Tag Archives: Christian Science
Live Life Despite CRUD
Human Beings are constantly being diagnosed with symptoms that I satirically refer to as collectively belonging to Chronic Repetitious Urging Disease (CRUD). I myself have been afflicted with these symptoms that stop me from living life to its fullest. The key to reducing our risk to CRUD is distinguishing between human mind and divine Mind.
No one is immune to CRUD because life itself is intertwined with urge. An urge is an impulse, a desire, or a drive. And to know what is urging us, either the human mind or the divine Mind, is essential to relief from CRUD.
The human mind is repetitiously urging humanity to be afraid, be mortal, or be power-hungry. And, life becomes a chronic case of battling with frail, egotistic, smart, control freaks, not to mention urgently dealing with the ever-morphing physical stuff in the world. Consequently, we feel dis-eased, cruddy.
Society however is realizing the power of the human mind and successfully training these minds to respond to better influences or urges. Knowing the limitations of the human mind, many people have joined a spiritual quest in order to manage the human mind more effectively. Ironically, these spiritual seekers can still be plagued by CRUD unless divine Mind is firmly and repetitiously tapped into.
CRUD attacks indiscriminately. We automatically turn on the TV or iPOD to drown out the cyclic thoughts in our minds. We meditate as soon as we are nervous. We are urged to talk on our cell-phones about nothing. We go shopping for things we really don’t need. We somberly echo useless words that no longer have an impact. We stop talking to our contemporaries and become aloof. We become so ritualistic about taking pills or praying that we would go into terrible withdrawals if the routine was altered.
Basically, the human mind can’t resolve CRUD. All the effort made to try to get rid of our human urges only replaces one urge with another because urge is real, undying. Therefore, the key is to discover the urging of divine Mind. Life than becomes an ongoing adventure of adapting to change and being useful today. We feel at-ease.
With the same amount of urgency, if not greater, divine Mind is influencing us to live life to its fullest, despite CRUD. Divine Mind’s urging coincides with healing. We are being compelled to be honest, generous, noble and open to new ideas. We don’t cling to that which has been outgrown and we don’t whine over the demand to progress. Instead of viewing ourselves as a battling human mind pitted against itself or another human mind, we see ourselves as a person who has some human conditions that must be dealt with daily in order to enjoy life in its broadest sense while being urged by divine Mind.
From 21st Century Science and Health, “Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult to heal. When his students brought to him a case they had failed to heal, he said to them, “O [faithless ones] unbelieving and without trust in God, a perverse (wayward, crooked and warped) generation!”[1] His answer implies that the requisite power to heal was in Mind. Jesus didn’t prescribe drugs or urge obedience to fleshly demands but acted in direct disobedience to them.”
[1] Matt. 17:17; Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41 (Amplified)
A Great Hard Life
A new acquaintance of mine brought Bruno Groening to my attention. Groening (1906-1959) became well known in Germany as a spiritual healer, however, he was such an incredible healer that the world reacted with a vengeance that literally consumed Groening from within. His goal in life apparently was to heal and give God credit, saying, “If you got your health back again, don’t thank me, thank God, He has done it!” As people came to receive, and did receive, healing, influential doctors, church officials, lawyers, and disgruntled followers put up a terrible front, wanting to stop Groening.
While contemplating the life of Groening, it seems as though during his short life of 53 years, he lived more than most people, by witnessing and representing the divine power which heals humankind. Groening was stalked but it stands to reason that it IS Truth that heals, not a human being, because spiritual healing is still happening around the world.
There must be a balance between healing others and healing our self.
From 21st Century Science and Health, “Today, we find around the world living witnesses and representatives to the virtue and healing power of Truth….The powers of this world will react and the old-guard will try to stop truth and make it submit to their human standards. However, Science, not distracted by threats or assaults, continues to progress. There is always some chaos; however a mobilization to truth’s standard is inevitable.”
The Bridge that Unites Us even in the Voting Booth
Election Day, November 8, check.
Polling place, Meridale Fire Department, check.
Hours, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., check.
