Tell the Truth

Archive for June, 2006

The truth of what is is much kinder than what we imagine or what fear and worry would show us.

This is from an email I received yesterday from a teacher of William Walter’s Eschatology–a teaching I came across in the writings of Lillian de Waters, a metaphysical writer from the 1920s. Their teaching is a really intriguing presentation of metaphysics, and it’s something I’m looking into.

I thought this paragraph from his email was profound…

My friend, you do mental work all day long, not just in the morning. Each and every thought is causative, without exception. Each and every time we draw any conclusion, we have done some mental work. It may be the conclusion “we’re having miserable weather” or “my neighbor is such a jerk sometimes” or “I don’t understand”. We are busy designing a pattern for our experience to follow so long as we are conscious. The funny thing is, we only do a small portion of it “on purpose”; the majority of our thinking follows previously adopted protocols that have been around since childhood, mostly unexamined or [not] re-examined for accuracy, but just accepted as foregone conclusions. Each and every conclusion you have ever drawn has a possible influence on your next thought, and it’s your next thought that causes something. The thoughts you already have thought are all through causing anything and the only thing they really caused was a conclusion on your part. Our previously established conclusions “color” and “limit” our thinking and sense, if the conclusions on which they are based are limited. I’m sure you’ll agree that we have adopted a great many limited ideas about ourselves, what we are, and what we are capable of. The good news is that these conclusions or concepts are in our minds, so changeable, up-gradable, perfectible.

One of the things this brought to mind was a song that we sing at my Unity church each week as we prepare for prayer.

Our thoughts are prayers and we are always praying.
Our thoughts are prayers, listen to what you’re saying.
Seek a higher consciousness, a state of peacefulness,
And know that God is always there,
And every thought becomes a prayer.

There is no weariness. Mind and Spirit do not become tired nor weary, and I am Mind and Spirit. The flesh cannot become weary, since it has no mind of it’s own. I am free from all illusions of weariness. My whole be3ing responds to the strength of God and I am alive with the Great Vitality of Spirit. Adapted from Science of Mind (SOM), p 509.

God is my strength. I cannot be threatened with weakness, nor fear weakness, nor yield to weakness in my strength forever. Christian Science Mental Practice, p 15.

Divine Science removes human weakness by divine strength. Unity of Good (UG), p 39.

Man has no underived power. UG, p 39.

Strength is in man, not in muscles. The First Church of Christ Scientist and Miscellany (MY), p 162.

My “strength is like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet yielding to the touch of a finger.” MY, p 121.

We can free ourselves from a feeling of approaching fatigue, by knowing that we have within us–always immediately available–an Infinite Strength. As we allow the thought of this to enter our inner consciousness, we feel strong, vital, and equal to any emergency. “Know ye not that ye are the temple fo the living God?” This power within you is the same that holds the planets in space. The power back of yo0ur word is perfect law and is fulfilled and returned to you as your perfect strength. SOM, p 227.

It should be understood that we can demonstrate in spite of ourselves–in spite of all weakness, in spite of all fear, in spite of all that is in us–because such is the power of Truth. We wait only for our awakened thought. SOM, p 174.

(This is a development of an earlier post that I’ve sent to Plainfield Christian Science Church for our Healing Thoughts magazine.)

When a neighbor shares his joy about his new sound system and how beautiful it is, we can rejoice with him. When he begins to play rap music loudly at night, however, our joy is quickly diminished. Yet we know that his system truly is wonderful and that it does not change one iota no matter what kind music is played on it.

We are God’s children, and the “million dollar” creation of our Father. If we choose to play discordant thoughts like a broken record on the spiritual sound system of our mind, we quickly lose sight of how wonderfully a perfect God has created us. Likewise, if we see our fellow man based on our outer vision, we will miss the wonder that is truly there.

Sometimes we wonder where is God’s image in a child abuser, or a murderer. The answer is that God’s creation is perfect still. Although to outward vision a man may seem evil at his core, this is never the truth of his being.

“Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p 476:30)

Jesus was never fooled by appearances, for he

“…beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” (S&H, p 476:32)

Scripture warns us to

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matt 7:1)

We cannot judge another as less than God’s man without judging ourselves on the same scale. But seeing with spiritual vision, our correct understanding can, like that of the Saviour, redeem the sinner, heal the sick and raise the dead.

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. Romans 7:22, NIV

Lately I haven’t been delighting in God’s law. No, I’ve been letting life “happen” to me instead of using God’s law to make my way through life. It’s like floating down a river; you’re still in the river either way, but one way you allow yourself to bump into whatever obstacles are in front of you, going unprepared into whatever rapids are pulling you their way; the other way is to direct yourself into smooth, peaceful channels–channels of goodness. If you must to into a rapids, you can often pick which one and you can be prepared for whatever is coming to meet you.

Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p 261.

God’s law is a mental/spiritual one. What we accept as our reality becomes our experience. An undisciplined mind leads to an ever-fluctuating experience of life, or as James puts it “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 He says, “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” James 1:6 Not a pleasurable prospect!

When I get into this mindset, I feel like I’m along for the ride and until it stops, I can only hold on. I feel like a victim. I’m likely going to hold on to thoughts like “How tired I am,” “If I can just hold on for a little while longer,” “I’m not as young as I used to be,” “At my age I really need to begin to cut back on some of my activities,” “I need to learn to just say no,” etc.

When I’m in a spiritual mindset by contrast, I have lots of energy, purpose, love, confidence. I am positive, uplifting and “charged”. I look for God’s activity all around me and see it. I’m aware of God’s law and use it with joy and appreciation. In short, “I delight in the law of God.”

I read somewhere that if I’m feeling overburdened it’s because I’m doing something God didn’t give me to do. I believe that was the case for me this go-round. I don’t want to lay out my recent schedule, but one of the items on it, the last straw for me, was a last-minute commitment that held no joy for me, and conflicted with another responsibility. In retrospect, it was not something that God had given me to do, and not something I should have taken on, but I wasn’t listening.

Not listening to God is not something new to me! Back in September, I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me about a chronic skin problem. We prayed about a month or so without a healing and then decided to shift the focus of our prayers to my spiritual growth. She’s been praying for me ever since–about 9 months now.

Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with this arrangement; it’s like committing to a car payment that never ends. How will I know that I’ve gotten to the point of spiritual growth to stop the prayers? Ever? It’s just too vague, and I think was an unwise arrangement. (I know it’s obvious to you!) Yesterday I decided to break off the arrangement. Saying no can be a difficult prospect to me. In the Emma Curtis Hopkins class I’m co-teaching on Monday nights, there was this passage:

Jesus said to agree with your adversary quickly. He meant to take up that person that you’ve dreaded and establish that you’re not afraid of them, that they must be Good as you are Good.

With that passage in mind, I prayed, “Father, what should I say?” and immediately got the thought, “Now you’re asking for prayers. You didn’t ask when you got into the arrangement.” Ouch. Again I asked, “Father, but what should I say?” The answer came, “It doesn’t matter. It’s all rationalization. You want to look good and give a reason that she’ll buy into. What’s the truth of it?”

Well, the truth of it was, I’ve become more uncomfortable with our arrangement over the last few months and now I’m feeling led to stop it. So that’s what I told the practitioner. I’m not sure it was fully understood or received with joy, but I’m sure my answer was honest and I was able to stay in my integrity which is important to me.

So, to get back to the topic at hand, I think this is a period when I need to regroup: reestablish my mindfulness, get back to listening to God, pour in Truth through “floodtides of Love”, exponentially increase my gratitude and begin again to appreciate and delight in the law of God here in my inner being.

Peace.

The problem of evil came up last night in the class I’m co-facilitating with Karen on the great New Thought teacher, Emma Curtis Hopkins. Someone was pointedly expressing her opinion about child molesters and abusers. It’s hard to picture the perfection of man when you are looking at the cruel and stupid things we do to one another. How can you say there’s no evil; how can you say there’s sin; how can you say that we are all children of God when you see people doing so much evil? How can you say that God loves each of us equally?

