Restoration of a Friendship, & Healing at a Day-spa:

From Jan Lister

I have a wonderful friend who I adore. We’ve always had a deeply loving friendship. She told me that we have “knitted hearts” like David and Jonathan in the Bible. But we are very different, and over the years there have been misunderstandings, disagreements, and tears. Attempts on both sides to “fix it” have not worked. And so, ten years ago my friend turned away.

I was devastated at the loss of this friendship I so adore. I tried reaching out at least three times and was rebuffed. I could make no dent in that wall nor make progress. I went through many stages – self-justification, deep hurt, anger at myself and at her, anger at God, and then a phase of mourning this precious friendship. I had to bury it and come to terms with forward motion.

Of course I prayed through all these stages. It has taken every bit of the last ten years to work through this. Ultimately I got to the place where I chose to love. I determined that although I would probably never see this precious one again, I would love her. Deeply love her, no matter what. I chose love. The love was never ever touched during any of these phases. It simply was in place the entire time.

Even during my temper tantrums and attempts to heal by trying to cut it out and eliminate it from my life, I found it wasn’t mine to change in any way. It simply was. It’s been quite a journey of learning grace with God. I had to discover that God was my true Love, and find my center there. I found much peace there, and set down all my striving to find this friend.

During Christmas, 2015, another friend had a need that I knew this estranged friend could and would help with. So I made the connection for them to communicate. Afterwards, I sent an email to the estranged friend saying I loved her and would love to talk to her too someday. She responded immediately. We talked and cried and re-established our friendship, or rather, picked-up all the good right where we left off. It is as if no time (or hurt) had ever happened. Only the golden part of the friendship remained. The concept of restoration is a holy thing to me now.

We had our first opportunity to see each other and spend time together late August, 2016.

We were to meet in Portland, Oregon and make a day of driving through that beautiful country along the Columbia river and up to a day-spa. I was elated to see her, but resisted the spa idea because it’s not my thing. I recognized it was her way of doing something special and to have some relaxing fun. So I told her to just plan it and I would go. This entailed being wrapped like a mummy for awhile.

During the wrapping phase a lady came in, in deep distress. She told the technicians she couldn’t feel her arms or legs. They tried to attend to her but could not help her. They called an ambulance for her. She was right next to me. I knew I needed to pray as we are taught in Christian Science – knowing that this was a child of God, and that God was meeting her every need, right there. I got up and dressed and then asked a technician if I could go in and pray with her.

She was very scared. I held her hand and quietly spoke truths to her, affirming that God was right there, meeting her every need. I told her “God’s got you, baby, you’re OK, you’re safe right here, you’re under the wings of God’s great love for you.”

She wept and responded gratefully. I spent a few minutes with her. Another technician told me I had to leave. I told the lady I would be supporting her in prayer and knew that she would walk out of there. I went outside to find a quiet place to pray.

My friend came out and gave me her room. I know she was praying too – although not a Christian Scientist, she is a deeply Christian woman. The ambulance came. We completed our prayers and went on our way.

Once in the car together, we both realized that we were there for a higher purpose. I realized that had I been selfish, I would have fussed at my friend about going to spa (I almost did this) and then would not have been in that place I needed to be.

She recognized that we needed to be there and was not happy with herself, because at first she was miffed at the lady for ruining her mojo at the spa. But she realized she needed to lift that higher and eventually did pray. She was grateful that I went over and prayed with the lady.

We both realized that a healing had taken place. Although we didn’t get to see the fruition of it, we knew it was a healing. We both rejoiced. We went on to continue our lovely and precious time together – deeply connected and loving every bit of it.

And the theme of God’s great goodness ran throughout this experience in so many ways. There isn’t time to list it all. Gratitude to God seems too small – but it is the best I know how to express my deeply grateful heart for all of this. God Rocks!

On the desire to do right.

Based on the First Commandment

In the quiet of the desert, God talked with Moses.
Moses talked with God. Though challenged with fear, he wanted to do right.

Even when he killed the Egyptian, he was defending an Israelite from being beaten. In danger, he fled to the desert.

Years passed.

Humility was required.

He watered the cattle for the women at the well. And married one and had a son. As a shepherd, lots of time to think.

Didn’t he spend, perhaps, decades, searching his soul, wondering how he got there?

Don’t you think he felt God’s presence and power even before he knew there was a Commandment that told him to worship God only?

