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| photo by Gary Finn, architect in Australia |
"To the extent that any single quality determines success, that quality is adaptive capacity." The strongest predictor of success in any field of endeavor is the ability to be reshaped, strengthened, and improved by life's tragedies, rather than to be crushed by them.
The qualities necessary to achieve that goal include a certain childlike enthusiasm and curiosity about the world and how it works, a willingness to be a lifelong learner and an almost ego-less willingness to have ideas tested.
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| All photos by EMH |
Some people come out of crucibles smaller, ..... others come out larger. The ones who come out larger are the leaders ....
Do you expect healing when you pray?
What is it that we expect from our prayers? Do we expect to see the glorious light of God's Christ revealing man's perfection? The Psalmist said, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." Ps. 62:5. We might ask ourselves: Am I praying the way Christ Jesus taught his disciples to pray—with the understanding that God is our Father, and that His power and glory are forever? Or am I just listening to false expectations based on fear that progress will be too slow, or that certain kinds of healing aren't possible through prayer?
God's power and oneness are no less present today than they were in the past. His all-embracing love and wisdom are eternal, and absolute law. God's law is the law of His Christ. Christ, Truth, which Jesus so fully demonstrated, heals by imparting to human consciousness the reality of God's allness, thus destroying the sense of evil. Recognizing the power of Christ inspires a kind of expectancy that makes us eager to acknowledge the varied ways our prayer is answered. And this opening of our thought to Christ is as powerful as the coming of the dawn after a pitch-black night. Expectancy of good is a spiritual force that records in thought every bit of progress, however small.
"What cannot God do?" Mary Baker Eddy asks in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Science and Health, p. 135. The Science of Christianity affirms that all good is possible to God. So the question may be directing our thought to the importance of knowing God better and our relation to Him. It might be, when our prayers seem to be unanswered, that we need to examine what our priority is. Are we primarily seeking to understand God and to progress in our inner spiritual journey? Or are we preoccupied with outward evidence? We might even ask ourselves after a healing: What is my priority now? Do I return to satisfaction with matter-based thinking, or do I move with the spiritual regeneration that brought the healing toward further illumination of thought?
One of Mrs. Eddy's students said that Mrs. Eddy "left it very clear that no one is to be judged by his or her physical condition, but by character and spiritual attainments." We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1979), p. 86. Of course, spiritual attainments can only come from God, Spirit. Christian Science, the law of God, reveals how we go forward by leaning on God. By loving God supremely and feeling loved by Him, we grow spiritually—and healing follows. Christ Jesus spent all his hours with God. And the love he felt for his divine Father and His children is movingly expressed in the four Gospels, especially, I find, in his prayer before the betrayal as recorded in John, chapter 17.
A surface view of Jesus' experience might lead to the false conclusion that Jesus' prayer didn't work—he was betrayed, arrested, and crucified. But these events were essential to the completion of his mission. Moreover, his absolute consecration of thought and his unconditional love and reliance on God brought him through indescribable agony and apparent death. Out of this great trial came his greatest victories—resurrection and ascension —the proof that life is not in matter but is wholly spiritual. Jesus yielded entirely to the will of God, whom he understood to be infinite Life, and thus the eternal Christ was revealed. This shows us that there is only one, glorious God, and that man is His radiant, full expression. It shows us that awakening to the reality of being is the only true option, or path, to healing. Even when a problem seems most aggressive and unyielding, healing is going on in a deep and thorough way when our thought is yielding to Christ, Truth. Healing comes through the purification and resurrection of our own thoughts. We learn to be less critical, wiser, purer, kinder, more loving, selfless, and patient.
We've heard of people who in very demanding situations do not give up—and they succeed. They see a continuing challenge as an opportunity to gain new ground. I once read that experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you. I'm reminded of a Bible account that tells how the Israelites were moving to the Promised Land when they found their path blocked by the mighty city of Jericho. See Josh. 6:1-20 . God had promised the conquest of Jericho to Joshua, the leader of the Israelites. So, if God Almighty had made this promise, wouldn't you think that it would have been a piece of cake to overcome the obstacle? Not so. It demanded persistent obedience to God on the part of the people. According to the Bible, Joshua was told by God how to proceed—they should go around the city once each day for six days, and except for the blowing of the horns by the priests, the people should walk in absolute silence. They were instructed by Joshua not to utter a sound until he told them to shout. Though they didn't realize it at the time, God's promise and its fulfillment were there right from the start. It seems to me that the people apparently had something of great value to gain via their inner journey. One of the insights they perhaps gained was that however formidable a difficulty appeared to be, an unwavering conviction in God and His omnipotence would enable them to realize the results of God's power.