The easiest way I can picture it is this way. We are like a million dollar sound system, but are choosing to play gangsta rap on it instead of the beauty God has given us. Can God be faulted by the screeching coming out of the speakers? No. Isn’t God justly proud of his beautiful creation, no matter what we are playing on it? Yes, of course. His creation is perfect and infinitely pleasing. We are indeed God’s perfect creation and that will never change. God will forever love us because He sees the beautiful wo/man he created.

Emma Curtis Hopkins says, “No one is so mistaken that we cannot praise their wise, Free Spirit. No one so negligent or reprehensible that we cannot praise their integrity and uprightness. No one so old, or sick, or lame that we cannot praise their beautiful flowless, free divinity.”

God has no problem loving us, no matter how “evil” we are, because He sees in us his creation, not the use to which we’ve put it so far. He knows where we’re going to end up.

One idea common in Christian Science writings that I have a problem with is the idea of reflection. Man is not God, and is not separate from God, but Man reflects God.

Man is certainly not God, because God is the universal–the infinite. Man is not separate from God because God is all, and nothing exists but God.

But the idea of reflection, to me, indicates separation–like the separation between a person and his image in a mirror; or the way a child “has his father’s eyes” or his “mother’s good nature”, etc., but is distinct from the parent.

In God we live and move and have our being. We’re not separate. We’re also (at least as far as I can reason) not just a mindless mirror image, blindly doing what God is doing in front of a mirror.

In what sense then are we reflections of God? One idea that does make sense to me is that we reflect God in the sense that a drop of water reflects the nature of the ocean that it abides in.

In the First Edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which I think presents perhaps the truer view of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy has the following intriguing passage where she seems to suggest that man itself is a false image–a shadow and not substance; a mortal idea to personal sense, not the reality.

A picture on the camera, or a face reflected from the mirror is not substance; then why do we name man substance, and contradict the Scripture that saith man is the image and likeness of God? We know the face and form of a man reflected from the mirror is not man, that he is not in the shadow of himself; hence the error to suppose the Intelligence, substance and Life of man, are man, or in him. Again, who believes that gender belongs to the man in the mirror? Gender is Principle and not person, and man is shadow and not substance; why he is mortal to personal sense, is because it supposes him substance, Life and Intelligence. p 57

Can anyone out there help me understand this better???

There were several passages from Science and Health that caught my eye this morning from this week’s lesson…

In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth and Love. We must “pray without ceasing.” S&H, p. 115

Our work begins in our heart, the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings. Here is where we must begin with the ideas that God never said, “Let there be sin.” God never created it, nor did he create men who are inclined to sin. God, good is all. The infinite God leaves no place where He is not. This then is the beginning of our work.

We must take up the cross… The cross for a Truth student is the mental battle that must be taken up. Constant mental work and alertness is necessary. We must constantly watch our mind for both Truth and error. Quickly dismissing error, (Mrs. Eddy said we must be “a terror to error”), we must also watch for wisdom, Truth and Love–the divine inspiration of God coming to us.

We must “pray without ceasing.” In the next paragraph, Mrs. Eddy indicates what this indicates.

Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers. p 15.

Self-forgetfulness means not refering everything to how it affects you. Purity is having only one motivation–that of drawing close to God and seeking his well. Affection is divine Love–i.e. seeking the very best for everyone around you, not just those with whom you have a human attachment. As the second of the daily duties describes it…

Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. Church Manual, p 40.

In relation to purity, I had a memory brought to mind this morning. Back in the late 70′s and all through the 80′s, I was a member of a religious community. My spiritual advisor was an organist of a large Catholic church. He was leaving the organist position and was looking for a replacement. Being a musician, and at the time being in financial difficulties, he asked me to pray about becoming the organist there. I prayed about it, and felt no liking for the position because I had just become a reader at church and was really enjoying it. He told me to go back and pray about it. I did, and told him no. I didn’t feel that that was what I was supposed to be doing. He replied that he was more sure than ever that I should take the position.

This is a perfect example of having impure motives–in this case, his wanting to both help me out financially and his wanting to find a replacement for the position. In a trial case, a judge with that kind of conflict would need to recuse himself from the case.

