Tag: Mary Baker Eddy

Finding companionship spiritually

Published on by lindseybiggs2 Comments

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Recently, in my prayers, I ask “What would make me feel better?”

 

There are many ways to pray but this is an interesting idea that has come to me.

 

When I respond to the question “what would make me feel better”, the answer is generally spiritual things.

 

For instance, if you’re having relationship troubles, you might think, “what would make me feel better”, and the answer may be: companionship, a more harmonious relationship, feeling loved, or more patience and affection.  The wonderful thing is that all of these are attained spiritually.  They are inherent in our relationship with God.  Which means they are already present within us.

 

The Bible says, “For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;” (KJV Isa. 54:5) So really it is God, our Best Friend, Husband, Redeemer, who is supporting us, never leaves us and always sees the best in us.

 

St. John says that God is Love itself.  (John 4:8)  This implies that God is the one and only Source.

 

And elsewhere in the Bible it says, “…in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  So can we ever be separated from Love or outside the realm of it?

 

No.

 

“…Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom 8:35).

 

So where does this feeling of loss or a lack of love come from?  The carnal mind, which Paul says is hostile or resistant to God.

 

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot…” (NRSV Rom 8:5-8)

 

We discover this “mind” is an enemy to us – to our happiness and health. Our inherent spiritual nature is childlike, innocent, free, totally fulfilled and content each moment.  Spirit supplies all that It’s offspring needs, and this reflection has to be as satisfied and complete as the Source is.

 

So let’s put away any sense of lack, loss, confusion or impatience with the help of the law of Love, the nature of Spirit, which says that all is happy and complete and free today.

 

Praying for Our Representatives and World

Published on by lindseybiggs2 Comments

 

 

On the evening when I read about Gabrielle Giffords being shot, I felt compelled to pray.  At first I wasn’t sure how to pray.  I knew I didn’t want to pray about specific human circumstances, so I started to think about God as Love.  And I instantly got a sense and a vision in my mind of Love being all – filling all space, the only Creator and manifested as Creation.  In this image all is happy, healthy and peaceful because all there is is Love.

 

Why is this image important?  If Love is all there is, then there is no hate.  If Love is all, then there is no cause of anything that is unlike Love.  Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of the universal science — Christian Science, teaches that sin and the sinner are both unreal.  (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 472)  God’s creation is entirely good, spiritual, loving, happy and eternal.  Where, then, is the sinner?  Where then is the source and cause for the incident?  No where.  And as this healing takes place in our thought, there is also healing and transformation in the physical.

 

In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Yancey illustrates how necessary grace and forgiveness are in our personal and nation-wide experience.  When a situation is redeemed or healed in our heart and thought, we can go on with new views, unity, and work for progress and blessings for everyone.  He depicted many nations who are in conflict today based on challenges centuries ago.  Many people today don’t even know why their nation is fighting, it’s simply because they always have.  He labels this as “ungrace”.  I love this term “ungrace” because it makes things so clear to me — if it’s not grace we are thinking and expressing, then it’s ungrace.  What a help this is in being proactive about healing our world and individual thoughts and hearts.

 

Eddy states, in her compilation of Miscellaneous Writings, “A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God.” (p. 354)

 

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the Stanford University studies on the correlation between health and forgiveness.  I see it this way: we are a window for God’s light and love; if the window is filled with dirt – resentment, hate, revenge, fear – then we experience as much of this substantial, healing light which is the source of all health, happiness, and peace.

 

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22 NIV)  This healing spirit of Truth and Love has profound physical effects and certainly leads to transformation of mind, body, soul and the world.

 

 

For an additional article on this incident check out: “She does not have that permission from me” by John D. Clague.

 

Reaching goals & living in the now

Published on by lindseybiggs2 Comments

 

 

The past few days I’ve been thinking about goals.

 

A spiritual leader, Mary Baker Eddy, speaks of her experience this way:

 

“The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, P. 426)

 

I’ve had trouble balancing this statement because to me focusing on reaching a goal doesn’t seem like living in the now.

 

But I just realized the two actually go hand in hand.

 

Living in the now is actually an appreciation and awareness of infinite good, Love, joy, and health that is here, right now.  It is a knowing that God is as full as He can be, and man and woman are made in His/Her image and likeness – totally spiritual, harmonious and free.

 

This fact is not going to be more true once we reach a certain goal.  We can relish the fact that we don’t have to wait for spiritual perfection.

 

For me, the high goal means the absolute spiritualization of all thought and life; infinite Spirit, Mind, Love understood and expressed; and man/woman seen as It’s image and likeness, totally eternal and spiritual.

 

Ultimately our goals are a sign and symbol of this – of our spiritual rights, heritage and freedom, and our oneness with the Source of goodness being seen and expressed.

 

Goals may keep us going on the forward path, the path of progress.   However, we can rejoice that reaching our goal only means seeing more clearly what has always been true about us and the universe.

 

So we can also celebrate, today, that the Truth is already true; that God is here and now, and we are His spiritual, perfect, eternal creation.  There will never be more supply, beauty, health, harmony, love, or freedom present than is present right now, spiritually.  We can rejoice in this and have the expectation that we will meet our goals and see this spiritual fact more clearly each day.