š Where today did you perform your function vs. actually fulfil it? What was the difference in how it felt?
š What made you genuinely happy todayā¦ can you trace it back to a moment of connection, presence, or real seeing?
š Marianne said: if youāre not performing Godās function, you wonāt be that attractive a person. Where have you noticed this in your own lifeā¦ the correlation between being in your function and things flowing vs. forcing?
WISDOM COUNCIL āØ
āAll the problems of humanity stem from manās inability to sit quietly in a room alone.ā ~ Blaise Pascal
(ā¦and just stay with whatās already been shown)
āThe world is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.ā ~ SĆøren Kierkegaard
(Youāre not here to fix it. Youāre here to see it)
āWhat you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.ā ~ Carl Jung
(Soā¦ what are we still pushing against?)
āHe who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.ā ~ Lao Tzu
(This was always an inside job)
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