“God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’,”

What put him in the position to serve God in the capacity God gave him? His faithfulness to right, to good,

Dod he lose anything by doing right? Did he lose anything by wanting to do what was required? Did he have to set aside personal sense or personal desires? Certainly. Without a doubt.

As he walked on his, perhaps daily, walk, God spoke to that humble, receptive heart, Take your shoes off. I have a plan for you. Your life can change the world.

We may not all be Moses, but our “right” can change our world. How willing are we?

God impelled Moses’ life. God impels ours. There are rules: plan to do right. Each faithful life has God’s purpose.

Your part? Love God. Worship God. With humility and grace, trust God. Be prepared for Love’s holy ground.

A prayer (petition) for peace

From  Duffy.

Upon waking each morning, I say hello to God and thank Him for the good that will come today, for His love, care, protection and provision for myself, my family, and all of His children. Yet often, not that much later in the day, I find myself thinking – what is going on in this world we live in; being barraged by stories of violence, abuse, countries fighting and lack of homes, food or safety.

My prayer…
Please, Father Mother God, show me how to pray, to be effective and confident in my prayer. I am so grateful to have you to turn to. I am so grateful for the knowledge of your love for all your children on earth. Let me see good and only good. Let me feel your presence moment by moment. I am sure of God as all, so nothing else can penetrate my thinking.

By knowing God’s allness, I am protected from aggressive mental suggestions. Please let me stay connected to you, Father Mother God, every minute. Help me to love everyone without judgment: to see each human being as your child regardless of ethnicity, religion, politics, race. Make my love so big that politicians, terrorists, foes, friends and family are all included, encompassed by my love, a love that is pure and boundless. Make my love so big that I lose all fear. Thank you, Father Mother God.

If each one of us did what we knew to be divinely, innately right, moral, loving, ethical, there would be no war, violence, homelessness, or poverty. As human beings who loved integrity, truth, doing right, — being moved by love for our neighbors – we would all be living and working together in God, Mind, Principle.

“The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” (S&H 201:7) Flood this universe with love, with knowing man’s perfection. Cherish our unique, individual selves as reflections of the one Perfect God. Loving our neighbor is never wrong or cumbersome. Our opportunities to share love are our opportunities to share God, Spirit. Sharing God will always be right and a joy. Our love must include all people, everywhere!

I want to see myself be brave. Brave enough to live the Christ; knowing the blessing it will bring. Being inspired on a daily basis by Jesus’ life and work, Mary Baker Eddy’s life and work, the Bible, can only bring spiritual advancement to our thought and a closer relationship to God, Truth.

Thank you for the reminder, Pam, to pray daily for myself and the world.

Nuggets of Inspiration

 

We just concluded our Association weekend and it was totally uplifting and inspiring. We enjoyed great camaraderie and received inspiring and thought-moving wisdom from our teacher Pam. In addition to a wonderful syllabus, I have several pages of notes containing nuggets of inspiration.

Pam has a story about “sticky notes”. I have decided to take some of the nuggets of inspiration and – maybe once a week – write one of them on a sticky note and place it where I can see it frequently. Here is one that appeals to me a great deal:

“We are thought leaders – not thought followers!” As Christian Science practitioners, we think for ourselves and do not automatically follow the thinking of the world.

It is easy for me to see why this appeals to me. My kindergarten report card contained the following comment from my teacher: “She is a good leader, but doesn’t like to follow.” I like to think that I have learned to follow over these last many decades, but still, I love the idea of being a “thought leader”!
______________

In our assignment before class, we were encouraged to read “The Greatest Thing in the World” by Henry Drummond. Although I had read this years ago, I found it especially beautiful at this time and am happy to welcome it back into my reading repertoire. (Hint: it is all about love.)

Here is a link to it so you can add it to your reading list: http://henrydrummond.wwwhubs.com/greatest.htm#index
With love and gratitude,
Jennifer ♥️

Stay awake!

This morning I had a dream. My daughter, in the back seat, wanted a chicken salad sandwich. The lady wouldn’t only give me half. The other lady wouldn’t put the brownie in the package to separate it from the sandwich. Betty couldn’t get to the window to pull down the shade. There was something going on in the garage that needed cleaning up. I was playing a game where you throw your flower into the water but it had to bear gently to the left and land perfectly. I remember my friend’s shoes being so sharp-looking. And another friend was there.