In most cases, however, impurity comes from having conflicting motives. Perhaps you are spot-on when it comes to your spiritual life, but every once in a while something else takes over–perhaps you want to skip out on some of your responsibilities at church, or you just want to kick back, have a drink or two and let the good times roll. These kinds of things are identified as sins by many churches, but in this context are seen as impurities. Consistency is a need we all have, but one that is gained only by commitment.

As Mrs. Eddy says here, “Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers”. That is, they are not one time prayers, but prayers that must continue on a daily basis–they are a way of life, not an afternoon’s intentions.

If error had it’s way, I’d spend the rest of my life in my rocking chair, a bottle of Southern Comfort at my side, and watching TV with glazed eyes. This past Sunday was an example.

Sunday was really busy for me this week. I had choir practice at 9:30, was worship assistant at both the 11 AM and 1 PM services, and was scheduled to lead the happy birthday/anniversary singing at our annual picnic at 5 pm.

I haven’t been sleeping very well lately, was tired and just didn’t want to do everything that was on my plate. Just before the 11 AM service, I asked Paul if he would be willing to lead the singing at the picnic. He said he didn’t mind. Now I only had to get through the two services and I could relax.

Rev. Lora Beth took care of that idea for me. Her talk was dynamite. Among other things, she spoke about the need to get in error’s face and to confront it. I was struck by the fact that God didn’t tell me to go home and take it easy–error had! I reminded myself that I could do all things through the Christ that strengthens me. I determined that nothing (error) was going to keep me from doing what God had given me to do. By the time the service was over I was pumped up, energetic, and more than willing to do what was in front of me. I went back and told Paul that I would lead the singing.

I went ahead with my day as I had planned, and had a wonderful time of it. I had plenty of energy and shared a fun-filled picnic with everyone. I was reminded of a lovely passage in Mary Baker Eddy’s wonderful textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

Think of this dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. p. 574

That was my experience exactly. I confronted my suffering sense and made a choice for God. It was Love that provided me with the angel.

Last night at the Unity church we were discussing the story of the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe.

And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. Matt 9:20-21 (KJV)

One of the things we discussed was what might be the meaning of touching the hem, or fringe of his garment. I was reminded of this wonderful story of a healing from the Science of Ascension by Lillian De Waters:

I was wakened in the middle of a night’s rest by the telephone. The report came that some one was suddenly ill, that an organ of the body was functioning very improperly. Coming out from a sound sleep, I said the first thing that came from my consciousness. “Tell him that two and two are four.”

The person to whom I spoke thought that I was still sleeping, or only partly awake, and refusing to accept my message tried to induce me to send him a spiritual message, something that would be appropriate to his condition.

But I was adamant. That was what I saw and that was my message. Tell him that two and two are four! That was final. That was all.

The following morning that man himself came to see me. He looked perfectly well and he said he was perfectly well. “But what a queer message you sent me,” he objected.

“Did you not find that you went immediately to sleep, that your ‘attack’ vanished?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “That is true but–”

“I will interpret that message for you, “I said, “for the interpretation is the reality that healed you. I knew that you could not change life nor its natural functions. The message that two and two are four means Life is Life. Life is not sickness, pain and falsity. Life is perfect, changeless, glorious being. Truth is that which is, and you can’t change it. You are reality for there is nothing else for you to be.”

This illustrates clearly that it is the spontaneous treatment which delivers,–the treatment that leaps over words, that transcends dimensions, that standing alone declares a thing to be so because it is. That does not say; I will dress it in this gown or clothe it in these phrases so that it will be appropriate for the illusion, but boldly and with authority Truth speaks from the heart; speaks from that blaze of glory which transcends dreams and dream language.

One should never hesitate to speak from his illumined state of consciousness at that precise moment, for then one is the Fire which consumes and the Power which delivers.

The smallest Truth held firmly in mind during a crisis has the power to bring us through. It may be, “God is Love” or “The Lord is my Shepherd”, or a hundred other short statements of Truth that we may have learned over the years. These are the “hem of his garment”, and the “fringe of his robe.” It is not sophistication that heals, it is the realization of Truth, no matter how simple.