Archive for the ‘spiritual identity’ Category
One time in a high school class, my teacher handed a student a coin. He told the student to squeeze the coin in his palm very tightly. The teacher then took a five dollar bill out of his pocket and tried to push it into this student’s firmly clenched fist. The teacher tried and tried—but it couldn’t happen. For the whole class, he made a salient point—teaching us in a memorable way that we can’t grasp new concepts while we’re holding tightly onto something else.
In prayer, as in fields of learning and knowledge, an openness and willingness to exchange ignorance for truth always brings big benefits. Christ Jesus surely understood this and encouraged people, not just to be halfway receptive to progress, but to be as totally willing, receptive—and innocent—as little children are. “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke 18:17). That’s a very clear-cut way to put it!
Through communion with God we can experience the kind of transformation that is far beyond just a slight shift of direction. It can result in a radical conversion, a 180-degree change of thought, where all of existence is perceived from a different viewpoint—an entirely spiritual perspective.
With the trust and flexibility of a child, it’s rewarding to work with the quality of one’s thoughts, to be willing to release and let go of old concepts.
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).
In this article The good worth holding on to Mark Swinney explains further how with childlike receptivity, this change of thought brings surprising changes and healing. Find it here:
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By Mara Purl
When you think about a large project you need to complete, what comes to thought? Do you picture yourself pushing a boulder up a steep hill? Or can you see yourself steering a graceful boat with sails full of wind?
Extraordinary breakthroughs are possible when we get glimpses of God, divine Mind, in operation, and commit to better understanding our relation to Mind.
I was faced with a huge writing project… So extensive would be the research, so comprehensive the interviews, ….that the whole project seemed overwhelming, and I had no idea where to start. I reached out for help from a Christian Science practitioner, who basically told me that the project was already complete.
At first, that seemed like the most bizarre thing anyone had ever told me! Of course, the practitioner had a great deal more of substance to say about God and my relation to Him. And as I began to grasp what she was saying, I realized that her bold opening comments would later come to represent a paradigm-shifting idea she was sharing.
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By Jenny Sawyer
My group of friends and I really didn’t like the way this one girl was acting. She was rude, and she put others down to make herself look good. She’d also singled me out for particularly bad treatment. …
Even though Christ Jesus lived two thousand years ago, I still think of him as my go-to expert on relationships. So in considering how I could think more constructively about this girl, maybe even learn to love her, I took a look at the New Testament in the Bible to see how Jesus treated people who weren’t behaving their best. What I noticed was that Jesus willingly spent time with these individuals whom the Bible calls “sinners.” He even had dinner with them!
Are we willing to sit down, really take the time, and be witnesses to the God-created, good, spiritual nature in those we feel we dislike, even despise? I’ve taken to inviting one person each day to dinner—metaphorically speaking—be it an authority figure I’m unhappy with, or someone I feel hasn’t treated me very nicely. Then, in that quiet place of prayer, I sit with my concept of them until it’s polished, transformed….
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Daily Lift by Skip Phinney
Governments around the world are adopting very different strategies to deal with a growing sense of the differences between us. Many of these strategies exaggerate the differences and diminish our similarities, and fear is often the outcome.
In this 3 minute talk Skip talks about how valuing the good in each individual and appreciating our common worth breaks down barriers and promotes the kind of peace and security we are all looking for.
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The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.
This article, Free from Anxiety, is by Jen who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how a change of thinking freed her from constant anxiety and gave her a sense of peace and harmony.
I love being a Christian Scientist, and diving deep into health, spirituality and identity, but it can be hard challenging ideas that are accepted as fact by the wider community. Spiritual healing is seen as impractical and ineffective, and it is rare that I tell people that I rely on prayer when I am ill or injured. This is because it is assumed that I pray to a God who would create me capable of being in pain and then sometimes decides to award me a miracle and heal me.
For me, God is a creative, spiritual force that is completely good. As Christian Scientists, we strive to look past sin, suffering and disease, and understand ourselves as primarily spiritual- as the representation of a higher creative power. In asserting our spiritual identities, and understanding a higher creation, we unburden ourselves of thoughts that limit us to be inherently flawed and suffering. As Mary Baker Eddy puts it, ‘Christian Science is the law of Truth, that heals the sick on the basis of the One Mind, Or God’ (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 482). Instead of accepting that there is something ‘wrong’ with me, I turn my mind to spiritual truths, namely that I am primarily spiritual and free from ideas of pain or suffering.
