The stock market free fall

I sought some spiritual perspective yesterday after hearing about the stock market free fall on Wall Street.

Daily, people are calling me with their financial fears. Retirees are watching their portfolio bleed day by day. Business men and women can’t get loans or find credit to keep their operations running. Homeowners are facing foreclosure. Moms can’t afford food. Dads are losing their jobs...

If one were to soak in all the negative news without an understanding of spiritual wealth and sustenance, one might start to feel depressed and worried.

But there is a spiritual perspective that brings hope and restores peace of mind. The Dow Jones average does not affect our ability to be supplied anymore than the size of the brain affects how intelligent we are.

I grew up on a family farm. You might say that we “saw everything,” over the years in terms of potential calamity. One year, our potato harvest for the season rotted in storage because of a weakness in the spuds. I’ve seen wind destroy fields of seedlings, rain destroy hundreds of tons of hay laying on the ground, frost wipe out whole orchards of fruit and kill trees. I’ve watched my parents lose nights of sleep worrying about how to pay several months of bills ahead of them until the next crop came in. There was a lot more you don’t need to hear about…

But above it all, my parents survived and thrived. The good years outweighed the bad years, and when dad retired, they had much to show for their faith, hard work and effort over the decades.

What got them through the tough times? It was faith and understanding that there was a higher power at work in this universe that would sustain them despite the disaster of the moment that threatened to deprive them.

This is the kind of perspective that can help now as divine Principle sorts out the issues on Wall Street and works to strengthen and increase the moral and spiritual integrity of our financial system and bless those who depend upon it.

The temporal storm on the surface appears fearsome, but there is an underlying force for good at work that will keep our ship afloat.

Our economy is bigger than Wall Street, mightier than the banks that have fallen, and stronger than any economic measurement coming out of Washington DC. We live in a divine economy where divine Mind meets all needs, present and future.

The substance that sustains us is spiritual. It is not in a 401K or a pension fund, a failed bank or other financial instrument. The love of divine Love gives us life and all the means to live it out fully.

Divine Love sustains us now and forever. Its blessings never dry up, shrivel away, decline into nothing, or disappear. They are spiritual, and built into our being for all of eternity. We never lose these assets—ever!

I saw this truth lived out in my parents farming experience. When times got tough, and I mean really tough, they went higher and reached deeper into the divine Love that was always present to sustain them, and found the faith, strength, confidence and encouragement they needed to keep on going and trust that the next day would be brighter. And eventually, it always was.

We live in a divine economy where infinite Love meets all needs. There is no lack in this economy, and there is no threat to the health and well being of the supply that sustains us. God is the source of that supply, and this source never goes into a free fall. It is ever growing and multiplying for those whom it is intended to bless—which is you!

Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace;
Joys are vain that end in sadness,
Joy divine shall never cease.
Mid the shade of want and sorrow
Undisturbed, our hearts rejoice;
Patient, wait the brighter morrow;
Faithful, heed the Father's voice.

Christian Science Hymnal, 263

Loss is gain

More than once I've had a conversation with people who were concerned about what constitutes success and failure in life. One woman I talked wtih had a yearning to spend more time in the practice of healing others through Christian Science, but was concerned that time spent in the practice would deprive her of opportunity to be successful in a secular career.

I knew the feeling well. I struggled with the same conflict after graduating from college many years ago.

I had been taught that success involved making lots of money, or gaining a name, or finding fame of some sort. I loved my spiritual studies and time spent with God, but I found the pursuit of spiritual education was at direct odds with seeking fame and fortune in the world. To seek material gain required me to forsake the pursuit of spiritual gain. I could not pursue the riches of Spirit with my whole heart at the same time that I pursued the riches of matter. They required opposite states of thought to seek. It was one or the other.

Finally, I settled on seeking the riches of Spirit, and happily let the matter-seeking go. It was one of the wisest decisions I ever made.

So, when my inquirer voiced concerned about being seen as a failure by peers if she put the study and practice of Christian Science first in her life, I blurted out, “Success in the world is failure with God.” And likewise, “Success with God is failure in the world.”

The two simply don’t mix.

To seek spiritual gain is to not seek material gain. Spirit and matter are exact opposites, like black and white. They do not mix or mingle.

We all have priorities, and they are either Spirit focused or matter focused. Success with God requires Spirit focus. And getting to know God is the greatest success one could ever have for it leads to eternal life. What else is there? Nothing! And that’s what matter is…nothing.

I was just reading the Sermon on the Mount in The Message, and the second beatitude which the King James version translates,

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted,

reads in The Message,

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

This is so true.

When we cling to things, worldly goals, persons or stuff, we set ourselves up for loss. These things all disappear someday and leave a void behind that has to be filled spiritually. Why not seek the real substance today and prevent the struggle with loss later?

When we cling to things and people, we don’t cling to God. When we cling to God, we find freedom from things and their surround.

This may be a lesson that is working out in the world economy today. Millions of people are losing financial wealth in the trillions of dollars. It is a hard lesson and a hard way to learn what constitutes true substance, but there is a spiritual treasure to be gained that far outweighs the temporal loss. It is the treasure of Truth.

When we have Truth, we have it all, and our human needs are met too.

Loss is gain, Jesus taught in many different ways.

Loss of material hopes and affections leads to gain of spiritual love and understanding.

