a look at money - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: constant circulation of possibilities

When I put myself through college, I was faced with lack of many things:  lack of funds for tuition and travel, not enough food, clothing and not enough time. But each time it looked like I might come up short, I turned to prayer and my needs were met. I got quite good at it. In fact, I laughingly thought that if I ever became a Christian Science practitioner (that is a healer), that perhaps I could specialize in supply issues.


Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, had an idea that gave me lots of hope: 

God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment.
What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the "Peace, be still" to all human fears, to suffering of every sort.

Do you kind of get that happy feeling just reading this! Even happier still, it leads to practical and satisfying results.


When the stock market is looking - well - ill, and credit reports dismal, housing market reports a slump, there is another report. God, as omnipotent good, reports a balance and steady flow of productive, progressive ideas. The fresh circulation of ideas is never interrupted by fear, speculation, manipulation or ignorance.


So when I run up against the idea of lack, I have been able to respond in a way that I not only have what I need, but usually it is done in a surprising and totally satisfying way. Here is what I have learned along the way about demonstrating supply:

• Value every idea that comes to you
• Trust the provision and abundance of God's love -- Love also includes nourishment, harmony and balance, contentment and satisfaction
• Be grateful -- and you will see just how rich you truly are
• Discipline your wants -- Know where your desires come from and where they are leading you
• Clarify your needs
• Square each of your accounts/debts
• Be honorable and honest -- Honesty is spiritual power and integrity is "more valuable than riches"
• Be generous
• Don't be afraid -- act on behalf of the ideas and inspiration you are receiving
• Trust the provision and abundance of God's love -- Worth mentioning twice.

Truly we have a glorious inheritance! We can move forward knowing that Love is always supplying the ideas, that, when acted on, are meeting our needs.

prayer signposts among the financial crises

Spiritual resource to share: targeted prayer

we're all in this together

This just in -

News Alert 1:34 p.m. ET Friday, October 3, 2008 U.S. House Passes Financial Rescue Legislation

By a vote of 263 to 171, the House of Representatives has approved a $700 billion bailout plan in the hopes of propping up the nation's economy, which has been besieged by the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Cruising the news on the financial situation, some words and phrases keep popping up -- standing out almost highlighted, saying - this is where you need to pray! Here are some of those highlighted words (and thanks to the friends who continue to circulate articles, posts and videos on these issues that give me these words!!):

Confidence
Connection
Exchange
Let love, not fear, rule

Thomas Friedman from NYTimes distilled the financial crisis problem down to two key areas that I have decided to take up in prayer: confidence and the need to realize that we are all connected. It is the distrust and fear that is stagnating and blocking the flow of the exchange of value. And, he pointed out, we cannot get away from the fact that we are all connected. So when we set up policies that hurt others, we are hurt; when we set policies to bless and help others, we are helped.

From the UK's Evening Standard came another helpful direction for prayer: Hank Paulson practices this precept from his religion – “… a religion in which you emphasize love rather than fear," he says.

Contrast that with a recent interview overheard on public radio with a psychiatrist. He suggested that people find great reward in revenge, and so, as a way to cure this crisis, economic policy should in some way cater to this need for revenge and find a way to craft in punishments that others can give. This was not a restorative justice approach to the problem, but more of “an eye for an eye” approach. I winced. Nothing like solving a problem at the same level at which it developed. I think we are capable of a far more noble approach. And that noble approach is love.

So what are we dealing with here? This all adds up to a demand to practice the Golden Rule; to let Love govern instead of fear; open thought to possibilities.

“It is well to be calm in sickness; to be hopeful is still better; “ writes Mary Baker Eddy in her classic book: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. “Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimulates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out.”

We can take the steps to remove the distrust and fear, envy, malice and greed from the problem and from the solution. We can step up to the demand to have confidence in Truth (all that is fair, just, reasonable, balanced) instead of chaos. We can emphasize love instead of fear, and make the Golden Rule* our basis for interactions.

We are all in this together. And today's step will continue to draw out of us all the intelligence, justice, honesty, compassion and nobility that God has given us.

(Recommended: Check out Karen Armstrong's talk on ted.com and her efforts to build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine. )


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.