A Leap of Faith

 

A woman I know always puts herself down when she thinks she has not done her best (which is often). She will finish her self-put-downs with something like, “Oh, well, I’m not not walking on water yet.” She has told me she will never meet Jesus’ expectations of her. Father Joseph, the priest at the Catholic Church where I am the organist, had a homily where he tied walking on water with taking a leap of faith. He encouraged us to speak to people we normally would ignore, or try a food we don’t think we’ll like, or to try anything which takes us out of our comfort zone. Writing, for instance, is a frightening activity at first, because you’re putting your thoughts out there for everyone to interpret, critique, or challenge. Art, in all of its forms, is an act of bravery. Raising a child is a supreme leap of faith! The world needs us right now, so let’s open our hearts and follow where we are led — today!

“Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequacy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. But the strength of God in you is successful in all things.” 

A Course in Miracles W-47.5:1-4

"The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everylasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 99:23

Loving and True Ideas

We’re all trying to be kinder in our communications. We’re all learning how to listen and ask questions without being confrontational. To me, these have been some of the most difficult life lessons. Listening without reaction, questioning without self-righteousness, learning from everyone — even those with opinions diametrically opposed to mine — maybe especially from them! One thing I’ve discovered is that it doesn’t matter what I say out loud, if my thoughts are confrontational. We can’t hide our true feelings behind the facade of kind words: we must be kind. Those of you who have pets know how true this is. You can’t hide your real feelings from an animal — or an aware human. Go forth with joy, because it shines through in your actions!

“A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive. The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is clad in white garments.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 463:12

“Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes. Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother’s plea for help? No response can be appropriate except the willingness to give it to him, for this and only this is what he is asking for. Offer him anything else, and you are assuming the right to attack his reality by interpreting it as you see fit. Perhaps the danger of this to your own mind is not yet fully apparent. If you believe that an appeal for help is something else you will react to something else. Your response will therefore be inappropriate to reality as it is, but not to your perception of it.” 

A Course in Miracles T-12.I.3:3-10

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

Childhood memories: We all have them. But I've begun to question how many of mine actually happened! Perhaps the memories are stories parents or siblings told over and over, or maybe they come from photographs that you've looked at repeatedly. Don't get me wrong here, because I don't think that's a bad thing. Stories teach us and stories lead us to places we need to be. But sometimes those stories can mislead us, too. Recently an aged-aunt called me wanting confirmation about a family rumor. I had never heard about this occurrence and told her so. While she was questioning me, she said she was calling me rather than writing on Messenger (our usual mode of communication) because another relative had told her that I was getting off of Facebook. I have never considered doing such a thing, because I keep up with friends and family through that medium. But this has caused me to think on many things! What we believe to be true may be nothing more than words we want to believe. So let's keep an open mind and heart, whether we are remembering our past or listening to someone else's ideas which they want us to believe are true. We live in an age of rampant propaganda, whether it be from commercials bombarding us or bots inundating our social media feed, we must be aware that many people have an agenda which they are doing their best to propel into being. Our brains are pretty good at picking out illusions, and I'm going to practice ascertaining truth by looking back through those childhood moments which seem so real. 

“And when the memory of God has come to you in the holy place of forgiveness you will remember nothing else, and memory will be as useless as learning, for your only purpose will be creating. Yet this you cannot know until every perception has been cleansed and purified, and finally removed forever. Forgiveness removes only the untrue, lifting the shadows from the world and carrying it, safe and sure within its gentleness, to the bright world of new and clean perception. There is your purpose now. And it is there that peace awaits you.” 

A Course in Miracles T-18.IX.14:1-5

"As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality!" 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 480:31

Invest in What is True

Starting over. Making changes. Reinventing ourselves. Most of us have done this more than once, haven't we? A sea change in our lives may come about because of illness, loss of a job, losing a loved one, or just needing to let go of behaviors which no longer serve us. Whatever the case, many of us resist these changes. Presently, it seems we are all in the midst of major shifts in our perceptions and our daily activities, and it can be frightening. We may wish someone would throw us a life preserver and tow us to safety! Perhaps we know someone grasping at illusions of hope, not seeing through the mist to the pitfalls on the other side. In our desire to show others the danger, we can drive them further away from seeing what's actually going on. And so we must remember that we cannot save anyone, we cannot change anyone; only ourselves. Our values can be expressed through our votes during elections, by the foods we purchase, by the entertainment we choose, and many other daily choices. We’re all in this together. The longer I live, the more I realize what that means. Let's be here for each other. It's the most we can do!

