Christian Science today
My house was a mess. I didn’t know where to start cleaning. I felt tired.
Then I woke up. Heeh, I was cozy in bed. I had rested.
My house was still a mess, but the “tired” feeling was only a dream, so I didn’t buy into it. I stood firm with the truth that I have the consciousness of being rested because that is surely what a good God has expressed through me.
I cleaned the house.
“He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”- Psalms 23:3
Science and religion are too large to describe. They are veritable conglomerates, diverse trades, mottled and immensely interesting businesses that can go bad.
But science and religion affect contemporary faith and how it is shaping, or reshaping, our institutions. Even the people who say they have no faith, have faith in something, maybe their dog coming home.
Today, beliefs and convictions change daily. New thoughts are hurled at us to ricochet in our spaces and minds. But, we may remember that science and religion associate with a tiny segment in the history of humankind. Centuries elapsed before human beings developed a consciousness of either. Human beings were too busy surviving. It took time for beliefs and knowledge to evolve and organize, sometimes self-destructing in the process.
In this evolution, factions reproduced, even as they matured and decayed. And through it all, there are peaks, the empowering heartfelt religious prayers, transformative sciences, putrid abuses, in short everything that is pleasant and irritating that attracts and repels, seduces and disgusts us humans. But, more important there are the people. How they fit into science and religion. How they complement one another.
Over the last half century, I’ve met people who observe Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, secularism, humanism, and naturalism. I see more complements than clashes. Science nor religion can break the unity of the spirit.
Neither science nor religion is truth. They aren’t even bodies of facts. They are methods to decide whether or not what we chose to believe has a foundation in physical or spiritual laws. I barely understand physical and spiritual laws, occasionally thinking they blend, but I have found common ground among science and religion in that they both can be used to pursue the law of healing and answer questions as to why the heck we are here and what should we do about it.
But let’s remember where we are starting from: Unbreakable unity.
Linear thinking misinterprets life to be birth and death. Birth, growth, maturity, decay, death.
Circular thinking interprets life to be life. Lively, regenerative, beautiful. Expression, creativity, bounty.
I attended an Alliance Church service at which the Pastor’s sermon centered round the armor of God as talked about by Paul to the Ephesians. Pastor Keith used Power Point to show what Roman armor looked like in Paul’s time, basically, skimpy leather coverings over the chest and privates. The knees were exposed and feet were in sandals. In other words, armor was definitely not like what comes to today’s mind, a body fully wrapped in metal.
Compared to Roman armor, I wear more protection when hiking in the woods.
Paul said, “Take your stand then with truth as your belt, integrity your breastplate, the gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit.” Anger or self-justification is not part of the armor.
Spiritual warfare is valid. Fighting for Christ-like thoughts is a privilege and obligation to life. Interestingly, the armor of God, however, as talked about by Paul, fails to mention protection on the back side.
The conclusion being: don’t’ turn and run away from the enemies. Living in the armor of God, we can face foes that attempt to defy Life, Truth, Love. Love and Truth always win.
Reading about the current flooding, especially the Mississippi River flooding, I can’t help but be reminded of a friend’s interpretation of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark and the great flood. Noah was told by God to build a huge Ark and load it with his family, animals, and tons of food, because God decided to flood the earth to drown out the rampant sin going on.
My friend thought, If God only reveals goodness, and God is All-in-all, then the flood had to be a flood of goodness, a flood of love drowning out resentment and indignation.
For some reason this made sense to me. And, then one evening while cooking dinner, rather wearily, one of the children wanted my attention. I consciously was aware of impatience being triggered in my mind, and all of a sudden a flood of patience overcame me. I wasn’t specifically asking God for patience, but I did feel Christ (not a human man, but spirit) actively working in consciousness and that evening I responded. I gave the appropriate amount of attention to the child, finished dinner and the evening went better than fine.
So, how does this recollection of Love flooding us with patience help with the present flooding going on in the south? It doesn’t help, physically. But, all practical physical help comes from a mental impetus, a thought, therefore, I figure, a thought of Love’s flooding is better than the thought that the south is being punished as if God could send something bad. Spiritual thoughts are powerful, useful and lead to practical action when sent out to the universe.
Guest Article:
This afternoon I tried my hand at making some Greek dolmades. Deliciously simple, they consist of grape leaves filled with a tasty rice mixture. My husband is Greek and loves the little treats; they were naturally a staple food during his childhood. Typically we attempt making them together (we have yet to actually get them right) and I usually play the part of prep chef helping to roll up the dolmades. During this lengthy little process he tells stories of his mom and grandma’s dolmades and other Greek food he loved as a child.
But today, while rolling up my grape leaves treats alone, I started to think of my own family heritage. Cultural values are something that my parents never really talked about. In the short 2 ½ years I have been with my husband I have learned more about Greek values that my parents ever taught me about my own Polish and Danish roots. Maybe this can simply be chalked up to the fact that Northern European descendants don’t have much to brag about besides pasty white legs an extensive history of potato farming, or maybe it is because my parents simply allowed me to build my own culture.