I woke up!

For a few minutes I tried to make some sense of the dream. Really?! I spent all that time driving around trying to get a sandwich and what did that have to do with the shoes and the flowers in the water?! Funny, I seemed to he a part of all that, but I had really never had those experiences. The stories were never true. When I woke up I knew it!

Obviously, that was a sleeping dream. Then I began to think about the waking dream, as Mrs.Eddy calls it. This is the dream where materialism seems so real and definitive, where matter seems to make all the rules, where all the confusing stuff seems to be what is, and makes no sense whatever, but we seem to be so caught up in it.

I pulled together some of the stories in my waking dream. Or at least I started to. This had happened. That had happened. Very quickly I began to realize those stories were not any more true than the sleeping dream. But I had vested them with being real, responding to them, reacting to them, letting them form my stories.

They were, however, just a part of a dream narrative, – kind of like a movie you watch, but you know is just a movie on a screen. (The difference is that you know you are not in the movie, but you feel like a part of the dream.)

Nothing I could do would make those stories the reality of being. The more I invested my time in analyzing the dream, even the waking dream, I was diverted from what I really knew to be important and true – real spiritual sense.

The answer is clear. Don’t try to make sense of a material dream. It’s a dream. Don’t give it more reality than it has – no reality. No foundation in fact. Don’t try to make something out of that which was never real in the first place. Don’t wear yourself out doing that.

The beauty of life, the love of God, the substance that has no identification with matter, the grace of kindness, the abundance of proper and right substance,- the true understanding that all that is valuable and worthwhile, truly all there is or ever has been is the good, from God.

Simply put, if you do not find God in the experience, divine Mind governing, divine Love’s presence and power, if there is no divine nature, no God, then this is your recognition that there is no reality to the experience.

You know, we’re told the dream and the dreamer are one. So if we are a dreamer, making up a dream, that dream can have no more reality than the dream we make up.

The mortal concept is simply a dream. It’s not the reality of man. Never has been. Mortal concepts, sin, disease, death, etc., have no God to them. True being is right now, here and now, spiritual.

Remembering we are not now, and can never, spiritualize matter, gives us a reminder to turn in the right direction. Matter with all its dream narrative will never be real. Why honor it?

Know the real and you won’t be duped by the unreal. Look for the real, wake up from the waking or sleeping dream as having validity or reality – as worthy of your time, effort, worry, or analysis. The only consciousness that is worth our thought is the true and real, and that must come from God, divine Mind.

If you stay awake to what’s real and true, worthy and of value, you don’t get impressed with what’s not real. Then you don’t waste time in reaction or emotion, pursuing situations that lead only to more involved mortal thinking.

We gratefully stand in discovering and loving what’s true, and that’s where we put our prayer, our thoughts, our lives. The beauty of Life, and living, is because it is the expression of Love, and Truth, and Mind, and Sprit in a million wonderful ways.

That’s truth! That’s what we want. Lots more to say about this, but for now, let’s challenge the dream/unreal consciousness. Stay awake to man as the loved of God, all good. All safe. Clear. Strong. Able. Live that. Live the Life that is real!

Some thoughts on treatment

I was asked recently about treatment as I understand it in Christian Science. So I thought I’d share what stands out to me as most important.

I have heard from others over the years about a 7-step-treatment, or the cliff-note version, the 4-step treatment. These always stumped me, for officially, in my primary class, this wasn’t taught as such. So when I heard people speak of these “steps,” they were a bit of a wonder. Should I feel left out?

One factor overrode all those steps: our teacher healed. Steps 7 or 4, or 6 or 16, were not the fundamental point. There is no secret code. Or magical formula. One does whatever it takes to bring healing. Healing ultimately is restoring  harmony.

You do whatever it takes. An airplane on take-off, does what it takes to gain the speed required for lift. A consciousness that desires healing for oneself or another requires lift, – lift off from material sense, and lift UP to spiritual sense, to God, Good, Spirit.

It also requires expectancy of healing. Many religions teach God’s love and perhaps a future salvation. Christian Science teaches that healing is a present possibility, and our prayerful work and spiritual understanding effect healing. God, good, understood and accepted with humility and deep gratitude as All, omnipotent, and omnipresent, brings thought in line with truth, and begets good- in body and in life’s circumstances.

