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) 

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.

Thoughts on the election . . . before the results

Elections today.
Your guy may win.
Your guy may lose.
Either way, the winner will be our country's leader.
And he deserves our prayers and support.
That he'll hear and act upon inspiration, rather than human will.
That he'll be honest.
That he'll be good.
We may not agree with the way he does things
All the time, or ever.

But he'll be acting from his highest sense of right
And that can be the starting point for seeing him as God's man,

Made in His image
(See Gen. 1:26)
And a protection to him
And to us
From anything untoward.

Suddenly well!

A couple of days ago, I had an interesting experience. I found myself in my basement that evening feeling just all-around fantastic! Energetic, loved, mentally calm, pleased with a good day's work. And I was so aware of this feeling, just knowing and feeling that I was God's perfect expression, as I've learned in Christian Science. (See Gen. 1:26. 27.)

So, one second, I'm standing up feeling perfect, then the next second, I sit down and feel horrible! It was sort of a stomach-head-sinus feeling of yuck. After the initial shock of this shift in how I felt, I began mentally to handle my thoughts about the symptoms.

First, I knew I needed to overcome the fear that I was being sentenced to suffer through some sort of cold, something that had a timeline it needed to fulfill. The calming thought that met this fear came quickly: even though the symptoms felt physical, I knew they were simply a mistaken thought. And this mistaken thought could be changed, replaced with the truth, in the blink of an eye--could be made to reflect what I knew was really going on with me as God's image and likeness.

Once I wasn't afraid anymore, it became obvious to me that the symptoms had no cause. Hadn't I just been feeling super a moment before? Wasn't I knowing my oneness with God? I reasoned that He never created the symptoms, or whatever condition they might be symptoms of. God is so good! The whole thing just made absolutely no sense to me.

So rather than resigning myself to suffer, I kept up this mental protest. Even though I still seemed to be feeling icky, I was never going to accept that there was a cause for it. I lay down on my couch thinking I was beginning to watch a TV show, but quickly fell asleep. When I woke not too long afterwards, I was completely symptom-free.

More than being grateful to feel well, I was grateful for the thoughts that came so quickly--right when I needed them--to counter the fearful and unwell thoughts. It reminds me of a story from the Bible. Jesus and his disciples encountered a man who was born blind. The disciples, still accepting the commonly held belief that diseases were the result of sin, asked Jesus whether A) the blind man had sinned, or if B) his parents had, to cause the blindness. Jesus chose C) None of the above! He said the only possible outcome of the situation was to show God's glory, and then he healed the man. I think it was the same for me. No one and no thing had caused me to feel ill; it was simply another opportunity to demonstrate God's goodness, and to know my freedom as his beloved child. Amen!

Healing the blind man
Suddenly well

Psalm 23 - the Surrender edition

Just like my post from a while back, this is a reworking of the 23rd psalm. Enjoy. :)

The Lord is in charge! I don't want to be!
He plops me down amid plenteous resources: He removes the fear of trusting Him.
He refreshes me! He keeps me on a good path so that I glorify Him; this is all I can do.
Even if it seems like I'm in a tight spot, You won't let me be afraid: You are with me; and Your law governs, upholds, and protects me.
You are nourishing me right in the midst of trying circumstances: You give me more pure thoughts of charity, gentleness, and consecration than I could ever need. Truly heaven is here.
Only good things are in store for me as long as I live: and I live with You, forever.

Answered prayers

I realized just now that a prayer of mine had been answered, and thought it would be a good idea--for myself and others--to mention it and another one--since this made two answered prayers in as many days.

The first answered prayer--well, I didn't even realize I'd prayed it until it was answered! On Tuesday, I attended a conference, and by the end of the day felt the weight of some accumulated disappointments and annoyances having to do with the content of some of the sessions and the behavior of some of the attendees. I think we all naturally rebel against this sort of negativity, since it is so contrary to our nature as God's children. And at the heart of that rebellion is the desire to see harmony. So, at the same time I felt the imposition of this weight, I also desired to be free of it. At the time, that's all I was aware of--that I felt annoyed and didn't want to.

I was leaving the building where the conference was held, when I saw a former colleague, whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years. Now, when we worked together, I have to tell you, that I had a pretty low opinion of him. And employees came and went so frequently where we used to work, that I was genuinely surprised that he remembered me. At any rate, the last time we had bumped into one another, he told me he had just gotten engaged, so I asked him about it. He was ready to celebrate his second anniversary with his wife, and they were expecting a son in a few months. He'd bought a house, and for the past couple of years had been working somewhere I knew would be easier than where we'd worked together. From where I was standing, his life was PERFECT! So where was this guy I'd looked down on a few years ago? He certainly wasn't the guy standing in front of me!!