While growing up, my mom was always quick to remind me that God or Love was my true Father-Mother. At first I just took it for granted, along with “drink your milk”. When I was a teenager I became a little more perplexed with the saying, why would she want to pass of her job of mom off to God? Fortunately I trusted both my mom and God, so I never got too confused by it. Now that I am an adult, treating God as my Father-Mother really makes perfect sense. What makes my mom’s marriage work isn’t necessarily what is right for my own, but the building blocks, the building blocks of Love, Trust, and Humor are all there, thoughts given to anyone straight from God.
With God as my Father-Mother I was able to glean my own cultural values and family heritage from everyone I meet throughout life. For example, Mehmet Efendi, a kind elderly personal home chef I worked with while I was a nanny in Istanbul, Turkey, taught me how to make dolmades, and my Uncle Scott taught me the joy of snowboarding.
Cultural heritage is something that can enrich your life or define who you are in a near debilitating manner. If my own parents had insisted I take up the family tradition I would undoubtedly be farming somewhere in Idaho or Eastern Washington. But instead they trusted me to trust God, to travel and to build my own spiritual culture that enriches my life with traditions that mean something to me from all the different loving, good-hearted people I have met in my life.
Family values and cultural values can come to a person from their parents, grandparents, books and a million other places. The key is to let go of traditions that bring us down and grab hold of values and traditions that help to enrich our own lives and those around us.
And as a closer, my dolmades were perfect.
Yesterday, my week long trip to Seattle came to an end. The airplane ride home to upstate New York was uncomplicated―beside the fact I could not, try as I may, try as I might by twisting and pulling, open the plastic packet of duck sauce to put on the egg roll I ate at the airport in Minneapolis. But, compared to the last trip west, I figured the actual transportation segment of my trip very grand. No delayed planes. I didn’t have to clear a foot of snow off my car. I didn’t have to hack ice out from around the wheels in minus 3 degree weather, or drive in a blizzard, like the last trip I took.
Last night, just after midnight, I walked into the house to Richard greeting me. This is the epitome of bliss. I missed my kitty. Give me cat hair, a litter box, dirty feet, and I am content and jovial. No matter that it was past my bedtime and I was wiped out, Richard and I hugged, wrestled, and played fetch until 2:30 a.m. when finally my eyes rolled to the back of my head and I became unconscious.
Beulah and Betsy, two of my trusty neighbors, came to feed Richard while I was gone. Before leaving, I wisely deposited a typewritten note on the counter dictating the proper amounts of food to leave Richard each day. However, apparently, my 2/3 of a cup per day of dry cat food was taken to mean 2 to 3 cups each day. Richard’s bowl was filled to the brim. Providentially, Richard is able to walk right-on-by too much food, because he did not turn into a fatty.
I did return to snow. The northeast region of the United States had 6” while I was gone. A columnist in the local newspaper depicted this winter as relentless, and most residents would probably agree, but compared to the over 100 inches of snow I’ve participated in shoveling this season, this last 6 inches is not an issue. Most of it had melted by time I arrived on the scene and I thank God for changing seasons. Some “changes” do not appear to be good, but with the goal of spiritual life and love before us, goodness does appear.
For example, on my airplane ride from Minnesota to Albany, I happen to sit next to Aaron, an American in the Military. His unit is stationed in Japan, only miles away from the center of the horrendous recent geological and weather changes occurring there. Aaron was in Japan a few weeks ago and unimaginably, he did not feel a tremor. His unit’s location was untouched. Not even a wave. The unit’s location is now being used as a safe base for people who were in the damaged areas.
Thankfully, human beings can stop resisting change, stop attempting to maintain a mortal condition, and instead seek immortal life and love.
The infamous unopened plastic packet
Richard walking on by
From 21st Century Science and Health:
“You can find in 21st Century Science and Health, how to recognize thoughts that lead to spiritual and physical goodness. You can learn that in this ever-changing world, you can change for the better. We can make responsible choices as our knowledge of immortal good increases.”
“Meditation cannot change the Science of spiritual existence, but it brings us into sync with this scientific existence.
“Repetitive requests bring to mortals only what they believe will be the result. A desire for spirituality is requisite in order to gain spirituality; but if we desire it above all else, we will surrender everything for spirituality. We must be willing to do this, to walk securely in the only practical road to spirituality. Prayer can’t change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth. Prayer, attached to an eager consistent intent to know and do God’s will, will bring us into all Truth. This prayer really has little need of audible expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.
“The ordinary theological views of atonement will continue to change and improve, just as opinions regarding predestination and future punishment have evolved.
“Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
“Man and woman are not a dichotomy of non-intelligence and intelligence. Soul, substance, is God, unchangeable and intelligent; and we coexist with and reflect Soul, God, for we are God’s image.”
Last October, I blogged about one of my co-workers who was going through a divorce with a cohort of anger and blame. On the days she came to work with the “quivering chin,” I knew that the slightest nuance would set her to crying with infuriation. So, I spoke as happily as I could and we got straight to business, which was best, because to be perfectly honest she wasn’t that much fun to work with.