As far as I know, Mary Baker Eddy didn’t enumerate any number of steps in healing. Instead, she gave us instruction such as, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, – a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.” *

Is this instruction for treatment? Something to build on with which to challenge material impositions? I think so. Is an absolute faith in God step one? Sure. An ever-increasing understanding of God as All, Spirit, Truth,- as the basis for prayer? Perfect.

Then, “Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation are God’s gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind.” *

Self-immolation: “self-sacrifice: the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone.”  (Merriam Webster Online Thesaurus)

Obedience to these two statements from our Leader requires dedication. In our work, we always pray to gain a greater understanding of God as the only reality, and the Christ as man’s (our) true consciousness. Continually we will recognize there is no separation from God, good. One with God. The fact.

Throughout the textbook of Christian Science, we are given unlimited guidance in every way possible to spiritualize our consciousness – and that is what treatment accomplishes.

But the sense of treatment that means so much to me, is the prayer, the listening, the quieted, receptive, spiritual sense, that allows deep changes in our individual thought, and brings us so close to God that nothing else can interfere. Remember, the mental work is done in you. (There is no out there out there.)

This is the Christ. It is your natural true thought. You feel your oneness to God, good, Spirit, as Jesus taught and lived it.  Inspired thought that heals is the activity of the.Christ. It is not words. It is not steps. It is oneness with God as our very and only focus, expressed as our individual consciousness.

No numbered step treatment will do anything if it is separate from your deepest heart and your deepest love. The Christ lifts us up to God, Love, Life, and material sense is lifted off,

Your love for God, and your love for man as God’s reflection, image, lived and loved in your life, is the best treatment you can give. This strength of living your spiritual conviction will help you confront, deny, obliterate, any temptation to believe in a power or life unlike your God. This was Mrs. Eddy’s heart in protest.

Then with the greatest love and conviction, you will eliminate, discard, and ultimately destroy, false beliefs of any kind (guess that’s why they are called false beliefs!)  God, being the healer, you will be the witness.

Now you can rejoice in the healing! This is not treatment-by-number. This is divine Love loving you and yours.

* Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p 1.

“God loves each one us…..

…as if there was only one of us to love.” * Isn’t this why we love God so deeply? We turn to Him in prayer, with trust that our needs will be met. We know we are each loved by God. Over and over the Bible promises us that all good comes from God to His creation, including man, at all times and in all ways. And this meets apparent individual needs.

David wrote many of the Psalms, knowing and expecting God’s protection and love to be present in his life. He had no doubt. Moses knew at the burning bush that he had a tremendous task ahead of him,- which was based on his faithfulness to right, his courage, generosity, humility.- loving and honoring God.

Consider the individual relationship of the woman healed of an issue of blood to Christ Jesus. It was Jesus’ love for God and his trust in God’s love for him and each one that brought healing to that individual life. And he wonderfully assured her that it was her faith that healed her. Individuals matter.

The truth is that, in fact, as we turn to God, our divine Principle, Love, we experience healing. And Mrs. Eddy takes the chapter on “Prayer” in Science and Health (p. 1-16) to show us that as man knows and understands his relationship to God, he finds healing.

Though it seems that God comes down to man, in fact it is man’s true spiritual nature that turns up to and naturally loves God, knowing that God is the true source of man’s existence. We are never outside of that Love. We feel our ourselves individually blessed, benefitted, protected and healed. One with God, we are blessed by God.

We feel cared for and loved by our heavenly Father-Mother, individually and collectively, because God is Love. Mrs. Eddy assures us, in one of her best-loved promises, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” Science and Health p.494. The presence and power of God, the All-in-all, is what always meets the human need.

She further explains, “It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.” Ibid.p 494

This tells us that every human need that has ever been met has been met by divine Love. That is a very profound, life-changing idea for the student of Christian Science! It is our recognition of this sublime statement that brings life, joy, expectancy of good, healing and correction to our individual experiences. If we understand and expect that divine Love is the source of our good, how great should be our expectation of good.

Divine Love met David’s need as he understood God. Divine Love met Moses need as he understood God. Christ Jesus knew his individual relationship to God met all human needs.

Be careful, then, to trust this promise. Strive to keep your opinions and fears aside, and instead begin to trust this assurance. All is God. All that is real is God’s.

Our individual needs have always been met by divine Love. And they always will be met by unchanging, everywhere always present, omnipotent divine Love. For all there really is, is divine Love.

