here are some thoughts...

Here are some thoughts about how I've made my spirituality--my relationship to God--practical in everyday life. :)
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

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malicious intent of getting advertisements in front of people, or seem to develop over time as technology begins to be out of date.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.

Monday, June 23, 2014

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.