Everyday Spirituality

The man

Last week, a man woke up with a terrible headache. He went to work hoping it would go away. It didn’t. In the early afternoon, he stopped what he was doing and went to find the quietest place possible in the warehouse where he worked. He sat down and slowly said the Lord’s Prayer.

For quite a while, at least 10 minutes he contemplated the Lord’s Prayer and its impact on thought and action. He felt much calmer.

He went back to work. And, made one more attempt to locate an item in the warehouse that was eluding him in the morning. While searching, it occurred to him he made a mistake earlier that caused him not to see the item. He found the item. A few minutes later, he noticed his headache was completely gone.

Matt. 6:12

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (NIV)

“Forgive us what we have done wrong, as we too have forgiven those who have wronged us.” (Complete Jewish Bible)

“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” (New Life Version)

“Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.” (The Message)

Wright Brothers Flight

Before 1913—almost one hundred years ago—a few people had the ridiculous notion that once we understood the laws of physics and aerodynamics, we could fly.

But back then, to be able to fly seemed idiotic to most people.

Except to a few people. Therefore December 1913, the Wright Brothers gave, albeit in a tiny way, evidence of such a highfalutin claim.

Today, we all load onto airplanes to fly anywhere from 33 miles to around the world. We can’t even imagine life without flying.

We read in 21^st Century Science and Health, “[Divine] Science, when understood and demonstrated, will destroy all disorder. From the premise that God is omnipotent, comes the conclusion that good has all-power. Divine Science, properly understood, disengages material beliefs from the human mind.”

Many of us have seen evidence of this grandiose claim. We can understand divine Science.

Human Beings are constantly being diagnosed with symptoms that I satirically refer to as collectively belonging to Chronic Repetitious Urging Disease (CRUD). I myself have been afflicted with these symptoms that stop me from living life to its fullest. The key to reducing our risk to CRUD is distinguishing between human mind and divine Mind.

No one is immune to CRUD because life itself is intertwined with urge. An urge is an impulse, a desire, or a drive. And to know what is urging us, either the human mind or the divine Mind, is essential to relief from CRUD.

Courtesy Anakerie's Random Thoughts.....

The human mind is repetitiously urging humanity to be afraid, be mortal, or be power-hungry. And, life becomes a chronic case of battling with frail, egotistic, smart, control freaks, not to mention urgently dealing with the ever-morphing physical stuff in the world. Consequently, we feel dis-eased, cruddy.

Society however is realizing the power of the human mind and successfully training these minds to respond to better influences or urges. Knowing the limitations of the human mind, many people have joined a spiritual quest in order to manage the human mind more effectively. Ironically, these spiritual seekers can still be plagued by CRUD unless divine Mind is firmly and repetitiously tapped into.

CRUD attacks indiscriminately. We automatically turn on the TV or iPOD to drown out the cyclic thoughts in our minds. We meditate as soon as we are nervous. We are urged to talk on our cell-phones about nothing. We go shopping for things we really don’t need. We somberly echo useless words that no longer have an impact. We stop talking to our contemporaries and become aloof. We become so ritualistic about taking pills or praying that we would go into terrible withdrawals if the routine was altered.

Basically, the human mind can’t resolve CRUD. All the effort made to try to get rid of our human urges only replaces one urge with another because urge is real, undying. Therefore, the key is to discover the urging of divine Mind. Life than becomes an ongoing adventure of adapting to change and being useful today. We feel at-ease.

With the same amount of urgency, if not greater, divine Mind is influencing us to live life to its fullest, despite CRUD. Divine Mind’s urging coincides with healing. We are being compelled to be honest, generous, noble and open to new ideas. We don’t cling to that which has been outgrown and we don’t whine over the demand to progress. Instead of viewing ourselves as a battling human mind pitted against itself or another human mind, we see ourselves as a person who has some human conditions that must be dealt with daily in order to enjoy life in its broadest sense while being urged by divine Mind.

From 21^st Century Science and Health, “Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult to heal. When his students brought to him a case they had failed to heal, he said to them, “O [faithless ones] unbelieving and without trust in God, a perverse (wayward, crooked and warped) generation!”[1] His answer implies that the requisite power to heal was in Mind. Jesus didn’t prescribe drugs or urge obedience to fleshly demands but acted in direct disobedience to them.”

Don’t tell me what to do, but tell me what I am as God’s image