Honestly take time to pray, check. I don’t want to neglect my right to vote and I don’t want to vote out of frustration or fear, but I do want to participate in a fair and united activity. My prayers therefore consolidate the ideas of a wise and honest government full of good-will toward all people.
It helps to read articles such as “Bridging the River of ‘Otherness’” written by Jeremy Carper in the Christian Science Sentinel. Here is an excerpt from Carper’s writings:
“This prayer is spoken of in First Timothy: ‘I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty’ (2:1, 2). This prayer rises above political partisanship: Notice that First Timothy doesn’t say to pray only for the political leaders with whom we are in agreement! We are to pray ‘for all that are in authority.’ Does this imply, then, a passive citizenry that puts up with corruption or undemocratic practices in government? I don’t think so. Our prayers might lead us to take various steps to improve or change ways of doing something, and we might become more active citizens—voting, writing letters to our elected leaders urging a position, or even running for office ourselves. We might acknowledge that we are in opposition to a government and are activists for change, but this exhortation keeps us from petty partisanship, personal attacks on those whose views we oppose, and negative politics.”
Abstract Spirituality and Keeping Our Identity
Spirituality can be an abstract subject. But, when you think about it, spirituality has to be abstract, or else we all would lose our identity.
I’ve always thought it rather humorous when people use material means to identify themselves. They wear funky clothes, get tattoos, or piercings. I’m just as guilty. So, I laugh at myself too when I go buy a sporty car, only to get on the road and discover a gajillion other sporty cars just like mine passing me!
I’ve learned to appreciate the abstractness of spirituality, especially when raising children. As a young mother, I learned quickly not to treat each child the same. All children have their own spiritual identity and it only developed when I made unique decisions based on spirituality instead of my own opinions or expectations.Many times, I’d ask in prayer for an open mind to hear exactly what a child was to develop next. The answers seemed abstract at first such as, child #1 will progress in courage while child #2 will mature in patience, and child #3 will advance in intellect. But as soon as the spiritual direction was pointed out, the manifestation became clear. Child #1 and I went bungee jumping. Child #2 joined the Young Marines. Child #3 jumped a grade in school.
My husband and I had 2 daughters of our own, plus we fostered children for 15 years. I never in my wildest dreams could have figured out how they all got to where they are today. But we had a ton of fun and very very little troubles. I still appreciate the abstractness of spirituality.
From 21st Century Science and Health, “The scientific fact that our real identity and the universe are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that human beings gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. Human beings can never understand God’s creation while believing that man and woman is a creator. God’s children already created will be recognized only as we find the truth of being. Thus it is that the real spiritual identity appears in proportion as the false and materialistic disappears. The continuity of God’s children continues and we cannot lose our sense of increasing number in God’s infinite plan.”
Identity not lost
How can the brain, heart, blood, DNA, etc. be our identity? If our real nature is the material bodily structure, a portion of our being would be gone if a limb was amputated; a surgeon could remove our manhood or womanhood; or bacteria would annihilate our existence. What happens to the identity of an organ recipient? Or, how can DNA be the foundation of our identity? DNA mutates, replicates, and eventually dies therefore it can’t be a source of life. After a person is gone their DNA is still here on earth, so where is the individual? On another note, people have repeatedly proven that the loss of a limb cannot take away their manliness or womanliness. Many people, classified as disabled, have presented more nobility, more manliness and womanliness, than the polished athlete or glamour model—teaching society that true identity and nature comes from spirituality, consciousness.”
Click book cover to purchase “21st Century Science and Health”
Religious Freedom can be Defended
Religious freedom has to combat constantly the tendency of teachers and students to sit on their hands and remain mum when new ideas may offend those who adhere to an ideologically “correct” way of thinking. Churches have a reputation for little tolerance toward those who are courageous enough to challenge prevailing systems of thought. But, religious freedom fighters know that a new idea involves both an intellectual and a personal risk while challenging the presumptions of group think, therefore both intellectual and personal courage are taken on to defend and transform the new idea into an accomplishment.
Churches are no more immune than the larger society to the malicious and unsavory behavior of community or collective consciousness. Due to sedentary thinking, if churches received wisdom and ideology are challenged, the knee jerk reaction is to become defensive, however the nonsense that we stop receiving wisdom is defenseless.
