Month: March 2016

I will not not love.

Remember how we said in the last post, that healing comes in all kinds of ways? And that it’s an inside job? (“What healing can look like.”)

So here is a healing that I can almost guarantee will be required of each one of us at some time in our life: to love where it seems impossible.

One of Mary Baker Eddy’s students asked her, “Mother, do you love me?” Her reply embraced the tone for her life, her success, her longevity, and her deep Christian nature. She responded, “I just love.” *

Can we answer the question that way? Actually, better said, is there a time or circumstance or a situation when we can’t love? It’s a really hard, face-to-face question. It defines our character. It defines our view of life. Of Love. Of others. Oops,- of ourselves.

I’m going to assume most of us confront this, knowing that a relationship may need our love to survive, or to thrive. Certainly every part of our world needs our love. Our vibrant, active love is born from our understanding of the divine Love that is unconditional.

This love may need to include a willingness to learn forgiveness on the deepest level of compassion, in the face of grievous wrong. It may include an understanding of someone’s unfortunate past experience or an unconscionable act.

The most profound recognition is that it isn’t about that other individual or circumstance. It is about us, individually. It may be about our own survival. It may be about our own peace. It will be about who we are and how we contribute to our world.

When, after all Mrs. Eddy had given to the world, all the love and generosity of her life, a lawsuit was brought against her and everything she stood for. Unfathomable to us, right? Yet as soon as she was informed that she had come through the case safely, we are told that she immediately wrote a letter of “overflowing forgiveness” to one who had signed the suit. **

Were there blessings by knowing she would not, could not, not love? Without a single doubt, and she knew this. True to her life of unconditional  love, expressed because of her deep oneness with divine Love, that example continues today to change the world.  It kept her safe. It kept the Christian Science Movement safe, and it continued to make Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, her seminal work, available to the world. Much depended on her willingness to not not love.

Let Love divine take you in, keep you safe, provide for you. Let Love divine love you.  Then you will love as Love loves and that will be your motto, your character, your provision and protection. Because it is.

Robert Muller wrote, in beautiful simplicity, about Love. “The beauty of flowers is due to the care of the gardener. The beauty of the world will depend on the care of its gardeners. Let us therefore all become loving gardeners of the world. If we use the full power of our heart to engender peace, justice, beauty, and happiness, a miracle will occur: there will be peace, justice, beauty, and happiness on our planet.”***

And we might add, abundant love.

* Twelve Years with Mary baker Eddy, p. 172

**Rolling Away the Stone, Gottschalk, Stephen, 2006

*** Most of All, They Taught Me Happiness., 1978

What healing can look like

Healing is an inside job.

And that’s good news, because that’s where you want healing to begin. Often it is deep within, meeting a need we may not even be aware of. Yet it always changes us. Makes us better, stronger, more certain of Love’s all time care.

Healing isn’t always physical. It can include character transformation. Never restrict the concept of healing to the physical. It shows up in a million different ways.

Often it may feel a bit intangible, not like what the everyday world would consider. It starts in thought and shows in our lives, in, oh so many ways!

Healing can be a release from fears. Some recent fears, some long-standing.

Healing can be a comforted sense that all is well, and will be well.

Healing can be a more secure confidence in health, strength, or over-all well being.

Healing can be our gentler nature expressed more consistently with those we love.

Healing simply means wholeness, or harmony, – its basis is holiness. We find healing more naturally when our thoughts are God-centered, not matter-centered. As we discover more of God, good: we discover more of health, harmony.

Healing can happen on an airplane. Or in the car, or at a ball game. I’ve had healings in all those places.

Once I boarded a plane, having been very ill all night. I needed to get to a meeting in Texas. I felt very unwell, and wondered how I would feel at the end of the flight. But I opened Science and Health, read one sentence, put my head on the book and thought about what I had read. I did that for about an hour or so, and soon realized I could drink water, and sit up more and more. By the end of the flight, I was absolutely fine, and able to meet my hosts with perfect ease. Was I thrilled? You bet! And so very grateful to God for the provision of Truth in that book that healed me. I still love remembering that.

One evening I injured my ankle severely by running into the side of a desk. Again, I was to board a plane the next morning to attend our son’s law school graduation. The pain was almost unbearable, and I had visions of being in a wheelchair for the day. As I lay in bed that night, I considered the ideas in Science and Health, one of which assured me that, “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of Go’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.” (424) That seemed so hard to do since the pain was intense. But I trusted that guidance more than the pain and continued to pray by simply, steadily affirming that God’s love provided my care. In the middle of the night, some ideas came as to how I might place my foot on the ground. I found I could do it with very little discomfort. Soon one more step, and another. The swelling went down considerably, and by morning I could pack and put on shoes and walk normally to the plane completely without any pain or discomfort. Mid-morning at the graduation, there was no graduate there happier than me!

Simple healings like these are available to anyone when we learn we can exchange fear of matter for trust in God, Spirit, Love. Christian Science gives us tools and confidence. It is so best!

Any healings you’d like to share??