A Daily Lift by Judith Hardy Olson
Judith is a full-time Christian Science healer and teacher.
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In this 3 minute podcast Judith describes how she came to a better understanding of her relationship to God by thinking of herself as ‘God’s shining’.
Archive for the ‘spiritual identity’ Category
You Are His Shining Leave a comment
“All Tears Will Be Wiped Away” Leave a comment
An article from the Christian Science Sentinel by Caryl Emra Farkas
A few minutes after hearing a voice mail saying that my father had passed on, I got a call from someone who wasn’t in the habit of calling out of the blue. It was my Christian Science teacher, and I was so grateful that he listened to this spiritual intuition and rang me.
I answered through tears because I was so overwhelmed with my sense of loss. …
In this article Caryl describes how she overcame what seemed like an all-consuming sense of loss. She learned that overcoming the sadness didn’t mean that she loved her dad less but it enabled her to see him everywhere by recognising the presence of the qualities that he expressed.
Click here to read the full article as published in the Christian Science Sentinel.
Humility – The Cure for Pride Leave a comment
I had to learn humility the hard way! I was ice-skating with my granddaughter one evening. I am not a very good skater and I was doing my best to keep up speed and glide. At one point I noticed that the rink was populated with young people, and a little pride crept in that I was out there even though I am a grandmother.
Well, a few more turns around the rink and then down I went. My wrist was badly hurt.
My go-to in times of need has always been prayer. In this case, a wake-up call about pride was my biggest take-away from my prayers. After about two weeks, I could still not move my wrist. Then, one day in humble prayer, it came to me that all of us out there on the ice were children of God, expressing the joy, strength, and energy of divine Life. Our true nature is not defined by a certain age and personal abilities. Instead, it appears in our reflection of God’s qualities.
I was very humbled by this thought. In his book “Mere Christianity,” C. S. Lewis, the Christian apologist, refers to pride as “the complete anti-God state of mind.” It suggests the possibility of a selfhood or ego apart from God, the one true Ego. It is a way of thinking that denies the onliness and allness of infinite good.
Click here to continue reading, or listen to, this article by Elizabeth Crecelius Schwartz published in the Christian Science Monitor Daily. In it Elizabeth describes more of the thinking that then led to a quick and complete healing of the injured wrist.
Who Are You? Leave a comment
A Daily Lift by Russ Gerber
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In this brief podcast Russ describes a day when he woke up and couldn’t move. He tells how turning his thought to God and himself as God’s image brought about an instant healing.
A Person of Integrity 1 comment
The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the same, — at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen.
He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him, for he acts no studied part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, — full of truth, candor, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no reproachable means. He never shows us a smiling countenance while he meditates evil against us in his heart. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another.
(Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896 by Mary Baker Eddy p147:19)
‘Mark’ the Man and Woman of God’s Creating Leave a comment
An article from the Christian Science Monitor by Blythe Evans
When my children were in elementary school, they played soccer through a local sports program. Before each game, the coach would assign each child a player on the opposing team to “mark.” That meant to focus on and stay right with the player at all times, rather than meandering around the field of play. Sometimes the coach would even say, “Mark that player so closely you feel like you’re in their shirt! Stay right with them.”
The importance of this was not lost on the young athletes, and the better they each marked their player, the better the game went for them.
I think of this sometimes when I read in the Bible, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psalms 37:37). Practically speaking, who is “the perfect man” we are to “mark”? How do we do that? And why should we?
Well, it is clear there is no perfect human being, so the “perfect man” must be a higher, more spiritual concept of man than we experience with our material senses. In fact, the teachings of Christian Science help us see that the “perfect man” is the spiritual man (meaning all of us) of God’s creating, made in the image of divine Spirit.
Blythe goes on to explain how this reasoning and spiritualisation of thought brought about a quick healing of her young grandson’s injured finger. She concludes by saying:
This doesn’t mean putting our heads in the sand when we or someone we encounter is not well or acting wrongly. Rather, we can silently affirm that everyone’s true nature is one of harmony, health, and integrity, because God, Spirit, is all good. Understanding this enables us to overcome illness or bad character traits, and to help others do the same.
Click here to read the complete article.
Identity – Distinct and Eternal 1 comment
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The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p70: 12)
COVID Safe 1 comment
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
Just recently I spent a day at Summernats with my dad. Summernats is an annual car event held in Canberra. COVID was raging in Canberra at this time and people were quite fearful of anyone who even coughed. Still Exhibition Park where the event was held was crowded with over 2000 people attending that day. We had a wonderful time!
