addiction – Spirituality & Healing

Nature teaches grand lessons.

This summer I got the opportunity to sit in awe of the ocean, the beautiful sand, and tall trees. I felt like I was in heaven. Sand and water are so simple, yet their purity and consistency can entertain one for hours as you stare at the waves coming in and out, in and back out again.

I was reminded of a blog that a colleague wrote about the healing power of being in awe. Scientists have found there are healthy physical and mental effects from the state of being in awe. What gives us this profound sense of awe is as diverse as we are. For me it’s nature, the trees, moon, animals. There is something so spiritual about pausing for a moment to just be in awe of this wonderful creation.

I was reading an article about retails shops and malls closing down at a rapid rate across America. One town is looking to make up for the lost business by attracting people to stop for the hiking trails, state parks and a new whitewater rafting outfit.

Studies have found that as people consume more, they are less and less happy. Spending money can actually be an addiction, similar to drug addictions, because, as studies show, spending can give people the same temporary high that drugs can.

So how do we break these cycles of addiction? Through knowing that man (more than just human beings) — men, women and children — are the spiritual manifestation of God. A friend once told me that she thinks of the word “man” as short for “manifestation.” I like that. We are much more than the flesh and bones that we see. We are actually each the image and likeness of God; the reflection of the one creative Spirit. Getting to know God and expressing this infinite wonderful being is the way to satisfy.

Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man... The senses confer no real enjoyment.

What can we enjoy then? I find that thinking in terms of qualities helps. The Bible says:

God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful…

So true enjoyment comes from our spiritual sense. Spiritual sense is actually how we perceive beauty, peace, love, satisfaction, comfort, joy. It’s how we feel safe. It’s how we give generously. It helps us make the right decisions. In fact, it is our constant connection to the Divine, to our real, native being.

God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss.

So it makes sense that as we become conscious of God, we are becoming more aware of infinity, freedom, harmony and boundless bliss and can be truly satisfied.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 60:31
Galatians 5:22 CEV
Science & Health, p. 481:2-4
Matthew 5:6 NIV

I once heard an analogy about a slave who worked for his master. He was unaware that the laws of the land had changed and he was no longer legally a slave. And no one told him. So he kept working for his master day in and day out.

To me, the point in this allegory is that even though God made us free, we have to know we are free in order to experience the benefits of that freedom.

Christ Jesus famously stated:

“…ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8 KJV)

What is Truth? This is a question that each person has to answer individually; but I believe we are each God’s child, and our tender, loving divine Mother-Father has given us freedom – freedom from sickness, disease, sin, limitation, lack, and sorrow. This is what Christ Jesus showed us.

We may think of freedom as democracy and individual rights. That is certainly one aspect of freedom. But we aren’t completely free until we realize that the material senses – the limitations, lack, sickness and death that are presented to us – cannot bind us.

When Jesus spoke of freedom the people around him said, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” (John 8:33-34 NKJV)

“Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, ‘Slavery is abolished.’ The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy, p. 224)

Freedom comes from knowing God and knowing who man is – made in the image and likeness of divine Love.

The following excerpt is the most complete, detailed and pure description of man that I have ever come across:

“Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements…Man is spiritual and perfect…Man is idea, the image, of Love…that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker…Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy, p. 475)

I’ve prayed with this description of man since I was a child and it has freed me from sickness, fear, lust, addiction, and lack.

Once we see and know who we are, we will never again believe anything that tries to say otherwise. When we know God, how loved we are and that God made each of us spiritually and perfectly, we won’t believe anything that goes against that relationship.

Each day we can celebrate our independence and freedom from material limitations.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1 NKJV

Tag: addiction

Satisfaction, nature and being in awe

Our God-given freedom