Sadly, the institution of church suffers and chases people away as it pressures thinkers into ideological conformity, but religious freedom fighters decompress and pro-actively return to the original intent of church as being available for discovery and research and constructive criticism. New ideas are revived and religious freedom is felt.
From, 21st Century Science and Health, “To the ritualistic church authority, and hypocritical Pharisees, Jesus said, ‘The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.'” (Matt.)
Lip Biting No Longer an Influence
Out of nowhere, our 6 year old daughter began biting her bottom lip until it was raw. Telling her to stop biting her lip only aggravated the situation. So, I prayed a bewildered prayer and trusted a power higher than myself to take another step to help our daughter. As was my habit, I went to her school to volunteer in her classroom. Immediately when walking into the classroom, I knew what to do: bring my mind into agreement with community compassion; sounds obscure, but soon after, our daughter stopped biting her lip.
What happened?
Our daughter’s class friend, Kyra, was biting her bottom lip and our daughter was being influenced to copy the damaging fixation. I considered manipulating the friendship so that they could not spend time together, but Kyra needed a friend. Kyra’s dad was a doctor who lately had been headline news in the community newspaper because a few of his patients were convicting him of indecent practices.
I knew the family. The news related to the dad was a heavy blow to Kyra’s mom and Kyra’s older sisters. Kyra’s mom was searching Scriptures for answers. Her religious background was different from mine, therefore I respected her path and we didn’t talk about it. I treated her as I normally did.
It was obvious that the news (now known and being gossiped about by the local mass populace) was harshly affecting Kyra and her sisters. My peace was restored as I read this from 21st Century Science and Health, “Humanity must learn that the influences of propaganda or crowd thinking are powerless. Crowd thinking is oppressive, but only a phase of nothingness. Christian Science devastates the kingdom of evil, and preeminently promotes good-will and virtue in families and therefore in the community…God is not influenced by human beings.”
Human beings automatically assume we have power to influence. We whine, threaten, coerce, or get pushy, but loss of control persists because the countercosmology that God is the only influence is the only source of control. Therefore, instead of giving human beings power to influence, my prayer was attentive to the influence of Love and Truth. If Kyra’s dad needed to be corrected by the truth, it would happen and it can be juxtaposed with love, not a “feel sorry for” love, but a “demand for integrity on the job,” love.
Nasty things happen in life and we get through the nastiness gracefully when Truth and Love, instead of peer pressure or crowd thinking, are influencing our thoughts and actions.
The prayer, grounded on the scientific fact that Truth and Love are the only influence, proved effective. Our daughter stopped biting her lip and did well in school, even while continuing her friendship with Kyra. Her dad did have to correct his ways. It wasn’t easy for the family but they were not totally ostracized in the community and the mom and daughters matured nobly.
Got Married Back in the Olden Days
These are the flowers Doug sent me for our wedding anniversary, yesterday. A dozen roses, very beautiful. I would insert a picture of us on our wedding day, but we got married back in the olden days when they didn’t have digital cameras. And, I don’t have a scanner to scan the yellowing photo.
Doug and I are still going strong. But, being married hasn’t always been easy. The best advice that helped me see past the marriage troubles, is advice that I found in the Bible, although because practical wise advice is available to the universe, I’m sure this advice is found elsewhere. The advice is basically, what God joined together, don’t bother separating; which coincides with, don’t bother putting together what God didn’t.
Now, what God put together isn’t particular human beings. God is divine Spirit and deals with spiritual ideas and spiritual beings, therefore God put together compassion, humor, joy, appreciation, aplomb, tenderness, courage, and strength. God did not put together anger, arrogance, resentment, or impatience. And, because it is impossible to add a bit of anger to God’s creation, when I feel angry toward Doug, I back off and peace comes.
Doug has been living 3000 miles away from me since last October. He got a job in Seattle. I’ve been holding down the fort here in upstate New York. Thankfully, the advice I just mentioned above holds true even through space. In fact, divine Science teaches there is no space in Love, God. Marriage signifies an individual and collective path of spiritual unity with divine Love.
Healing Science Today 