Tag: trapped

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. 

Prayer for Miners

Published on by lindseybiggs1 Comment

I really appreciate the point made in the article “Trapped Miners Impress NASA Team” by the Christian Science Monitor about the “remarkable example of human resilience in the face of potential tragedy”.  And the ways in which humanity unites together in these instances to help one another.

Where does this strength and resilience come from?  Spirit.  It is Spirit (another name for God) that moves us, calms us, cares for us, and gives us new and useful ideas.  God is working in our thought, providing us with ideas, comfort, and these translate into daily supplies.  One of my favorite passages is a beautiful explanation of angels given by Mary Baker Eddy, a spiritual leader and teacher (and the discoverer and founder of the Monitor and Christian Science).

It goes in part like this:

“God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the “Peace, be still” to all human fears, to suffering of every sort.”  (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307)

Mind (also another name for God) is being expressed in the activities, usefulness, and spiritual ideas the miners are doing and imparting.  Mind is never separated from It’s creation for a moment.  Each idea (man) is fulfilling it’s task and purpose.  The article points out that valuable work is important to each of us.  We all want to be valued and useful, and we are!  I love how someone has taken on the task of being a spiritual leader.  This small community of people is seeing the importance of God, realizing the presence of God, and of prayer (communing with God) in our lives.  They are obviously feeling a beneficial effect from their prayer, from reaching out to God, or that role wouldn’t be necessary.  Scientific studies are starting to lean more to the effect of our thought and prayer on the body and in our life.  And these people are feeling the effect and love of everyone’s prayer around the world.

There is one point in the article that I specifically want to address.  The article says there could be continued challenges and hardship for these miners and their families after they are rescued because of all they have been through.  But this does not have to be true.  God is divine Love.  And this Love is so beautiful, pure and perfect.  It doesn’t contain any harsh side effects or punishment and certainly doesn’t bestow these on His/Her creation.  The Bible says, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:28).  So these children of God have never been separated from and never are separated from God’s love.  No amount of human theories and hypotheses can change the perfect effects and law of God on our lives.  Spirit and It’s creation can never change from it’s perfect state. We have divine authority to deny anything unlike God, good.  We are all perfect, innocent, and free, and our innocence has never been touched because it is our spiritual state, which is upheld by Spirit, divine Love.

In another beautiful passage, King David writes:

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalms 139:8)

So as we continue to support our fellow-man in prayer, let’s know they are safe in God’s love right now and have never been apart from that Love and never will be.  They cannot endure anything unlike that Love.