Just think what could have happened if the Israelites had been overwhelmed by the human picture of the fortified city with double walls and houses built upon them. What would have happened if they had said: "We've been marching around these walls for six days now and nothing has happened. Why should we continue?" But, putting their trust entirely in God, they were willing to persevere no matter how long it would take. They knew God would not bring them only so far and then leave them. And because of their steadfast trust and obedience, the walls came down on the seventh day, and the city was conquered.
If you feel grief over the loss of a loved one or the loss of health, or frustration over the loss of a job and financial security, and you pray and see no change in your state of mind, body, or affairs, isn't it wise not to give up on God or yourself, since the next step could be your freedom from a seemingly hopeless situation?
What is most needed, especially at times when our progress seems slow, is a healthy dose of uncontaminated trust in God, who is Love. Even if this trust sometimes appears rather small in comparison with a difficulty, nevertheless we can afford to be steadfast, accepting God, good, as primary in our hearts and not secondary. It's the carnal mind, which the Apostle Paul speaks of, that makes a difficulty seem a reality. But we have good reason to love and trust in what we've seen and learned through the demonstration of God's power.
Starting in prayer with God—turning away from a matter-based sense of things—we learn that healing is the product of spiritual awakening. When Jesus asked two blind men seeking healing "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" they confidently said, "Yea, Lord." Matt. 9:28. When God's Christ asks of us, "Do you believe that I am able to heal you of all that is troubling you?" are we echoing their response? Or are we mumbling to ourselves, "I can't continue anymore; it's just gone on too long"? Discord, loneliness, fear—all the beliefs of lack— cannotendure, because they're actually not at all real and therefore not permanent.
A continuing challenge may be an opportunity to gain new ground.
Can you imagine a musician spending hours with musical mistakes to learn how to play a composition? Of course not. Diligently he learns the composition correctly—playing the notes the way they were written—in order to bring out more of what the composer intended. This approach enables him to detect immediately a false note and to correct it right then and there—his full attention being on the right notes. Similarly, we demonstrate God's law by keeping our attention on the truths of being.
A difficulty might seem to us to loom as big on the sixth day, or the sixth week, or the sixth month, or even the sixth year as it did on the first day, but we're able to see that we are not as we were before. If we've been addressing the difficulty through reliance on God, we have been moving forward spiritually in so many ways. We have been advancing out of false interests and preoccupation with matter-based thinking into the brilliant light of Truth, eagerly learning that divine Love only demands of us to accept the highest good.
As a young student living away from home, I learned to a degree what it means to put God first. I came down with the symptoms of what I thought was just a bad cold. Although the symptoms persisted, I didn't seek a medical diagnosis or medical treatment. I just prayed with all my heart, knowing intuitively that there couldn't be permanence in something that I could not have received from God. There were times when the symptoms appeared rather alarming, but after a year of persistent prayer and spiritual growth they disappeared. When I first came to the United States several years later, a physical examination was required. It was then that I found out I had been healed of tuberculosis. The doctor who examined me called it a miracle. During that difficult year while the healing was in progress, I had learned so many things about myself as God's loved child. It was especially helpful to learn that only in God do we find continuity of good, and that His daughters and sons are made in His image, whole and harmonious. The Psalmist says: "Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. . . . But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." Ps. 3:2,3. I certainly found this to be true.
Mrs. Eddy asked the students in one of her classes, "What is the best way to do instantaneous healing?" The account of this occasion by Sue Harper Mims continues: "Some said, 'Realize the ever-presence of good'; others, 'Deny the claims of evil.' There were many answers, but when they had finished, she said, as I remember: 'I will tell you the way to do it. It is to love! Just live love—be it— love, love, love. Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything; it will raise the dead. Be nothing but love.' " We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, p. 134. Obviously this kind of love isn't naiveté or sentimentality, but it expresses the pure love of divine Love itself, and also determination and fortitude in putting all our trust in God.
The practice of Christian Science doesn't just bring about what is humanly needed; it regenerates and transforms thought, and this touches and blesses all aspects of our lives. With this practice we gain a deep love and immeasurable gratitude for God and His goodness, and a clearer understanding of our relation to Him.
The Bible says, "Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal. 6:9. We can expect to rise from a limiting, human sense and doubt about ourselves to spiritual dominion and lasting healing. It is inevitable, for Life is eternal, and we can never be separated from that Life—as Jesus proved.
Eva-Maria Hogrefe
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