"Your life is your practice."

The following is an email I sent a friend (and posted with his permission) describing how I had a healing demonstration over pain and weakness simply by hearing about the good he was doing one day.

The terms you'll see "animal magnetism" and "mesmerism," as used in Christian Science, both refer to what the apostle Paul calls (in Romans 8:7) "the carnal mind," or a seeming pull away from Godlike thought. But since God is All, this type of "thought" is really just a dream we can snap right out of--just like I did! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dearest dear _______,

Basically, _______, you just being yourself brought about a healing demonstration for me last Saturday. I had been having a slight challenge with pain/weakness, that seems to be recurring, and I was silently refuting it ... but also taking it easy so as not to make the situation worse.

Then you called.

And just hearing about your day that was so productive--humanly and metaphysically--totally snapped me out of the mesmerism, made me feel all pumped up and full of life, and the pain/weakness just vanished!--along with another side effect I won't go into, but that always seems to accompany this challenge.

So, [at the] Wednesday [evening church meeting], I talked about this as an example of how "your life is your practice"--how living in accord with God, not allowing oneself to be handled by animal magnetism, can just heal others without any effort. Cuz that's what you did! So go you, practitioner _______, transparency for Truth!! :-)

LOTS of love!
Erin

transparency for Truth
the carnal mind

A haiku

God's loving, pure thoughts
Reach everyone everywhere
Perfect reception

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.

Some dog blog love...

Here is a blog from time4thinkers about a healing of a pet dog; my response is the seventh one down... Unleashed by Love

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

Poem I Found

I just came across this poem by Mary Baker Eddy when I was giving some thought to God's unchangeable law, how He is divine Love, divine Principle. I like it because it shows we all can and must turn to God, and that we only find good--security, peace, love--there! Enjoy! :)

Whither?

Father, did'st not Thou the dark wave treading
Lift from despair the struggler with the sea?
And heed'st Thou not the scalding tear man's shedding,
And know'st Thou not the pathway glad and free?

The weight of anguish which they blindly bind
On earth, this bitter searing to the core of love;
This crushing out of health and peace, mankind--
Thou all, Thou infinite -- dost doom from above.

Oft mortal sense is darkened unto death
(The Stygian shadow of a world of glee);
the old foundations of an early faith
Sunk from beneath man, whither shall he flee?

To Love divine, whose kindling mighty rays
Brighten the horoscope of crumbling creeds,
Dawn Truth delightful, crowned with endless days,
And Science ripe in prayer, in word, and deeds.

Elijah: Prophet, or Christian Science Practitioner?

In looking at the story of Elijah's prophecy of drought, and in his interactions with a widow woman afterwards, I noticed some correlations to a Christian Science practitioner...

First of all, when Elijah received the intuition about the drought, he just told it like it was to king Ahab--pretty bold! To me, this is similar to a Christian Science practitioner speaking an absolute truth, when impelled by God to do so. It can take a certain boldness to declare something that may not make sense to the material senses.

Then, Elijah received another intuition of where to go during the drought, and that God had commanded a widow woman to feed him. When Elijah saw her, he first requested a drink of water. Now in a drought, that request might have been met with some hesitation, but the woman didn't hesitate. After all, the water likely came from a public well, and wasn't something the woman would have felt a sense of personal responsibility for or ownership of. And this might be seen as Elijah gently approaching, gently preparing to introduce a new thought. So, unlike earlier with the king, this situation called for gentleness, not boldness. Elijah was always listening to know not only what to say, but how to say it, just like a practitioner.

Then, once Elijah sees that she is receptive, once she's already going to fetch him some water, then he asks the tougher question--he asks her for a morsel--just a little bite--of bread. Now that was something she'd feel personal responsibility for, but even so, she's ready to give Elijah some--only she doesn't have any. She barely has any ingredients to make any. In fact, she was ready to use the last of what she had, and then eat it and die. This is like the work of a practitioner identifying a false belief to be corrected. Here, perhaps, Elijah identified the woman's false sense that supply is material and therefore limited, and beyond God's control. He also saw that the false belief was at its extremity, and therefore ripe for destruction.

Then Elijah tells her to do as he asked, and that her supply of meal and oil would not run out. And as she is obedient, she finds that what Elijah said was true. The healing was the change in the woman's thought, and the natural fruit of that deeper, clearer understanding of supply was that she had enough food for herself and her household.

This is my favorite part, though. See, Elijah knew from the very outset that God had commanded the widow woman to take care of him. So he never had any doubts that the situation would work out harmoniously; God was speaking both to him and to the woman. That's kind of like a practitioner knowing from the outset that the patient is receptive and is, essentially, already well--just based on the fact that the patient was willing to contact him/her for help. And what exactly did Elijah do? He just shared something he already knew--that supply is of God, Spirit, and not subject to material limitation. Elijah understood that really well; the widow woman was ready to understand it...Bada bing, bada boom: healing! Elijah didn't do anything to the woman, but simply responded to her receptivity as he was led by God to do.

...And his needs were met, too. But Elijah never had any doubt that that would be the case, because he knew God was in charge of the whooooole thing. :)

So, was Elijah a prophet or a Christian Science practitioner? I'm not sure I see the difference. :)

"PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth." --Mary Baker Eddy, from the glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.