Month: March 2016

A healing

By Cindy

One of the more difficult, but ultimately most growing experiences in healing I have had, taught me how to take a stand for Truth, to trust God with everything I am, and not bow to pressure.

When I was pregnant with my second child, my father-in-law faced a difficult diagnosis that played around in my thought for a while. I wondered if, in a similar situation, I would be able to stand for the truth, or would I decide that I needed to have some other kind of help? Did I know enough, or trust God enough, to put my life in God’s care? As it turned out, I had to answer that question much sooner than I had thought.

Home births were not allowed at the time where we lived, and when we had to go to the hospital, the doctor declared that I was severely anemic and that the baby could have a severe infection if we did not have a blood transfusion at once, and then have a c-section delivery. He said I would most likely die during delivery and the baby could develop brain damage. He said I was “critical.” Here it was. Life or death. Whoa.

My thought wandered all over at first, from sheer panic about the prognosis, to anger that I had been a good person and did not deserve this, to wondering if I knew enough to trust God. I knew that panic, anger and doubt were not coming from God, and when I was able to be still and shut out those thoughts, I felt a calm come over me. That sense of calm and peace was from God. I could trust that.

However, what were we to do? The options seemed to be to follow the medical advice and we would “probably” be ok; or not follow the advice and die. Or, were those the only options? The more deeply still and quiet I got, the more I felt at peace. Slowly, insistently, the thought came, “Go home.”

Being obedient to that thought took tremendous trust. The doctor angrily informed me that the decision to go home was reckless and stupid. I signed an “against medical advise” waver to get out of the hospital and went home.

Being at home made it easier to keep listening, trusting, and loving. In that sweet listening time, the upset, fear, and anger were replaced by calm, trust, and an understanding that Life is God, divine Love, who is always caring for Her children.

The Bible Lesson that week told the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac to God, and this showed me that I could trust my baby to God. God didn’t require death as a sacrifice, because God knows only Life. A steady, strong conviction that God is All filled me with gratitude.

When the labor began in earnest, I returned to the hospital, which was required by law. I knew I couldn’t be hurt by being obedient to God. This time, I felt a deep peace that all was well, and when the nurse examining me declared that the labor had not progressed at all, I knew then that God delivered this baby and time was not a factor. Within ten minutes, my daughter arrived safely. Both she and I were perfect, to the amazement of the doctor and nurses.

What had changed? Did the anemia and infection get corrected? No. Nothing had changed. My listening to God revealed the constant steady perfection of God’s creation, completely untouched by evil, human theories, or predictions, including death.

Did I answer the question in my heart? Did I know enough, or trust God enough, to put my life in God’s care? I found that I didn’t need to answer the question because there is no death question for anyone. My daughter and I fully experienced Life. And I still rejoice in that experience. I see now that everyone always has the Christ light to uplift consciousness and see reality. How very grateful I am to have had this lesson.

 

 

 

Today we celebrate Easter.

We feel gratitude unbounded for all that Christ Jesus lived and proved: there is no death!

We feel gratitude unbounded for Mary Baker Eddy and her love and life of devotion to Jesus, and for the Christ Science she discovered that continues to prove his teachings for the world.

We feel gratitude for understanding that our individual resurrection happens daily. Step by step, as we overcome a material sense of ourselves, we are rising  to a higher, more spiritual view of life and living, with no death of true good.

Being impressed with matter, its fascinations, lacks, limits, fears, discords, or even glittering attractiveness, even the abundance of it, we believe our lives are governed by how much matter we have or do not have. This nullifies our native beautiful spiritual sense. And makes us worship everything wrong.  It takes from us our love of God and our joy of, and confidence in, divine Life with all its wonderful provision.

Today your model is Christ Jesus. He was always about his Father’s business. His was always a mission of Love’s love. We can rise above material, lower demands on us through accepting  that ever-present, eternal good is from God, divine Mind.

Mary Baker Eddy shared this with a metaphysical worker in her home.  “Jesus’ whole life was resurrective; that is, his life was a constant, conscious rising spiritually above sin, sickness, death. And his resurrection from the grave was to sense a type of divine Love’s final triumph over the human belief that matter is substance or has power to impose limitations [on] Mind or man.” *

Today, as we celebrate all that Christ Jesus gave us, showing to mankind, that Life is Spirit, spiritual, present and uncompromised by material sense, we realize that Easter should glorify God, and cherish the success of Jesus’ life mission. We are blessed beyond understanding.

