The Furnace Guy, the Wrench, & the Analogy

So, the furnace guy came to my house today to clean my furnace. By the time he left, I had a new analogy for what the healing practice is like . . . but it’s probably not what you’d expect.

The furnace maintenance proceeded as planned, and as the visit was winding down, the furnace guy came into my office and presented me with the bill. While I was filling out a check, he somewhat sheepishly offered that although the furnace was fine, he had to admit that he lost a small, black wrench in my front yard when he dropped a few of his tools. He said he found the other tools, but he couldn’t find the wrench because of all the leaves. He said he would look again on his way out. And it wasn’t that he was concerned for the wrench’s sake—he had others he could use—but he really didn’t want anyone to get hurt the next time we mowed the lawn. Admiring his selflessness, I immediately offered to help him, and a moment later we were both outside looking.

Naturally, I was praying. Usually when I’m praying about something I’ve dropped and can’t find, it goes a little something like this: I keep taking the logical human steps of scanning the area I think the object might be in. But while I do that, I affirm that divine Mind, God, knows where everything in Her universe is. As the reflection, daughter, of this Mind, I can know where the item is if I truly need to find it—and I leave that up to God’s discretion, trusting my needs will be met either way. Then I acknowledge that it won’t be my scanning eyes or fingertips that find it, but rather that God will give me the intuition that causes me to notice it. One time this helped me find my bicycle after it was stolen—but that’s a whole other story!

So, back to the furnace guy. As soon as I stepped outside, an “if only” attempted to distract me. “If only he’d taken the front steps, not come through the yard—then he would’ve heard the wrench fall.” SWAT! That suggestion wasn’t helpful at all, so I dismissed it. Then the suggestion came that maybe we didn’t even need to worry about it. “The mowers the lawn crew uses are pretty heavy duty; the wrench probably wouldn’t hurt the guys or the mowers.” SWAT! Apathy had no more place in my thought than blaming; another suggestion dismissed. Then blame tried again: “If only you’d had him come in through the garage, not the front door, he’d have heard it drop.” SWAT! Nice try, but I’m really not going there. With that cleared up, I moved forward.

I followed him back down the path he walked up to the front door, but after a couple of close sweeps, the wrench was nowhere in sight. I commented on the color of it. “So, it’s a black wrench, huh? We’re not even gonna get a glint of sunlight to help us find it.” That’s when I turned wholeheartedly to divine Mind and stopped relying on our material eyes.

I got the feeling that the wrench wasn’t in the yard. So I gently asked him if maybe it fell out before the other tools, and was actually still in his van. He said he’d already checked but would check again. I admired his humility. I kept scanning the yard, moving leaves with my feet. It wasn’t that I was expecting to find the wrench that way anymore, but it seemed the best way to show compassion yet stay quiet so I could keep praying. Maybe that’s part of why Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dirt in the incident with the adulterous woman. (See John 8:1-11.) Anyway, furnace guy didn’t find the wrench in the van. So we went back to shuffling through the leaves.

After about another minute, it came to me pretty strongly that the wrench was not in the yard. Quiet words came out of my mouth: “Maybe it just isn’t here.” And as I started thinking of asking him if maybe he could’ve left the wrench at the house he’d been to before mine, I found myself doing a quarter-turn, and my eyes looking to a spot just under the rear bumper of the van. Right at a small, black wrench. No scanning--my eyes went straight there. Then, for some reason, rather than walk over to pick it up myself, I pointed to it and asked, “Is that the wrench?” With a look of amazement and a big smile, he said it was, and that he probably would’ve backed right over it and never seen it. He apologized that I had to help him, but I just replied, “No problem—it was fun!”

As I was rejoicing in this demonstration, I immediately noticed how this experience could serve as an analogy for a pracititioner-patient experience: The call for help. Both parties humble and dedicated to finding a solution. The practitioner maintaining the patient’s spiritual innocence, expressing compassion, listening so she can see past misguided human reason, beyond human outlining of how the solution would come--something I'm now calling "looking in the leaves." God guiding the practitioner to the truth that dispels the illusion. And—my favorite—the practitioner holding the truth in thought, pointing the way for the patient, but allowing him to recognize it for himself and claim the victory.

What a joy it is to demonstrate the power of God in the little things—and to let Him teach us how He works in all things.