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and invest it only in what is true. You cannot make untruth true. If you are willing to accept what is true in everything you perceive, you let it be true for you. Truth overcomes all error, and those who live in error and emptiness can never find lasting solace. If you perceive truly you are cancelling out misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Because you see them as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves. This is the healing that the miracle induces.” 

A Course in Miracles T-3.II.6:1-7

War — Ugh!

War is incomprehensible to most of us. Personally, I can’t think of anything horrific enough to cause me to file a lawsuit against another person, much less to want to kill them. Somewhere I read that countries and groups of people will do things collectively which individuals would find abhorrent. Wars often begin because of religious- and/or power-driven causes. I’m sure everyone involved thinks they have a noble cause and they are standing up for righteous reasons, I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “righteous reason” — unless it is love-based. We learn in A Course in Miracles that everything either comes from love or is a call for love. As we watch wars swell intensely, our hearts go out to the people. May this love we send out to the innocents be for all the people, not just the ones we deem to be in the right. God sees no difference in Hitler or Mother Teresa. And we are the image and likeness of that divine Love. Namaste to All …

“Help Me to wake My children from the dream of retribution and a little life beset with fear, that ends so soon it might as well have never been. Let Me instead remind you of eternity, in which your joy grows greater as your love extends along with Mine beyond infinity, where time and distance have no meaning. While you wait in sorrow Heaven’s melody is incomplete, because your song is part of the eternal harmony of love. Without you is creation unfulfilled. Return to Me Who never left My Son. Listen, My child, your Father calls to you. Do not refuse to hear the Call for Love. Do not deny to Christ what is His Own. Heaven is here and Heaven is your home.” 

A Course in Miracles S-3.IV.8:1-9

“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:9-13

Lest We Compare Ourself With Another

Image of unknown origin

I listen to audio books while cooking, cleaning, exercising, and driving. Today I finished a book written for middle school students called Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The title caught my attention while browsing through the possibilities for my next read. (I use a library app called Libby, so if I don’t care for the book, I simply return it) The book’s title refers to this: “Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.” As I finished this book, I was thinking about my friends who think they can’t understand my metaphysical studies and writing. One man tells me he doesn’t have enough time left in his life to learn about A Course in Miracles or Christian Science. While I feel fortunate that my parents were students of Mary Baker Eddy and I grew up with a basic understanding of these teachings, there is always more to learn. I don’t even think of it as learning any longer, but as an unfolding. Is it ever too late to accept new ideas? We needn’t compare ourselves with anyone else when it comes to any form of learning or understanding. What fun we all have waiting for us!

“Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can 'run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint,' who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement. …  Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 254:1-15

“The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of giver and receiver on which the miracle rests. The miracle shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence.”

A Course in Miracles T-1.II.6:7-10

Developing Latent Possibilities

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

Often it takes a big shake up to force us to change ways of thought and actions which have become ingrained in us. It seems comfortable, easy, and safe to stay within the bounds of what we know. Looking back on the past decades, I see where I would have been stuck in mundane perhaps even destructive living had it not been for events which shocked me into new ways of thought and action. I am most grateful for the times when life seemed good, when I rested in cozy contentment, but then changes were facilitated by seeming tragedy. The move from by-rote living to Uppercase Living takes courage, but to seek a future different from the past ensures that we shall have one!

“A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 128:13-191

“Learning is change. Salvation does not seek to use a means as yet too alien to your thinking to be helpful, nor to make the kinds of change you could not recognize. Concepts are needed while perception lasts, and changing concepts is salvation’s task. For it must deal in contrasts, not in truth, which has no opposite and cannot change. In this world’s concepts are the guilty ‘bad’; the ‘good’ are innocent. And no one here but holds a concept of himself in which he counts the ‘good’ to pardon him the ‘bad.’ Nor does he trust the ‘good’ in anyone, believing that the ‘bad’ must lurk behind. This concept emphasizes treachery, and trust becomes impossible. Nor could it change while you perceive the ‘bad’ in you.” 

A Course in Miracles T-31.VII.1:1-9