Today let’s consciously put off the old sense of man and life material, and glorify (“render honor or esteem”) to God, and gratitude unbounded for Christ Jesus.

We can really say, then, Happy Rising! Happy Soul-filled Easter!

 

* We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Vol ll.  p. 167

 

A gentle man called me today….

 

And he told me he was changing.  He could feel it and see it in his life.

He said for many years he just “tinkered” with Christian Science.

Now he prays daily, attends church, and regularly works with the Lesson

and the ideas he loves in Science and Health:

One, The question, “What is man?”
Two, “The Scientific Statement of Being,”
And, three, The declaration that he is the perfect child of God.

“Am I doing it right?” he asked.

He said, “I can feel the change in me.

“I wish I had not just tinkered with this forty years ago.

“I am changing, and it is all for the good.”

This is a happy man.

For example,

He was sitting on the steps of a church

On a very very noisy city street,

And he heard the chirping of a bird in a tree near him.

With all the noise, he heard only the bird’s song.

This amazed him.

Responding to a bird’s lovely song right in

The middle of the cacophony of the city….

That’s spiritual sense. That’s finding the beauty in Life.

(How good God is. How receptive this heart.)

“….let me sow love;”

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.” *

The so-called Peace Prayer known as a Christian prayer, certainly identifies our desire to be and express love, peace, pardon, faith, hope, light and joy, doesn’t it? And it begins correctly by turning to God to assure us of our love for God and our love for others, and to remind us of our responsibility to love and live the life of obedience to Christ Jesus ‘ new commandment, “That ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”  ** ( After two thousand plus  years, one would think we’d  be better at this.)

Regardless of the hatred, Jesus was love. Mrs. Eddy tells us, “The divine must overcome the human at every point.” Then she writes,”Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must seal the victory over death…”  Jesus “proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate.” ***  Love is the master of hate. Where Love is, there can literally be no hate.

All these experiences that cry out in our world are cries for love, as sourced in divine Love. That is simply all this is. As the wonderful song goes, “What the world needs now is……..” ( fill in the blank.) And it is coming to our conscious awareness for us to live this love, to bring healing, to love every possible way and place we can. You don’t lose for loving!

To have any one focused on hate, demands that we, individually, turn completely around and focus on love. Right? Wherever there is indifference, or coolness, or avoidance, or even supposedly neutral-not-caring, or walking past without a word, or thinking no one needs you or your care, there we must love. Don’t miss an opportunity to love in the tiniest place, the tiniest spot, – perhaps  the most insignificant smile can make someone’s day.

Let’s just fill our thought with such alertness that we will never be caught without expressing and living the love that is Love!

 
* Incorrectly attributed to 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi.

** John 13: 33,34

*** Science and Health, p 43,44.

 

The perfect place to start

You may find it interesting that in the Bible the word perfect is used over fifty times and the words perfect and perfection are in our Leader’s writings over four hundred fifty times. It seems to me tnat we are being shown, in hundreds of ways, the value, the necessity, of beginning our prayerful work with the recognition of  perfection, – God and Her all-good, perfect, creation.

The Student’s Reference Dictionary tells us that perfect means “finished, complete, not defective, having all that is requisite to its nature and kind; fully informed, completely skilled; complete in moral excellences.”

Our dedication to knowing and loving God’s all-goodness, our trust in this as our basis of thought and reasoning, gives our lives a buoyancy, strength, and security that nothing else can. We are starting at the top, beginning with God, Spirit, and Her spiritual creation, and loving the discovery. We are starting strong!

When I was in college I went to a Christian Science lecture. (Probably the best thing I learned in college.) The lecturer said, in essence, speaking about our starting point in prayer and treatment, When a fireman goes to a fire, he does not shoot the water at each individual flame,- he puts out the whole house, and when he puts out the whole house, each little flame goes out.