However, after I arrived home I started to feel unwell. I had many of the symptoms associated with COVID and my mum told me to isolate from the family and stay in my room. I obeyed and used this alone time to pray quietly about the situation. The idea that came to me was that this situation was similar to one of those 3D drawings you see sometimes – the ones where if you look at it one way you see one image and if you change focus and look at it from a different angle you see a completely different picture. I knew I had to choose which picture I was looking at.
At this point I messaged my Sunday School teacher for some extra help. She told me that it was fear that was contagious not COVID. I related this to a story she had told me in Sunday School about a man in a canoe who was lost in the fog. I likened the fear to the fog. At that point the fear seemed to surround me – just like the fog. In the story the man had only to stand up in the canoe and see above the fog and to see his safe course. I knew that all I needed to do was to stand above the mental fog and see the truth of the situation – the truth that I was spiritual and not subject to material laws of contagion. With these thoughts I felt safe and fell asleep.
In the morning when I woke I was perfectly well. The fever and the cough had completely gone and the runny nose was also gone in about an hour. I was very grateful for this proof of God’s care.
A Glimpse of Life Eternal … Is This Body All There is to Life? 2 comments
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
Until last year Reggie was a member of our family. He was an elderly rescue dog. We loved him dearly and he lived with us long past his expected ‘use by’ date.
Gradually last year I noticed that he was slowing down and sleeping much of the time. I understand that animals don’t stay with us forever. They come and they bless us, and we them, and they move on. It was starting to feel like Reggie might be about to move on.
One Saturday morning he seemed to be in a long deep sleep. By lunch time it seemed that he was going. He couldn’t be roused and he had lost control of his bodily functions. I sat on the floor beside his bed and turned to God. “Tell me how to think about this,” I asked. Then the question came: “Is it the body that you love?” The answer was, of course, “No!” “Then what? What is it that you love?” I could see so clearly in that moment that this body was an irrelevance. Reggie was very real but he was not just this body.
I sat quietly and the inspirations came. I saw more clearly than I had ever done before, the immortality of life – life that was spiritual, eternal, untouched by matter and material claims. I was so absorbed in these thoughts and what God was teaching me that I forgot to notice the body lying beside me. My husband came to the door to see how he was going and Reggie lifted his head a little and opened his eyes. I offered him some water and he drank it. Within a few minutes he was sitting up. I offered him food which he ate and shortly after that he was up and around. The next day he was quiet but well and happy. By Monday he was urging us to take him for a walk and when we put him on the lead he was first out the door at a run.
Reggie did leave us later that year. Until he went he was well and active and lost none of his faculties. This time when it seemed that he was going I asked God: “What do I need to know about this?” The answer was different. “You know who Reggie is. You have seen this. Trust it. Now is the time to let him go. You don’t need to hang onto the body because you know that it is not the real him!” When he left there were times when I missed him, but I can honestly say I was never sad about his absence. I knew so well that nothing had changed. He was still Reggie – the same gentle, loving giant he had always been. I knew that God was still caring for him just as tenderly.
I look to thee in every need, and never look in vain;
I feel Thy touch, eternal Love, and all is well again: …
Thy hand in all things I behold, And all things in Thy hand.
Thou leadest me by unsought ways, Thou turn’st my mourning into praise.
(Christian Science Hymnal 134)
To Defeat a Bully Leave a comment
A young high school student tells how he overcame relentless bullying at his new school. He explains:
For the first two terms in my first year as a high school student, I was bullied relentlessly. Other boys my age experienced the same difficulties. Students in the upper classes would force us to wash their uniforms, make their beds, tie their shoelaces, and so on. Failure to do this led to a beating. In order to avoid that, I would always do whatever the big boys told me to do. When I enrolled in the school, my mum had told me to keep out of trouble, and I wanted to be obedient.
Jimmy goes on to explain how he prayed his way through this situation which resulted in long-term excellent outcomes for the school. He concludes with:
We have become friends, and after winning the position of school president, he (the original bully) has focused on eliminating the culture of bullying in our school.
This article by Jimmy Alfonce Owino was originally published in the Christian Science Journal. Click here to read or listen to his full explanation of how he handled this situation.
Christian Science Canberra 