As you would expect, the anger spilled over into the work place. I’d nonchalantly, and sometimes bluntly, pointed out that anger is stupid and doesn’t get the story straight so maybe let it go. One day, she told me she realized she had a choice, either to listen to fuming blaming thoughts, or not. And, to listen to comforting, nice thoughts is a form of prayer for healing.
Our legal system permits a divorce when the existence of significant differences between a married couple are so great and beyond resolution that they make the marriage unworkable. But, does this mean irreconcilable differences are forever?
No.
In the case with my co-worker, young children were involved and her and her ex finally saw that shrapnel from their firing of anger back and forth was hitting the children. So, they took a breath. They love their children.
Anger can rant and rave, but it will never reconcile itself to progress or happiness.
Forgiveness, humility, love, and honesty are reconcilable. From 21st Century Science and Health, “Christ can’t reconcile Truth to error, for Truth and error are irreconcilable.”
So, anyway, a few weeks back, my co-worker and I were busy and I could tell she wanted to say something. I listened. She told me she didn’t have to take more time off from work for her “court and lawyer appointments” because her and her ex-husband are now speaking to one another, calmly. Her chin was quivering. Was she going to cry?
We both know more challenges will come up in life, but sometimes we can take a minute to cry with happiness.
Do you know anyone who…
Is their name Orchid, Sundew, or Milkweed? Well, those names are names of actual plants. And, those plants fit the character descriptions listed above as chronicled on Life, a Discovery Channel production narrated by Oprah Winfrey. As a viewer, I was intrigued by the fact that plants prove a brain is not necessary to know, survive, and move. Some plants express more intelligence than people with brains.
The mysterious anomalies presented by plants and people make more sense to me because of the teachings of Christian Science, especially, “all is infinite Mind and it’s infinite manifestation.” Mind, not brain, directs, controls, guides, relates, motivates.
So, where does evil come from? A wrong perception of Mind, God, in other words, from a human mind.
Divine Mind is whole, complete, healthy, manifesting wellbeing, harmony, and knowing. The human mind tries to divide or steal from or belittle or ignore divine Mind, but only generates a sense of evil including its own self-destruction. Thankfully, we have a spiritual mindedness that can quiet the human mind and reveal to us divine Mind’s universe.
This is more than seeing the glass half full versus seeing it half empty (although that is a good start). Utilizing our spiritual mindedness and knowing divine Mind, is seeing fullness, a bursting, over-flowing, satisfied life and love.
“For a single moment, become aware that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual—neither in nor of matter—and the body will stop complaining.
“Jesus proved that Life is God by his reappearance after the crucifixion. His action paralleled his scientific statement: “Destroy this temple, and I [Spirit] will raise it again in three days.”[1] It is as if he said, the I (the Life, substance, and intelligence of the universe) is not in physical elements to be destroyed.”–21st Century Science and Health
[1] John 2:19 (Brackets added by Mary Baker Eddy)
I’ve acclimated to this winter’s zero degree weather by reading books inside the warmer house, with a kitty on my lap. I’ve just finished reading:
It’s only a coincidence the books fall into the genre of history, but they fascinatingly complemented one another, keeping my interest piqued.
Karen Armstrong’s research into the knowledge of God and its impact on the worlds three main religions—Christianity, Islam, and Judaism—severed theology from eternity. Theologies are human-made and fluctuate as often as the weather. The History of God seemed to agree with my opinion that outmoded doctrines and restrictive traditions bring disrepute to religions. Armstrong warns against fundamentalism and encourages faith—a faith and audacity to exchange human ideologies for transcendent views of God, reality.
Harman’s book, A People’s History of the World, is fat, pregnant with social and political history apparently forming and reforming human nature. Discourses on religion and God are scattered throughout the book, pointing to the probability that the people’s way of life, health, and systems of government indirectly mimic their concept of God, some good, some not so good.
Reading Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought was like scuba-diving. It required serious exertion and concentration; resisting a ponderous oxygen tank from pulling you backward; remembering to breathe counter-intuitively through your mouth, and, abstaining from immediate verbal expressions when glimpsing an awesome view, in order not to swallow a mouthful of salty water. The history of language is entirely different from the history of words and Pinker analyzed language from many perspectives, concluding there is no complete adequate language to convey truth. Pinker is amazingly practical, humorous, and realistic.
I recommend The History of God to readers who are interested in reconciling religion to God. Religion can be beneficial when not mistaken for truth.
I recommend A People’s History of the World to readers on the verge of escaping the prison of repeating deadening past activity.
I recommend The Stuff of Thought to people who value the open-mindedness of an educated engaging author.
My conclusion: History serves as a window into nature. But readers must decide which nature. Trying to understand the human nature is as promising as understanding falling snow. Admittedly, snow is no longer considered a miracle but is now known as a component of the water cycle. But this knowledge is plagued by human concerns. Too little snow causes droughts. Too much snow is a pain to deal with on the roads. Knowledge of the human nature is not satisfying.
The human struggle against concerns, hunger, suffering, and mind-numbing traditions cease only as I use history as a window into the spiritual nature. And, I did find evidence of spirituality in these good reads! Bravery, balance, insight, hindsight, compassion, morality, reform, honesty, integrity were not only obvious, but also inspiring, to the point I felt the reality of the spiritual nature.
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