I was healed from anxiety this year, and have felt a lightness and freedom. I had accepted a very limited view of myself – I focused on the negatives in my life, and tried to physically control the environment around me to feel safe and secure in myself. This started with my tendency to hide parts of myself that I feared other people would reject, and did everything I could to meet the expectations of those around me in school, during my gap year and later at university. This obsession with control intensified when I lived in Indonesia, where I was constantly harassed by men in the streets and was actually assaulted at one point during my time there. I learned to prepare for the worst case scenario, and was uptight and fearful. This affected my personal life – I was scared that people would find out things about me that they might disapprove of, and I was very distrustful of new people, especially men.
I had a healing when I realised that the opposite of anxiety is to expect good. This did not mean putting my head in the sand and pretending that nothing was wrong, but rather turning away from a limited understanding of myself and the world and focusing on spiritual facts. A God that is all good could not create me fearful and vulnerable, and has not assigned me a future of fear and negativity in order to ‘test’ me. Slowly, I concentrated on correcting fearful thoughts with an expectation of good, and gauging whether ideas coming to me were affirming my identity as a spiritual being or sending me into a negative spiral. The strength I gained by trusting God has led me to be more open with friends and family, to forgive the men in Indonesia who seemed to threaten my safety, and to be relaxed in accepting opportunities that have opened up a whole new world for me. I am so grateful for my background in Christian Science, and have used it as a practical tool in gaining peace and harmony in my everyday life.
To read more testimonies of healing shared by members of the Christian Science Church in Canberra click on the archive headings on the left for May and June 2016.
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Jon is a full-time Christian Science healer and an international speaker. In this lecture he shares his understanding of this reliable method of spiritual healing.
In Step Out of Your Story and into Healing Jon discusses the necessity of letting go of a sense of our own personal history – our sense of ourselves as flawed mortals – to find our true spiritual identities and in doing this healing is realised. His explanations are clear and logical and his presentation dynamic and engaging. Click here to listen.
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Today’s shift in thought concerning seniors’ capabilities was pre-empted by spiritual thinker, Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote more than a century ago about “the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development, power, and prestige” which are part of our spiritual being.
These days we hear of Australians in their 80s and older, who compete in major sports events. And many who are still working into their 70s, 80s and 90s, their occupations varying from cloakroom attendant to running a cancer research centre.
It’s almost as if they think they might live forever!
And why not! Laugh if you will, but this idea of the impact of what we expect bears a little more consideration It was found in a study that “how we think about ageing” has a greater impact on our longevity than do gender, socioeconomic status, loneliness or how healthy we are.
It couldn’t be a better time for all generations to think more deeply about how perceptions of ageing can have an impact on their health and longevity. Too many jokes about granny and her walker might just shorten your own life span.
Perhaps we should instead celebrate senior achievers and champion both their accomplishments and the qualities they express. This may lengthen our lives by planting the idea that their victories over age will be just as attainable for ourselves!
A Journal of Physiology study found, “positive self-perceptions can prolong life expectancy. Expectations about the inevitability of physical decline with advancing years may be incorrect and that how we age is, to a large degree, up to us.”
If it’s up to us, why not envisage for your older self a life of volunteering or enthusiastic service, increased tolerance and humour, a wealth of experience and the wisdom to tackle any problem. Cherishing this hope at all ages will tend to lessen any inclination to belittle the elderly.
And understanding why we have grounds for such hope can help avert the wave of panic that might otherwise threaten to wash over us in our 40s or 50s in response to the threat of ageing, or when we come face to face with our own mortality as a result of the loss of a close loved one.
Neurologist Dr Peter Whitehouse, author of the thought-provoking book “The Myth of Alzheimer’s,” adds a frequently overlooked aspect to successful ageing. He describes ageing as our “unique ability to grow spiritually and mentally.”
The way I see it, such spiritual growth is key. I’ve found that a developing consciousness of our present spiritual nature – made in the “image and likeness of God”, as the Bible puts it – helps to extinguish fears about ageing that grow out of a more material sense of ourselves.
I like how the Bible corroborates the scientific approach of needing to change our expectations, but points to a deeper means for doing so than positive thinking. It says, “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing.” (John 6:63)
As we understand this, we might be less enticed by the latest body-focussed fads to reverse the ageing process.
Eddy’s summation in Science and Health gives practical advice, “Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.”
Time to review your expectations for the future?
This article was submitted by Kay Stroud who is a life-long Christian Scientist and a writer drawing connections between consciousness, spirituality and health, and trends in that field.
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Step Out of Your Story and into Healing 