Spiritual resource to share: persistence
When the laws of the land do not help honest and good causes and enable monopolies and greed, what is one to think? When law is used to obstruct good, block progress or dilute authority, how is one to move forward? I hoped to answer this progressively in stages, suggesting ways to deal with this issue.
Understanding the difference between societal law and divine law
The difference between the two are great. Societal law is changeable based on a society’s highest (or growing) sense of right. Divine law is changeless. Like the law of gravity needs no group to legislate it into action, the divine laws of God are natural and simply define the spiritually scientific nature of being – of how life works. Divine Love harmonizes, corrects, and promotes progress for the health and well being of all mankind. Divine Truth purifies, elevates and empowers right activity.
Dealing with discouragement/depression
This is usually the first stop when one finds themselves encountering a false sense of law. Depressed thought comes from accepting that there are powers that can overwhelm what is good. Don’t be fooled. Winning - based on manipulation, dishonesty, material acquisition that takes from others and ignorance or omission of facts - is not satisfying and does not feed the hunger for deeper meaning and relevance in our lives. There is something more powerful, more sustaining and more satisfying. Don’t stop here. See the next paragraph…..
Understanding higher law
Coming from a materialistic culture where money and material goods would try to define our own self-worth, what a refreshing, releasing break we get by following a higher law! Jesus' two commandments – to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves - is the higher law. And to love is the fulfilling of the law.
Moral courage
We can claim moral courage as our own way of working. MBEddy writes: "Moral courage is 'the lion of the tribe of Juda,' the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in 'green pastures, . . . beside the still waters.' In the figurative transmission from the divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose."
To not be afraid
Perfect love casts out fear: the fear of being irrelevant; the fear that you have made a mistake; the fear of lack; the fear that others will think poorly of you; the fear that good is helpless. All those fears can be dissolved. Perfect love is powerful, harmonizing, gentle and unyielding. Love is an alterative, transforming thought from fear to confidence and grace.
Practice honesty
Two quotes from MBEddy:
"Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help. You uncover sin, not in order to injure, but in order to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has its reward."
"Christian Science commands man to master the propensities,--to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success."
And finally, from the Bible:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.
and MBEddy:
"The wrong done another reacts most heavily against one's self. Right adjusts the balance sooner or later. Think it "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for you to benefit yourself by injuring others."
Trust needs to be shifted from a temporal basis to what is spiritual and permanent. “In all your ways acknowledge Him”….Ways to acknowledge God? By expressing intelligence, acuteness, insight, unselfishness, persistence. By yielding to a greater good. By expecting good, being good, and doing good.
What is it that we win? We know that if we love - and obey the most important law of loving God and our neighbor as ourselves - we are fulfilling the law. And "self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life." That is what it takes to be a winner. And what we win is a deeper love, a broader blessing for all and a more permanent sense of peace.
Would love to hear comments from others on this important topic!
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Showing posts with label Conserve School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conserve School. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
an honorable man is not so easily dismissed
Spiritual resource to share: integrity
”The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the same, — at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen.
“He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him, for he acts no studied part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, — full of truth, candor, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path but the fair, open, and direct one, and would much rather fail of success than attain it by reproachable means. He never shows us a smiling countenance while he meditates evil against us in his heart. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another.”
From Miscellaneous Writings p. 147 by Mary Baker Eddy
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Conserve School's values and operating principles
“The man of integrity is one who makes it his constant rule to follow the road of duty, according as Truth and the voice of his conscience point it out to him. He is not guided merely by affections which may some time give the color of virtue to a loose and unstable character.”The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the same, — at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen.
“He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him, for he acts no studied part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, — full of truth, candor, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path but the fair, open, and direct one, and would much rather fail of success than attain it by reproachable means. He never shows us a smiling countenance while he meditates evil against us in his heart. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another.”
From Miscellaneous Writings p. 147 by Mary Baker Eddy
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Friday, February 20, 2009
evil is not power
Spiritual resource to share: clarity
"It looks like in the battle of good over evil, evil won again," said a friend deflated by the results of an emotionally charged community meeting to save a beloved project.
"No. I can't leave it at that," said I. "I don't think that is true at all." We talked some more and hopefully shared some comfort, but on my way home, I prayed to affirm what good is all about and what evil is all about.
My favorite author, Mary Baker Eddy, is also known as a reformer and pioneer and most notably as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science.
She has this to say about good and evil:
"Good is not helpless."