And in that moment, the weight I'd felt just vanished. Here was God, divine Love, at work! Love was providing all this good in this man's life, and Love had lifted the clouds from my view of the world and this man. The realest thing to me was God's presence and love, and the perfection of his children. I was elated!

Driving home, I realized what had happened. First and foremost, my prayer for peace had been answered. "But you didn't actually stop and pray," you say? Well, the way I understand it, prayer is consecrated thought. And a right desire is certainly a consecrated thought. In one of my favorite passages from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind [God]. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in word and in deeds" (p. 1). So, really, I had desire-prayed, and within minutes, my prayer was answered. I'm still floating from this one, I have to say. :)

The other answered prayer I recognized this morning. Over the past few days, it felt like I was being pulled in many directions, especially related to what activities were filling my days. I had the sense of stress that I should wake up each morning and dive into my Bible study and prayer, but it wasn't quite happening to the extent that I wanted before I moved on to other activites, and then I felt guilty...and then I was mad that I was indulging thoughts of guilt because they're as unproductive as the other thoughts. Hmph!

So yesterday, as I was reflecting on the incident with my former colleage, I thought about those prayers that I have consistently seen answered immediately--the prayers for right feelings, and so I prayed to want to get more out of my Bible study and prayer, as well as not to be so hung up on time and my to-do list. Essentially, I was asking God to help me feel my natural desire to be close to Him, and to feel the freedom and joy that are natural to me as His child.

And that's exactly what happened. I woke up this morning feeling peaceful and excited to go learn something from the weekly Bible Lesson. At first, I thanked God for the feeling of freedom and was so happy it came at the time of day I seemed to want it most...then I realized my desire-prayer had really been targeted at that time of day anyway, and I was seeing exactly what I'd prayed for!

Okay, so I think I explained the concept of a desire-prayer. But what do I mean by a prayer for "right feelings"? Well, a right feeling would be something that's yours by right as God's child (and we're ALL God's children), something that comes from the basis that God is perfect and perfectly in charge of all. So things like peace, joy, freedom, comfort, creativity. And then we can also pray for "right thoughts." I usually think of right thoughts as seeing the situation the way God does; like I did with that former colleague--I caught a glimpse of the perfect man God created, not the ugly picture I seemed to have created and carried around all that time.

These prayers are always answered. Period. In the Bible, Jesus says, "Ask, and ye shall receive." But later, James writes, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:3). To me that means that the only reason a prayer wouldn't be answered is if it's asked from a selfish motive. This passage from Science and Health, really explains this point: asking amiss. And that's why we should never ask for things, or events to occur. God knows what's best for us all and provides it. [Here, I refer you to the title of this blog, and the Bible verse that inspired it. :)] And if we pray to see things like God does, we'll always be in good shape.

23rd Psalm, reworked

Sometimes I like to use familiar Bible passages as inspiration for addressing whatever seems to need addressing in prayer at that moment. I tend to go for the uber-comforting ones, like The Lord's Prayer (see Matthew 6:9-13), Psalm 91, 1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 46, and, of course, Psalm 23. Most times, I just apply the ideas to what's in thought, but sometimes I actually rewrite the passage to fit the situation. Psalm 23 lends itself particularly well to that, and it becomes especially easy to make it work both literally and figuratively.

So here's my summer vacation edition of the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my home; I shall not be out of place.
He provideth me with comfy and beautiful furniture: he leadeth me through my chores peacefully.
He remindeth me who and where I am: he directeth me to mine and everyone's inherent goodness, the foundation of my home.
Yea, though the kitchen be a mess or the laundry drying everywhere, I will keep my joy: for Thou art the "house"-keeper; thy Dawn and thy Downy they do the work.
Thou givest me my daily bread no matter what: thou baptisest me with purity, consecration, gentleness, heavenly inspiration; I am having a house-party with the angels!
Surely this shall be so each day I live: for I dwell in my Father-Mother's house, alway.

Passages that inspired me:
Psalm 23
Psalm 23 in Science and Health

Lord's Prayer with Its Spiritual Interpretation

Oil

Angels

Father-Mother

al-way