That has stayed with me all these years because “the whole house” is the recognition that all there is is God. And God, divine Mind, divine Love and Life, is perfect. Perfect God and Her perfect creation, spirirual, complete in every detail. The allness of God eliminates, by virtue of its allness, everything that is not God or like God.

To start with the trouble and continue to put out fires of small problems or even big problems by starting with imperfection leaves us trying to climb our way up higher, when that’s not necessary.  We worry, fret, we’re literally down in the dumps because our views are in the worrisome details that hook us in.

Let’s take that definition of perfection, understand that this is our starting point for our prayer, our work, and see the effects on our lives and our healing work. You are strong and secure when you  start with God! Don’t be tempted to start someplace else. Start at the top,of the mountain. You will love what you see. We will see good!

“Happy the man whose heart can rest, Assured God’s goodness ne’er will cease; Each day, complete, with joy is blessed, God keepeth him in perfect peace.” Hymn 83

“I knew my leg was fine.”

I’ve recently moved to a new apartment that is on the fourth floor of the building. Since I spend quite a bit of time sitting, I usually walk the stairs rather than use the elevator.

After having driven for 18 hours over the weekend, I was suffering from a claim of pain and weakness in my leg. So much so, that taking a forward step would cause the leg to begin to buckle. I found myself seeking the optimum position to be able to stand and walk.

Tuesday evening I had come home and decided I was taking the stairs anyway. I had been concentrating lately on the “Scientific Statement of Being,”* and when I reached the fourth floor the thought (a still small voice) came to me and said, “Without Truth you don’t have a leg to stand on.”

I continued to work with the Scientific Statement of Being that night and when I woke up, before even opening my eyes, I knew my leg was fine. And, I have been claim free ever since.

With much gratitude,

Gene M.

Science and Health, p. 468

Snuggled in the pocket of divine Love

Snuggled in the pocket of divine Love
Safe
Free
Matter is gone

Enveloped in calm, quiet stillness
So pure
Innocent
Whole and complete

Content in knowing the power of God
Surrounded
Cocooned
All wrapped up

Where divine Love overcomes all
Any fear of evil,
disease, poverty,
personality

God all around me constantly
Infinite
Unlimited
Timeless

I’m clear and able to trust
Snuggled in the pocket of divine Love.

Sent with love from Duffy

 

Life is like Home Depot!

This is NOT an advertisement. It IS a metaphor. Just enjoy it…,don’t take it too seriously! (Remember, Jesus spoke in terms of his own times.) Add your own insights! !!

Everything you will ever need for living is there! Ok, maybe that’s a bit of exaggeration, and I’m not advertising for it, but this is a pretty perfect metaphor for Life!

Think of all that is available! And it’s most exciting when you choose to walk in and experience all that’s available to you!

You may not even know what you need, or what you are looking for till you get there, but you’ll find it’s already been provided for you! You don’t have to make it, or create it, – it’s just like you, everything about you is already complete in every detail! You just get the joy of to discovering what’s there.

When you make a list of Life in its abundance, you realize it is eternal, without limits; it includes green grass and flowering plants!! Life includes beauty! Life is order! Life is provided by one overarching all- inclusive abundantly good idea, yet individually expressed. Life has movable partitions to allow for expansion of new ideas!

Life gets more interesting as you walk the aisles, taking in everything that has been provided in a beautifully ordered way. And there is always infinite guidance everywhere, called divine Principle, Love, – present to work all the parts, and provide the guide as to how things fit together.

Well, that’s a super example of Life! It is orderly, everything in its right and perfect place. You use it and have it wherever you go! Share it, expectantly watch how things work; watch the lights come on that eliminate the darkness; gain an understanding of the appropriate plumbing supplies;  and surround yourself with the colors you love,  painting them on your walls of your consciousness.

You can find all the little nuts and bolts you didn’t even know you needed or wanted. But they exist right where they need to be. Right now everything you require is present! Every detail provided with care, thoughtfulness, consideration. Sounds like all good right in one place right where you need it!

Life is just so! And the effect is a wonderful sense of provision, and protection, with glue sticks for all the little details.

A hymn in our hymnal begins, “Home is the consciousness of good.” This consciousness of good is the focus of our Home Improvement Center. Abundance of good recognized and expressed as Life in our consciousness will improve everything in our worlds.