"Evil is a mockery of strength."
Evil is not a person, place or thing.*
So how did that help me understand what had just happened?
Good is not helpless. The good that has been done cannot be undone. Those things that have brought life, creativity and growth to others is the most impressionable and powerful force that is present in a person's life.
Evil is not a person. Understanding this gives one the power to speak to the humanity (and I would say the Christliness) in others. Impersonalizing evil defuses its imaginary power until we are no longer impressed with the idea that someone or something can take away our ability to determine our own thought, our own destiny or that someone or something can take away something good.
There are times when a project, a job, a school or a business has to shut down. But the ideas and inspiration that made that project so effective and inspirational lives on. It is the ideas that are good and enduring that keep moving forward.
Both my husband and I were involved at separate times and in different areas, in projects that were truly inspired. The vision of the projects' leaders and of our colleagues was clear and the effects were gratifying and immediate. Then both projects were shut down. What happened was that those who were involved in the project continued cherishing those ideals and spread those values to a wide range of other activities. Both of us experienced a deep sense of grief which was healed when we realized that, like Mary Baker Eddy said, good is not helpless. And we realized that what we accomplished were the seedlings of things that continue to grow and be a blessing.
When a person's motives are based on evil (a false sense of strength) those actions then become either regrettable or forgettable or both. But when a person' motives are based on unselfish goodness, those actions give life to innovation, progress and continuing good. This is what we remember. This is what gives our lives meaning. This becomes the very fabric of life itself.
It isn't in the nature of evil to win anything of substance. Good is the only active power available.
*See MBEddy's Miscellaneous Writings, p. 284.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
"It looks like in the battle of good over evil, evil won again," said a friend deflated by the results of an emotionally charged community meeting to save a beloved project.
"No. I can't leave it at that," said I. "I don't think that is true at all." We talked some more and hopefully shared some comfort, but on my way home, I prayed to affirm what good is all about and what evil is all about.
My favorite author, Mary Baker Eddy, is also known as a reformer and pioneer and most notably as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science.
She has this to say about good and evil:
"Good is not helpless."
"Evil is a mockery of strength."
Evil is not a person, place or thing.*
So how did that help me understand what had just happened?
Good is not helpless. The good that has been done cannot be undone. Those things that have brought life, creativity and growth to others is the most impressionable and powerful force that is present in a person's life.
Evil is not a person. Understanding this gives one the power to speak to the humanity (and I would say the Christliness) in others. Impersonalizing evil defuses its imaginary power until we are no longer impressed with the idea that someone or something can take away our ability to determine our own thought, our own destiny or that someone or something can take away something good.
There are times when a project, a job, a school or a business has to shut down. But the ideas and inspiration that made that project so effective and inspirational lives on. It is the ideas that are good and enduring that keep moving forward.
Both my husband and I were involved at separate times and in different areas, in projects that were truly inspired. The vision of the projects' leaders and of our colleagues was clear and the effects were gratifying and immediate. Then both projects were shut down. What happened was that those who were involved in the project continued cherishing those ideals and spread those values to a wide range of other activities. Both of us experienced a deep sense of grief which was healed when we realized that, like Mary Baker Eddy said, good is not helpless. And we realized that what we accomplished were the seedlings of things that continue to grow and be a blessing.
When a person's motives are based on evil (a false sense of strength) those actions then become either regrettable or forgettable or both. But when a person' motives are based on unselfish goodness, those actions give life to innovation, progress and continuing good. This is what we remember. This is what gives our lives meaning. This becomes the very fabric of life itself.
It isn't in the nature of evil to win anything of substance. Good is the only active power available.
*See MBEddy's Miscellaneous Writings, p. 284.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Friday, February 06, 2009
you are not the building....
Spiritual resource to share: your spiritual completeness
In an endearing episode of SuperNanny (my new fav watch-when-I-can tv show), the nanny (who is enlisted by troubled families to fix them) works with a newly widowed mother who was forced to foreclose on her house, move to a much smaller home and pick up the pieces with her six kids.
What the nanny asked the mother to do was significant and moving. She drove the reluctant mother to her old house and asked her to share the special memories she had in that house. As the mother talked, it was easy to see that all that she loved would always be hers. She loved the joy, creativity, surprise and spontaneity of her family and all the activities that happened there. She would never lose those qualities and never lose those memories. She understood it. The mother audibly said good-bye to the house, which by now had become a building. Her life and her meaning didn't come from the building, it came from within. Then she was ready to go to her new home and amd move on with her new life.