Embosomed deep in Thy dear love, 

Held in Thy law, I stand:  

Thy hand in all things I behold,  

And all things in Thy hand.  

Thou leadest me by unsought ways,  

Thou turn’st my mourning into praise.

(Christian Science Hymnal, #134) 

Q: Can we pray about technology "viruses," like we might pray about disease?

This is the current "Question of the Week" on JSH-Online, and what I posted in response.

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A: Yes, I certainly do!

Most of the technology viruses I seem to hear about fall into three categories: either they were developed by someone maliciously to access private information, developed with the somewhat less malicious intent of getting advertisements in front of people, or seem to develop over time as technology begins to be out of date. So, behind all three of those types, I see mistakes about the nature of man and the universe that I can correct through prayer.

In the first case, I can know that God’s children are the direct outcomes of Him. The only thing they can manifest are His qualities of goodness, love, respect, etc. They represent divine Mind, and as such can’t include an evil intention of harming others.

In the second case, I can know that both I and whoever is trying to market things to me, can be free from a false sense of manipulation—me from being manipulated by another to think or feel the way they want me to; the other parties from feeling that manipulation is not only an acceptable, but also an effective way to achieve success in their business or cause. Again, divine Mind is supplying all of us with right thoughts and motives, and wakes us up from a deluded sense of human will as something effective.

In the last case, I handle it as a belief of aging. I mean, isn’t the way we think of aging technology eerily similar to how we think of aging material bodies? I love the explanation I read/heard somewhere recently in one of the periodicals that what we think of as aging is just an accumulation of false beliefs that we haven’t handled, that is, seen the nothingness of. And that’s just how we think of old technology—it isn’t properly squashing new security threats, and so it gets slow, malfunctions, or—we even use this word for it—dies! 

So, to counter this type of imposition, we can take a few steps that are a lot like prayer to heal or prevent disease. Updating our anti-virus software is a lot like working with the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures—possibly through the Weekly Bible Lesson—to glean new ideas or new applications of ideas and use them in our daily lives. Learning to spot email scams is a lot like becoming so familiar with Truth, God, that anything erroneous is really obvious to us and we dismiss it instantly. And deciding when to upgrade to new technology is a lot like listening for inspiration about when it’s appropriate to move on to new life experiences, such as jobs, homes, or relationships—or when it’s time to move up higher in our reliance on God in any kind of situation, including for our sense of health and well-being.

So I think it’s mostly about being alert, listening for inspiration—to our intuition or spiritual sense, and acting on the guidance we’re given. Those activities preserve us from all kinds of ills—bodily and technological included.

Q: How have you prayed when you've heard about, or seen images of, animal abuse?

This is the current "Question of the Week" on JSH-Online, and what I posted in response.

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A: When I’m considering the part of God’s creation we term “animals,” I often work with the following passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Its marginal heading is “Creatures of God useful,” and it’s part of the explanation of Genesis 1:25, where God creates animals:

Understanding the control which Love held over all,
Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the 
viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures, 
moving in the harmony of Science, are harm‐ 
less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand
verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.
It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor
to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that
it was good” (pp. 514-515).

Initially, the part of the passage I used most, was the sentence stating that “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible.” From this I establish what I have a right to see: animals interacting harmoniously, not hurting themselves or others, never being capable of being destroyed. This is the spiritual reality, so I can claim it, and see it in my experience.

Lately, though, I’ve realized that even though this passage is explaining the spiritual significance of God’s creation of animals, Mary Baker Eddy is actually pointing to an even larger truth in that sentence I love so much. She says not just animals, but all God’s creatures are harmless, useful, indestructible. Certainly we are God’s creatures, so this includes us—all people. It means all of us are harmless, useful, and indestructible.  Rereading the paragraph, I realized this was something Daniel knew—or discovered—about Darius when he was in the lions’ den. Otherwise, how could his greeting to him after a night in the lions’ den have been, “O king, live for ever”? (See the sixth chapter of Daniel.)

I also like to use this passage:

"Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the
realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis‐ 
port themselves” (ibid., p. 514).

