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

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those things that never change

Spiritual resource to share: constancy





I have just read a thoughtful article “Oldest Holocaust survivor tells a story of faith and courage that's out of the ordinary.” It’s about Leopold Engleitner, considered the oldest Holocaust survivor today. His recent appearance at the Frankfurt International Book Fair brought further attention to the life of an ordinary man made extraordinary under extreme conditions.

The one constant throughout his life, whether it was making skiis, being a farmer, or living in a concentration camp, was his love for God and his love for honesty and goodness.

“Darkness cannot put out the Light. It can only make God brighter” wrote an unknown author. And this was the case for Leopold. Many of us will never experience the extreme conditions that he did. But his experience showed me how important it is to nurture those elements of love that he did throughout his life: to love one’s work, to care for the details, to stand up for honesty, to have integrity, to do good things.

Each of life’s experiences will draw out from us our reservoir of spiritual qualities whose source is God. Those spiritual qualities make up who we are. They are changeless. And whether we have a high profile life whose actions will impact many or have a quiet life with more modest aims, we can always base our actions on this reservoir of spiritual qualities. And it is our practice of these spiritual qualities that makes us ready and able to meet any of life’s challenges, however big or small.







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 unity of the cause erases all flaws

Spiritual resource to share: unity in surprising places


I loved this ad that came across my email recently:


For whatever differences we may have, it is easy to put them aside when the "Cause" is so compelling, that we are willing to drop our differences and align our forces to work together.

There are times when I have worked with others, and our united purpose was so clear and so loved, that minor hiccups in the process of furthering our purpose were easily forgiven, corrected or adjusted.

But there have been other times when I have worked with others and the purpose was not so clear or compelling. It has been those times where the little annoyances would flare up into major problems.

These experiences have caused me to look deeper than the organization's purpose to see what our deeper purpose and mission is in life. And that, I believe, is to glorify God. For that purpose, I work even harder to dive through conflicting human opinions to the bedrock of our spirituality. We are all children of God. God is good. God is all-powerful. God loves each of us. And in this light, I find I can forgive more easily, help others more selflessly and help to sharpen the focus of our work towards more loving and productive ends. The unity of the Cause - to glorify God - helps to erase all flaws.




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.

Honesty and purity in business

My husband and I are actively pursuing the start up of his new business. He is an artist blacksmith and brings to his business a rare combination of engineering and construction skills, an edgy contemporary aesthetic and the tools and passion of an old world craft. (See http://www.islandcityforge.com/

As we ventured out, we prayed to see this business in a spiritual light. Out of this foundation will come out all the issues of business - our vision for the work, customer service, types of products, how we market, who we collaborate with and what we hope the business will achieve.

When I was reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, I came across her definition of "church" (p. 583)

Church - The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from
divine Principle.
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.

Although we were not setting out to have our business be a church, this definition gave us some very good guidelines with which to start our business.

"...affording proof of our utility..."
We expanded the business concept to not only develop products useful and beautiful to the home, but we also saw that we could have a positive impact on the community. Dealing in products that may be deemed luxury, we saw that beauty increases the value of one's environment. This made us realize that we could expand the business to include not only residential, but public sculpture and projects.

"...elevating the race..."
Good art engages the soul. Our purpose is to elevate thought above the mere acquisition of things to transforming thought to a higher ideal. When you bring a thing of original beauty into a space, it stirs thought. Our hope is that it lead thought to inspiration, inquiry and appreciation of authenticity and originality.

"...rousing the dormant understanding from the material to the spiritual..."
We also saw that we had the opportunity to challenge the complacent thought that the economy cannot be stimulated "in these times"; that prosperity is something afar off or only for a few; or even that there is no market for these products.
We countered those ideas by understanding that things that inspire easily circulate and bear fruit. Gratitude, the currency of love, is prosperous and brings prosperity. Prosperity, defined as an economic state of growth with rising profits and full employment , is a noble and unselfish goal for the whole community. God's law of supply and demand are natural and are fulfilled.

"...whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle..."
Operating from our highest ethics, we hold honesty, accountability and trust in God as our modus operandi. Honesty in business dealings, now again in the headlines, is the soundest way to do business. (See article on Honesty is good business from spirituality.com) This is what we are banking on. Early on, it was necessary for us to get very clear that we are not dependent on material personalities for our supply, but our supply comes from God and our business is a reflection of God meeting our neighbors' needs. Each job that comes along is a God-job, and we are grateful!! As Mary Baker Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings

God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. .... and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment.

Please feel free to visit my site kimckorinek.com, add your own comments or email to a friend