It is easy to identify ourselves with a place. And it is easy to identify ourselves with other things as well: a person, a community of people, a project, a heritage, a movement. But when relationships change, jobs end, a movement changes course, there is this gaping question - now who am I?
Years ago, when a very loved job ended, I was faced with this question. The workplace had been cutting back on staff slowly over the course of a number of months.
During those months, many staff had to deal with the awkwardness of staying on while close friends and colleagues were asked to leave, and other staff had the task of finding new work while still providing for families. We were all asking the deeper questions - now who are we?
During the time that I was staying on while others were being cut, I had to go beneath the awkward surface and dig down to find my spiritual purpose and find what was unchanging.
The questions of 'why them and not me?" was answered with a growing trust in God. For my friends, I could trust that God is directing each person's path; that God, good, is the substance of their being; that the same attraction to good that brought them to this work will also lead them to their next step. No one is left out.
I reasoned that each individual is complete and whole, reflecting God in glorious and infinite number of ways. The substance of each person's work - like the memories of the widowed mother mentioned above - is spiritual. The divine purpose of each of our lives is spiritual.
So when my job ended, I continued praying along those lines: I reasoned that the substance of who I am and what I love does not change but continues to grow and attract those very activities for which I am uniquely suited! God would not make me in His image and likeness and not give the channels within which to express them. Ability and opportunity are coordinate ideas, both supplied by our Father-Mother God.
I am not a building nor am I made up of the things that happen to me. I am not vulnerable but I am the child of an infinite God, and am complete, whole and mature. And my purpose goes on uninterrupted. I can claim this for myself and for my friends - for those who have left a job and for those who stay.
Then all of us can understand the response to the question who am I and what is my purpose? and respond with "the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."*
* THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST AND MISCELLANY, p. 165
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
In an endearing episode of SuperNanny (my new fav watch-when-I-can tv show), the nanny (who is enlisted by troubled families to fix them) works with a newly widowed mother who was forced to foreclose on her house, move to a much smaller home and pick up the pieces with her six kids.
What the nanny asked the mother to do was significant and moving. She drove the reluctant mother to her old house and asked her to share the special memories she had in that house. As the mother talked, it was easy to see that all that she loved would always be hers. She loved the joy, creativity, surprise and spontaneity of her family and all the activities that happened there. She would never lose those qualities and never lose those memories. She understood it. The mother audibly said good-bye to the house, which by now had become a building. Her life and her meaning didn't come from the building, it came from within. Then she was ready to go to her new home and amd move on with her new life.
It is easy to identify ourselves with a place. And it is easy to identify ourselves with other things as well: a person, a community of people, a project, a heritage, a movement. But when relationships change, jobs end, a movement changes course, there is this gaping question - now who am I?
Years ago, when a very loved job ended, I was faced with this question. The workplace had been cutting back on staff slowly over the course of a number of months.
During those months, many staff had to deal with the awkwardness of staying on while close friends and colleagues were asked to leave, and other staff had the task of finding new work while still providing for families. We were all asking the deeper questions - now who are we?
During the time that I was staying on while others were being cut, I had to go beneath the awkward surface and dig down to find my spiritual purpose and find what was unchanging.
The questions of 'why them and not me?" was answered with a growing trust in God. For my friends, I could trust that God is directing each person's path; that God, good, is the substance of their being; that the same attraction to good that brought them to this work will also lead them to their next step. No one is left out.
I reasoned that each individual is complete and whole, reflecting God in glorious and infinite number of ways. The substance of each person's work - like the memories of the widowed mother mentioned above - is spiritual. The divine purpose of each of our lives is spiritual.
So when my job ended, I continued praying along those lines: I reasoned that the substance of who I am and what I love does not change but continues to grow and attract those very activities for which I am uniquely suited! God would not make me in His image and likeness and not give the channels within which to express them. Ability and opportunity are coordinate ideas, both supplied by our Father-Mother God.
I am not a building nor am I made up of the things that happen to me. I am not vulnerable but I am the child of an infinite God, and am complete, whole and mature. And my purpose goes on uninterrupted. I can claim this for myself and for my friends - for those who have left a job and for those who stay.
Then all of us can understand the response to the question who am I and what is my purpose? and respond with "the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."*
* THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST AND MISCELLANY, p. 165
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
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