From this I’ve come to see that God, Mind, loves His creation so much, so perfectly, that He’d just never ever put any part of it into matter, which is so fragile (and, in reality, is only a counterfeit of true, spiritual substance). Mind’s offspring are ideas—eternally perfect and free from harm. I know that they’re right with God—present in His mind as His thoughts, never separate in any way. Both they and we can hear God’s messages to us, guiding us. This truth can stop abuse—and it can prevent it. It can bring together God’s smaller/fuzzier/scalier/etc. creations with loving caretakers and companions. And it can even instill in us a love and appreciation for all of God’s creatures we encounter every single day.

Changing thought changes our experience

This post became an article entitled "A 'change of base' in thinking," published in the February 1, 2016 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. 

 

You can read or listen to it by following the link above.

Q: How have you prayed, or are you currently praying, about next steps after graduation?

This is the current "Question of the Week" on JSH-Online, and what I posted in response.

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A: When my graduation was still a year away, I was grateful for some guidance from my CSO advisor to another CSO member. He recommended focusing on qualities.

Instead of scrambling to figure out what you’d like to do, or setting yourself on a narrow path toward a single option for your future, it is more important to focus on the Godlike qualities you want to express as you move forward. These are the qualities that express God’s very nature, and which we are able to express because He made us in His image and likeness. (See Genesis 1:26.) Some examples might be creativity, intelligence, perspicacity, humor, patience. Once you have your list, start expressing them now. You don’t even have to wait for a job offer! :)

Focusing on expressing God’s qualities can also save you from some pitfalls that tend to come with outlining a specific path for yourself, namely, a false sense of personal responsibility for your success—which might show up as an attempt to predict all the details of how things will (or need to) unfold, and a subsequent attempt to control all those details. But the truth is, we each express God in a unique and necessary way. We are created to succeed and glorify His name—express His nature so clearly that others recognize our nature as His. This is what God wants, and “He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth” (Job 23:13).

Here are just a few Bible passages that back that up:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:31-33)

Any "next steps" tend to unfold naturally and "be added unto" us when our focus is on our expression of God's qualities.

I am in Your secret place

I don't often write rhyming poems . . . when I do, they tend to sound rather Dr. Seuss-like. I was going through my files and found this one. I guess I saved it because the simple rhymes go with the childlike trust in God I was feeling when I wrote it.

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I am in Your secret place

Here I will behold Your face

Here I'll feel Your strong embrace

In this place shall I abide

And know You've never left my side

In You, with Christ, is where I hide

There is no evil in wait "out there"

For You and Yours are everywhere

With You I'll be without a care

For all expression, expresses You

Presenting only what is true

And what is good, is what I'll do

 

This is how we’ll ever be

I with You, and You with me

Past, present, future, always free--

That's how it is, eternally

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the secret place

beholding His face

oneness

Q: How have you prayed about loneliness -- moving to a new city, changing schools, making friends, etc.?

This is the current "Question of the Week" on JSH-Online, and what I posted in response.

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A: Between being an army brat and moving out on my own, I've never really stayed settled anywhere for longer than a few years. So when I started studying Christian Science just before transferring to a university where I didn't know anyone, this paragraph with the marginal heading "Uses of adversity" from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy stood out to me:

Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth. Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” The author has experienced the foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality. This is done through self-abnegation.  Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.  (p. 266)

This gave me the impression that sometimes we're going to be alone, but it's always an opportunity for spiritual growth--to better understand God, man, and how God's laws govern everything.  After college, I thought a lot about Mrs. Eddy's definition of "wilderness" from the glossary of Science & Health.  I love that she defines its surface appearance, but then goes on to explain what's really going on in "wilderness" situations:

WILDERNESS. Loneliness, doubt, darkness.  Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence. (p. 597)

 
So I've enjoyed using the time I have alone not to be lonely, but to think about God in all the ways He is a companion and provider--what it means that God is my Father and my Mother. That He is my husband ("Thy maker is thine husband" Isaiah 54:5) and my Shepherd. I'm never alone, because He's always with me--as close to me as my own thought. Every day He's just got something so wonderful in store for me, and He delights in me enjoying it. So I've tried to take the time to listen, to feel that He's near, and just enjoy the "now" He's prepared for me. (See Psalm 23).

And if I ever struggle with loneliness, I just ask God to help me feel that He's with me. To feel at peace. It's actually our divine right to claim that as God's children. But the way I like to claim it is to simply, humbly, ask God for whatever thoughts and feelings I need that moment. I find that prayer is always answered very quickly, usually immediately, and I feel at peace again.