What a holy moment when this understanding graces our consciousness. Watch it blossom! How deeply grateful are we for this revelation of God’s promised care?

  • William Barclay’s Book of Luke

“God has His own secret stairway into every heart.” *

What a perfect sentence. What a view filled with love. And understanding.

When I read this simple, tender insight, it brought me the assurance that Love is present and taking care, everywhere, of everyone, now, always.

We can, and need to, know and trust this. Trust this for our loved ones. Trust this for one who seems far away, or appears not interested in God. Trust this for one who struggles with judgment or criticism. Trust this for those who appear unwanted. (They are not. No one is. Let’s know this). Trust this for those who have done wrong and feel condemned. In truth and in fact, in their true being and nature they are loved of God. Though they must find their way through their mistakes, this is their truth as well as our own, and the one God is their God as He is our own.

I recently met a lady whose story stirred my heart and brought me a clear realization of right prayer. She told me of a doctor who always prays before he treats his patients medically. In his quiet prayer while he was with my friend, the doctor prayed that a man who had committed grave injustice towards her family would find his way to salvation. That was his prayer.

Think of the impact of that prayer. It is a prayer that recognizes eternity. It is a prayer of understanding. Of compassion. It recognizes man’s true ultimate worth, to whom salvation, redemption, is available. It leaves no one out of God’s care or God’s kingdom. But opens the door for that individual who seems outside to find his way home. That doctor knows, as Mr. Barclay assures us, “God has His own secret stairway into every heart.”

“********
*.William Barclay has a way with words and a love of the Bible and in particular, Christ Jesus, that resounds through time and makes us see today what he saw many years ago. If you ever want a view of the life, times, and surround of Jesus, you’ll do well to investigate. Mr. Barclay and his writings on the books of the New Testament.

My understanding is that in the 1970’s, on Sunday nights in Scotland, “everyone” turned on television to hear Mr. Barclay. Though I wouldn’t agree with all his insights and conclusions, I would still have been one of those viewers.

Have you ever been ungrateful?

What a question! I confronted it myself the other day. Actually, it was more like, “Are you grateful enough?” Or, “How grateful is enough?”

All leading to, Was I conscious of all the good there is, the good that we are surrounded by and provided with. Good is everywhere, in every corner, in every life. And even in the hardest of times, our lives can be transformed, healed, redeemed, revived, restored, knowing we can find the sunshine even in the storms.

As a matter of fact, that is an absolute requirement of our lives, – to find good. To look for it, discover it, recognize it, focus on it, and be grateful that we can see it.

There’s really not enough words to describe how essential “good discovering” is. It must be like those prospectors who searched for gold in the California hills. They knew what gold looked like. They focused their everything on mining for gold. Well, we should be mining for good, focusing our everything on discovering it.

Watch what happens when you mine your day with expectancy of good. You change your habits. You turn off negative TV, refuse to watch it, or be impacted by it. You choose good instead. You search the internet for that which is positive, not negative. You look for the good and expect to find it. You are simply grateful – in the grocery store finding an item you needed, or when a neighbor shows kindness, or for the telephone call of a friend.

Now then, for every grateful moment, add this. “Thank you, dear Father.” Or “Thank you, God.” Never be grateful for the smallest good without including gratitude to God, the giver of all good.

“…no good is but the good God bestows,” Mary Baker Eddy tells us. Actually, the whole sentence reads,”No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.” (SH 275:17-19)

Know that God bestows all true good. Harmony. Joy. Strength. Intelligent activity. Honesty. Love. Provision. Health. Safety. Refuse to think that good is just luck. Or that you have to hoard it. You don’t. It’s forever yours. But it’s helpful to know this. See the source of your good, love it. And live from this view. It’s the view of the possible.

God is your Life. This means, good is your life. Think, then, of the effect in your life when you recognize the source of the good that you are discovering. Get the source right, and gratitude becomes bountifully beautiful, because you will always find good to be from God. Unlimited. Abundant. Permanent. Based in Love, it is poured forth from the divine to Love’s beloved ideas.

Start this, and with the deepest gratitude to God, the very source of your being, you will find expectancy of unlimited joy and provision and harmony, because your deep love for God, good, transforms you and how you see, and what you are looking for. You look first with gratitude to God. You’ll be mining good everywhere, knowing it is true and available for everyone.

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