good is not helpless

Spiritual resource to share: true power in organizations

These statements have persistently intrigued me: that good is not helpless; truth always triumphs and love never fails. The power behind these absolute statements forms the basis for their expression.

So - I have puzzled - how do you engage with organizations that seem to fall flat of ethical and noble goals? Who have told outward lies, blatantly disregarded laws? Quitting those organizations is one option. Staying with and trying to bring about change is another. Both responses to these moral dilemmas are difficult.

Once a group hired a non-professional musician who was earnest and consistent and, as one friend said, "he plays most of the right notes most of the time." This grateful and compassionate approach helped me to see how I could engage with other groups where I didn't always agree with how they operated. I could see the good that they do and work with that.

But this went deeper. This wasn't a Pollyanna approach.

I understand that good works are born of honesty, commitment, dedication and selflessness and are powerful. In fact, these are the only qualities that accomplish anything worth accomplishing!

Deeply understanding the fixed nature of good trumps the mesmeric and discouraging aspects of greed, selfishness and even criminal thought that would bring on apathy and a sense of hopelessness.

Understanding the nature of good also heightens our awareness of good so that we don't mistake well intentioned efforts incorrectly.

I realized that it doesn't matter how many people are involved in an organization or how many differing opinions arise in the operation of an organization. Good will prevail.

Tangled bureaucracy, rumor mills, gossip and lawlessness do not have an absolute or spiritual basis. They can't stand.

Like a blade of grass pushing up in a desert - Truth, Life and Love - all elements of good - are insistent. Truth slices away at the tons of conflicting opinions like sand dunes drifting back and forth. Love plants its roots deeply. Life continues to create and perpetuate Life.

I continue to apply these ideas to my own life, the smaller groups I belong to and those larger groups that are fighting genocide, are encouraging earth stewardship and global efforts toward peace.

A human organization with noble goals is working its purpose out as surely as I am understanding and fine-tuning my life purpose.

Compassion, patience and an absolute hold on the power of Truth continue to guide me and remove any baggage as surely as it is guiding each of those organizations that I am committed to. I found I need to be as patient and persistent with these groups as I hope others are with me.

This can only bear good fruit. Love never fails; Truth always triumphs; and good is never helpless.

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.

Possibility and Responsibility

Spiritual resource to share: readiness to work

It's been the start of an incredibly upbeat week here in the US as we welcome in our 44th President. Pre-inaugural speeches have played up on the theme of everything is possible. Tomorrow's inauguration of our new president has the theme: ‘A New Birth of Freedom’ commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and our founding fathers' ideal of equality and freedom for all. Tempered into those talks is the theme of possibility but also responsibility.

I certainly feel the joy of discovering new possibilities and expansive ways of thinking and solving problems. But there is another kind of joy that welcomes our increased responsibility to one another and to ourselves. This is the kind of joy that deepens character and grows confidence.

Taking responsibility for ourselves is how we love ourselves and forms the basis of how we love others. Taking responsibility for one another gives us a place to belong and shows how much we are needed.

Looking ahead of this celebratory week, the challenges we have today will still be there. But collectively we have a new resolve. The Christian Science Monitor's opinion column reports a resolve that goes as deep as spiritual transformation worldwide. "There is a growing confidence that universal peace and well-being are, against all odds, actually achievable on planet Earth.”

Heady stuff.

What I love about Christian Science is that it shows how these ideals can be made practical. How? The founder and discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, has some salient points:

• By understanding that God’s work is already done and is good: "Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already done."


• And that we have the resources to reveal this good through God: "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul."


• And that we have a perfect example in Christ Jesus’ work as to how this can be done: "His (Christ Jesus’) mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility."

Responsibility, practicality, community, possibility and the joy to do the work will probably be recurring themes throughout the year. And we are ready!

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.

the dignity of taking responsibility

Spiritual resource to share: responsibility

Just got back from my son's convocation - the welcoming of new students and the formal start of the new school year. I am just so excited, encouraged and hopeful about this new school for many reasons and wanted to share this with you all. The name of the school is Conserve. It is a unique school whose leading edge environmentally based curriculum is growing around the country.

First, its curriculum and approach to academics is timely. But I am most impressed on how they deliver it. I recognized it the first time my son and I went to visit. Each child is treated with a dignity and an expectation that they have something life-saving to give to the world. There is an underlying expectation that they will grow up and take responsibility for caring for the earth. This is all done in an environment that demonstrates green in the physical plant, the staff and the programs.

All issues of adolescence also play out during this time. But the focus isn't necessarily on getting an education for their own individual purposes, but getting an education to help the larger community and the world. All of this sounds idealistic, until you see how this works. All classes include references to the environment, or the environment is the direct subject matter. Experiential, expeditionary, lab and classroom work follow.

I would like to explore this idea of dignity and taking responsibility. I love that in Christian Science, profession or status give place to what a person is willing to take on and demonstrate. There is no vicarious ride here, but only honesty and earnestness to follow the Master Christian - that is what it is all about. Mary Baker Eddy writes about Jesus mission and his style of teaching:

Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.

Taking responsibility to take care of the earth, as well as to take care of oneself and one another have deeply spiritual roots of love, unity and wholeness. It is "both individual and collective." Expecting that of ourselves and our children gives us all a dignity worthy of respect and emulation.

Interesting resources:

• Here is a site from The Christian Science Monitor to help us all learn "green."
• More on Conserve's unique"Green Machine"
• Schools going green
• National Geographic's Top Ten Green Schools in the US (Conserve is #5.)

Photos from Conserve School's Parent website

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.