There is a price for all this, – it is the price of paying attention and getting to know what’s in the store, down to smallest details, and that you are to use what Love has been providing forever as you. That’s living Life!

So Life is like Home Depot! Nothing exists in that store, -atmosphere of thought,- that was not first an idea. Then these ideas found expression in a million different ways, all with a purpose to benefit and bless. Then the individual puts these ideas to use as his daily life,  seeing and loving the possibilities for the world, from the tiniest repair project to building a whole vibrant community of Life- lovers!!

It’s the price of using all this good to paint and decorate a world, a world of ideas filled with generosity towards others, light, and so much love,

That’s enthusiasm! That’s joy and good! That’s Life! Like Home Depot!

Don’t take the bait! Part Two

I was recently invited to visit the parents of a close friend and was warned that the father liked to engage in political argument. During the visit, an opportunity arose for him to comment on politics and he seized it. I smiled and sipped my coffee. He segued to another political issue, and I smiled again as I munched on cheese and crackers. The conversation then turned calmly to upcoming travel plans and the visit went beautifully.

I have noticed that people are more agitated than usual about the upcoming presidential election. Each side harbors intense dislike for the candidates of the other side and the media fuels the fire.

Although I grew up in a very political family, I have learned to avoid heated political discussions as they are uncomfortable, non-productive, and can even ruin friendships.

In telling a friend about it later, I explained that I didn’t “take the bait” of engaging in a political discussion that could become uncomfortable.

I also pointed out that whoever gets elected, all will not be lost. People do not need to threaten to leave the country. Sanity will prevail. Perhaps, as healers, we can help people remain calm on this issue. This friend pointed out two additional thoughts which can help us retain a right perspective and bring healing to those who are concerned.

First, as Mary Bkaer Eddy explains in her autobiography, we can care as Jesus did. We are told that he ministered to the spiritual needs “of all who placed themselves under his care, always leading them into the divine order, under the sway of his own perfect understanding. His power over others was spiritual, not corporeal.” *

Secondly,  she encouraged, “It is safe to leave with God the government of man. He appoints and He anoints His Truth-bearers, and God is their sure defense and refuge.” **

Finally, we can also turn to our wise Christian Science pamphlet, “God Governs”.

Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer

*Reteospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy  p. 91

**ibid., p. 90

 

 

Don’t take the bait! Part One

Posted by Jennifer

I was recently hugged so tightly by a dear, loving friend that physical symptoms seemed to appear. The day after the hug, I could not move my neck freely. On the day after that, I had some difficulty sleeping as I tried to get my head, neck and back comfortable. On the third morning, I woke up in pain and the situation finally got my attention!

My first thought was to call a body-worker friend of mine who gets good results. Before I was even out of bed, however, my thinking cleared and I told myself that was a ridiculous idea. I thought, How could something so loving hurt me?!  I realized that I needed to use my wonderful healing tools, draw closer to God, and find out what there was for me to learn.

I sat down with my coffee and the latest issue of the Christian Science Sentinel on my iPad. I read the healing entitled “Back pain gone” and followed the Concord Express citation to the chapter “Footsteps of Truth” in Science and Health. I read several pages. I felt like I had been “seeing through a glass darkly” and that my vision was clearing.

I read a second healing entitled “No more arm and shoulder pain” and followed the citation to the chapter “Teaching Christian Science”. A few more pages provided me with insight and wisdom. My neck and back continued to feel better and by great good fortune, I had a visit with a Christian Science friend who stopped by for tea.

As we discussed the concept, “don’t take the bait” in politics, I realized that it applied equally to my thinking. I had been tempted to take the bait and view my body as material, ignoring the precious metaphysical truths I have learned. Instead, I was able to resist the temptation and make a concerted effort to see the truth about reality. Now, several hours later, the healing is nearly complete and I am most thankful.

I proceeded to reflect about how to expand this concept. When I hear people discussing their illnesses, when I hear television commercials touting various pharmaceuticals, and when I hear opinions of doctors based on their matter-based thinking and training, I vow to “not take the bait” but hold fast to the truth!

Respectfully submitted, Jennifer