Tag: progress

What is real progress?

Published on by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

What is real progress?

Is it a bigger house, car, more financial stability, etc?

Progress is the maturing conception of divine Love; –Mary Baker Eddy

Collective progress is really about spiritualizing consciousness. About gaining more of the true, unconditional, all inclusive sense of divine Love that uplifts and blesses. As humanity gains clearer views of this spiritual love, fear and anxiety diminish, and peace reigns. It’s not about each person taking their corner on peace. But about the kingdom of heaven reigning in us and the spiritual peace which accompanies that individually and collectively. This is transformative for humanity!

Gaining an inclusive sense of divine Love that kneels to wash each other’s feet — a symbol of humbleness — is a sign of self-sacrifice, true wisdom, and everlasting peace.

The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.–Mary Baker Eddy

We can’t build safely on a false sense of what constitutes satisfaction, love, or peace. The human mind wants to see it’s somewhere out there and we have to work hard to attain it. But actually all we need is already provided for by God, and we see it as we awaken spiritually, realize the presence of good/God, and see God expressed inwardly and outwardly.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.–Matthew 5:8 The Message

This takes discipline and training of our mind! “Disciple” means student so as we strive to study and understand the kingdom of Love, we will start to see this kingdom expressed around us and experience this heavenly love.

When you look through green glasses, everything around use has a greenish tint. When you look through the lens of Love and Spirit, everything around you appears as lovely, loving, beautiful, compassionate, caring. You see everything and everyone as the offspring of God’s compassionate, all-embracing Love.

What happens when you look through the lens of fear? You see suspicion, distrust, doubt, anxiety, limited resources, etc.

The only thing we need then is to change our lens! A change of perspective. Openness, willingness, and receptivity to what God is seeing and doing.

Jesus showed us the nature of God by healing, restoring, providing, lifting up, and eliminating injustice. He showed us the nature of God. If we need a reality check, we can always look to him to gain the correct model of what is good, true and everlasting. This shows us how to live, love, and grow. It’s a true model for progress!

Jesus wasn’t very concerned with material things since he trusted in God, divine Love, who provided all he needed. He sent his disciples out without a wallet and recognized he didn’t have a material home. God provided for every human needed during his whole ministry.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.–Matthew 6:31-33 ESV

So his primary focus was the reign of kingdom of God on earth; he stayed focused on his higher mission, and saw the fulfillment of all he had come to show us. What a beautiful example of keeping that higher goal before thought while living in the present moment and ushering in that awareness of the presence of God, divine Love.

We can follow this same model by having the realization of the kingdom be our big picture goal, while living those kingdom ideals moment by moment. By being open and receptive to seeing in news ways, we are bringing Christ into the big picture and into the minutiae of our day.

By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiæ of human affairs. — Mary Baker Eddy

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Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Life lessons from landscaping

Published on by lindseybiggs6 Comments


My husband and I are continuing a landscaping project we started last fall. When we initially considered this project it was  overwhelming. There was the space we had to consider as well as the aesthetic look, practical needs and our budget. How could we get the best results without exceeding our budget, or making mistakes and having to redo the landscaping? 

We had a landscape consultant helps us with the big picture. We wanted to do the planting, expanding and decorating ourselves to save on cost and to learn more about the value and skills of homeownership. 

We could then focus on priorities. This was very important because we didn’t have the time or money to do the whole project at once. 

This reminded me of man’s spiritual journey through life. If we look at ourself, our understanding, the world and all that needs to be accomplished, we might feel overwhelmed. Feeling this way often prevents us from even getting started, being apathetic or feeling like what we have to offer is of little value compared to the all that needs to be done. But as I’m learning through this landscape project – planting a tree here and there, fertilizing and watching it grow – we see how each part that we accomplish affects the whole. In fact, with each part that we accomplish we can step back, look at the big picture again, and see if any adjustments need to be made. What have we learned? Can we adjust our route or strategy?

And then we see that each part is actually a valuable, integral part of the whole. Each part is needed to help us see the full picture. And with each part we gain the ideas, lessons and skills we need to continue in a more productive, effective way. 

I think about all that the prophets and spiritual leaders have accomplished to help humanity gain a clearer sense of the allness and tangible presence of Spirit, Life, Truth and Love. They each had a spiritual journey of learning and growing – of God’s nature being revealed to their consciousness. If they had stopped, or failed to get started, we wouldn’t have the spiritual understanding of being that we do today.

Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian healer and teacher from the late 1800’s – early 1900’s wrote:

“[Divine] Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already done; but distrust of one’s ability to gain the goodness desired and to bring out better and higher results, often hampers the trial of one’s wings and ensures failure at the outset.”¹

“We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.”²

Even though we have a lot of growing to do, like my garden, we can still succeed with each step we take along the way. 

 

¹ Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 260
² Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 248 

Feeling successful

Published on by lindseybiggs6 Comments

Everyone wants to feel successful. Often this is expressed in terms of a house, marital status or kids and a job. And we can often feel pretty unsuccessful if we don’t have one or all of these things. But don’t believe it! Each one of us is the valuable, needed and worthy child of God with divine inheritance. 

Recently, my husband and I were contemplating our future dream house and trying to make this more of a reality. However, I was feeling frustrated and unsuccessful because it didn’t seem like there was any way to start this project.

I got my journal to write and pray about what was bothering me. I saw that I love progress. Progress is a sign of productivity, success and being on a divinely right path. I was seeing this house and future plans as a sign of progress. And I was feeling really unproductive and lackadaisical because it didn’t seem like it could happen. 

As I prayed about this from a metaphysical and spiritual standpoint, I began to see that progress is really mental. Progress is new thoughts about God and your relationship with Him. Progress is a new understanding of your spiritual selfhood and identity. Progress is seeing the true, spiritual nature of your fellow-man and loving your neighbor better. Progress is the victory of Truth over error, spirit over matter and the throwing off of material limitations or the so-called carnal mind. 

“…let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us…” (Hebrews 12:1, Amplified Bible)

This new view of progress really uplifted me and aligned my priorities back to God’s. I saw that each moment, each thought, could be full of progress. So rather than having one big lump sum of progress represented in a house or some other material thing, I could have a hundred steps of progress in thought each day. 

So if you’re feeling trapped by a financial situation, relationships status or some other thing, focus on the progress you can make today – right now in this moment. This illumination of present good and the activity of goodness in your life will surely lift your spirits and open up new views of what is possible today.