Trials are proofs of God’s care,

Mary Baker Eddy wrote.

How can this be? Because trials send us to God, and there we find Her care.

True wealth is spiritual, and it is freely given to each of us. It comes through the gateway of understanding and by the grace of divine Love. As we put selfish interests aside and faithfully follow Christ down the pathway to Truth, we find spiritual riches, and they take care of us along the way, just as they did our Master.

It’s not what we lose on earth that matters much, but what we gain in heaven. To actively practice Christian Science, the laws of God, and continue to gain in spiritual understanding day by day, is the most rewarding occupation I can imagine ever engaging. To get to know God amounts to grand success, and there is no temporal gain that comes even close in value.

Success with God amounts to failure in the world for what the materially minded person considers to be success is the opposite of what the spiritually minded person seeks. And success in the world leads to failure with God, because the pursuit of material goals, ambition and desire requires one to put material aims first and God second.

Which shall be our choice? And when will we make it?

What is God's provision for you?

I’ve often heard testifiers at church meetings say something like, “I prayed for a new job. The perfect job appeared. I’m so grateful for God’s provision!”

As a general statement of truth, all good originates in God and comes from a spiritual source. But the above type of declaration has sometimes caused confusion for some people trying to understand how God meets human needs.

At surface appraisal, it appears to support the commonly held belief that material situations, things, and conditions are how God provides. After all, Jesus did heal sick bodies, strengthen weak limbs, and feed hungry mouths.

But Jesus also rebuked those who sought him for the fishes and the loaves—those who sought him for material indulgence.

He said, after trying to get away from a mob of people he had just fed,

“I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw [understood] the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you…”

I sense that Jesus did not want people seeking him for material gratification. He wanted them to understand the spiritual truth he was teaching. He knew that spiritual truth understood and practiced led the way to eternal life where matter was no longer a factor. It did not lead to increased consumption of food, things, or worldly position.

As I think about how God provides, I remember that God is Spirit. God is not matter. Spirit is going to provide in only the way Spirit can provide—spiritually. So it stands to reason that God meets human needs through spiritual ways and means, which, as it turns out in practical experience, translates into daily supplies.

Years ago, when my wife and I designed and built a home for our family, we worked for many months on the plans. We’d come up with a drawing we liked and proclaim, “This is the perfect house for us!” Days later, after more prayer and consideration, we’d come up with a better plan and declare, “This is the perfect house for us!” More time would pass, new ideas would surface, a new plan would be drawn, and then, again we’d affirm, “THIS is the perfect house!” Well, I imagine you get the picture by now, that there is no such thing as a perfect material house. As new inspiration dawns, human plans change. The only perfect house anyone will ever have is the home God has built for us in heaven, in Mind. Until then, we catch improved glimpses of what the “perfect home” is like, and improve our human plans accordingly.

A lesson I gain from the above is that until the final spiritual idea we’re striving to demonstrate is in clear vivid view, the human interpretation is going to constantly revise and change. We may interpret a new view of spiritual reality as the “perfect job,” or “the perfect home” or the “ideal setting” at any given point in time. But it’s only a glimpse. It looks perfect at the moment because that’s as far as our understanding has grown. But increase your spiritual understanding of God, and the original divine idea is going to getter clearer in thought. What appeared to be ideal in the past is no longer ideal. You see something better appearing.

This is helpful to understand when faced with loss.

People have often seen something good happen in their lives as evidence of God’s love at work—and rightfully so. But they make the mistake of believing the good is IN the material thing, position or setting they’ve acquired. So, if someday that thing is lost, they feel deprived, lacking, and maybe even punished. It’s not that God’s good has failed them. God’s good never fails. It’s because they thought their good was material rather than spiritual, and matter always fails eventually! That’s a given!!

A lesson here is, never put your trust in matter if you don’t want to be overwrought with a feeling of loss someday. All good is spiritual, coming from Spirit, and forever intact in Mind.

But aside from that, if something we identified as good is lost, it’s simply a demand to go up higher in understanding to the real substance of that good.

I’ve heard of businessmen who became very wealthy, lost everything in catastrophic economic conditions, and gained it all back. I believe this happens because they knew that their wealth was not in money. It was in the wisdom, understanding and intelligence they possessed, and, which I believe, comes from above.

God’s provision is spiritual. When material conditions change, spiritual truth never changes. Our source is always God, the all-knowing, all-providing Mind that is ever caring for its beloved creation.

You will not fear loss when you understand all supply to be spiritual. With an understanding of spiritual substance, we see that there is no loss in matter for there is no gain there to begin with. All is Spirit, and everything and anything worth having is spiritual.

God’s provision for us is always spiritual.

"The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough!" Mary Baker Eddy

The lost restored

Click here for an awe-inspiring story about a lost dog that gets found 1300 miles from home.

I knew a woman many years ago who lost a favorite cat in the rural community she lived in. Figuring the coyotes got the feline; she never expected to see the pet again.

Five years later, she struggled with feelings of personal loss in her life, health issues in particular. One night she prayed to see to see the unreality of loss, that no good thing could ever be taken from her because all true good is spiritual, eternally tucked away in Mind.

The next morning she opened the front door of her home to go outside and sitting on the porch is her cat.

The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law. Mary Baker Eddy

Under the government of God’s unchangeable law, what appears to be lost is found again.