Keep your eye on the ball

We did it!

My USTA team placed number one in our division this weekend, and the whole gang is excited about advancing to districts competition a month from now. Hooray!

As any of my regular readers know, winning the highest score has never been my primary goal in playing tennis. Conquering fears, defeating doubts and overcoming beliefs of limitation has been my motivating factor.

My single most significant spiritual accomplishment this weekend was the death knell of my lifelong fear that I could not succeed in anything sports related.

I won my second USTA singles match Saturday afternoon, and walked off the court calm as could be. No more boom, boom, boom, heart problems during play like the day before during my first match, which I blogged about last. Yea!

During the game, I prayed to stay in the moment. I refused to let my mind wander onto other subjects other than hitting the ball well, placing it well, and getting ready for the next shot. Live in the moment! Live in the "spiritual moment," of I can express the right qualities here. I declared.

I love this lesson that I’ve learned from playing tennis because it’s so appropriate for effective prayer.

In prayer, too, we must live in the moment—focus on what is spiritually true in the instant we’re in. We cannot let out attention wander into the future and idly entertain questions like, “When will I get well?” or “I wonder how this healing is going to happen?”

If we’re thinking in the future, we’re not praying in the present. We’re wasting time and losing valuable opportunity to effect the healing immediately. We delay healing, and even sabotage it, by dwelling in a fictional tomorrow rather than in the immediate spiritual truth.

For example, when playing tennis, if my mind ever wanders into the future or onto other subjects, I miss the ball when it comes zooming at me. Or, I’m not prepared to hit the ball well and I slam it into the net or hit it out of bounds.

To play tennis well you have to focus on the ball, or you keep missing your shots and performing shoddily.

Effective prayer is the same way. You can’t let your mind roam off the truth you’re demonstrating. You must stay focused until the truth is fully realized. Then fruit is borne—healing happens.

How often have you heard in sports, “Keep your eye on the ball?!!!”

The same rule applies to spiritual treatment; “Keep your mental eye on Truth!!!” And don’t get distracted. Then you’ll hit your shots more accurately, place the ball where it needs to be, and be ready for the next shot. You’ll be a winner.

And who knows, you might even win a tournament now and then!




(picture-walking off of court after my first singles victory)

God made us competent and able

Have you ever felt like there was one activity in life that you were totally incompetent at? That if someone insisted you do it, you would automatically reply, “Oh, I can’t do that,” and you wouldn’t even try?

I’ve been that way for 35 years concerning sports. In seventh grade I went out for basketball, but ended up last on the team, a bumbler on court, and ended up resolved to stick to the subjects I excelled at—namely all the academic thinking activities. I never felt much loss for not being engaged with sports, but I also harbored for years and years the belief that “I just couldn’t do it.”

Three years ago I resolved to change that. I started tennis lessons with my wife. Several times I was ready to quit because it was hard work and very demanding on my sense of possibility. Plus, I kept missing the ball! This is not helpful in tennis…

But I stuck to my commitment to destroy once and for all the lie that I was an athletic incompetent.

There was a spiritual victory here that I needed to claim, I felt strongly. God did not make anyone incompetent. We’re all competent, intelligent and able, and have all the resources of Mind to draw upon to demonstrate our God-given capacities.

I had a minor, but to me, major, victory yesterday, that has made my commitment to this ideal worth all the physical and metaphysical effort I’ve put into breaking this lie over the last three years.

I’m captain of a USTA tennis team. A miracle in and of itself! I have eleven devoted and terrific guys in my group. In a tournament, 6 guys play 3 sets of doubles, and 2 guys play singles. Five matches are played at once—team versus team. Whichever team wins the most of the 5 matches, wins the team match. So, as captain, I have to place my team members to maximize our talent and win at least 3 of the matches.

In the past, I’ve always played doubles, never singles, in these tournaments, feeling there was no way I’ll ever be good enough to play singles. But over the last year, I resolved to break that lie too. Even from a physical point of view, there was no reason why I shouldn’t be able to play singles. I had all the right parts! If there was any obstacle, it was purely mental, not physical. And I wanted to conquer the mental barriers that insisted I was limited.

So, I worked hard with my coach over the last several months to prepare for playing singles, and yesterday, in our 2nd match, I felt enough courage to slot myself in at a singles #2.

Again, I was reminded right from the start of the match why I persist in playing tennis, even though I have more than enough work to keep me busy with my healing practice. Tennis has been a healing practice for me. My success with the sport has strengthened my success in understanding how to deal with error and destroy its lies.

Shortly after I started my singles match, I was not feeling normal. My heart was pounding in my chest. Literally! I felt these boom, boom, booms, and I thought this is not normal! I was stressing up inside, which was not typical for me either. It was an out of control feeling and I prayed for a resolution, but engaged with the opponent, it was a challenge to pray as deeply as I would if not engaged.

After several games, and we were neck and neck, point for point, practically, I realized that all the heart pounding and stress was all the lies about me being athletically incompetent and not worthy of playing this match surfacing big time. It was a pent-up force that had been building for 40 years and all of a sudden was erupting right when I had taken a decisive step to prove it unreal.

This is often how error operates. Right when you take a seriously progressive step, it wants to say as loud as it can that, ”You can’t do it! I won’t let you!”

We have to be wise to how mortal mind works in its efforts to stop progress from occurring in order to defeat its attempts to stop our progress. I’ve seen this many times in the healing practice, and I saw that I was smack in the middle of a very aggressive attack.

Now that I had pinpointed the error, I refuted it by knowing I was worthy of playing that match. That it didn’t matter if I won or lost, but it did matter that I accept my worthiness of being on that court. I had practiced hard to get there, and I was capable of performing well for the team.

It was clear that I was not afraid of my opponent. I was afraid of doing poorly and letting the team down. I was afraid that the “whole world” would say, “See, Evan, should not be out there playing singles. He can’t do it right! He’s not athletically competent!”

I knew God would not approve of any of this nonsense coming from mortal mind, and I didn’t need to fear it, and I definitely didn’t need to manifest its symptoms. In between points, I vehemently declared the spiritual truth about my competency as a worthy child of God. The heart pounding ceased. I loosened up, and started to enjoy the match. Victory!!

It doesn’t matter to me what the score was, because I won with Truth, but you’re probably wondering about the final numbers, so I’ll tell you.

I did win the match 7-6, 6-2. But more importantly, I won a major triumph over the lie I’ve tolerated for too long, namely, that I was not worthy of some modicum of success in the sports department.

I love my tennis team. These guys are the greatest, and so supportive of each other. We have one more match this afternoon, but were so successful yesterday that we’ve already secured a high enough ranking to guarantee advancement to the next level, to be played one month from now in Spokane.

So, you’ll probably be hearing more about this on-going adventure soon!

(Picture--myself and 3 teammates)

What it means to PUSH

Have you ever heard this acronym?

PUSH

Pray
Until
Something
Happens

PUSH

Now wouldn’t the world be a much better place if any “pushy” thought we entertained was transformed into this type of PUSH? It encourages us to pray first, and keep praying until the right idea surfaces through spiritual might alone rather than resorting to human will which produces an artificial outcome anyway.

It's okay if you PUSH today, as long as you do the right kind of pushing..which is the humble act of praying... You'll accomplish more and have better long run results.

Point of view

If earth were a crystal ball

With naked eye we'd pierce it thru

To find the sun is always up--

The down is just our point of view!

~ Mildred Hoskinson

Lessons from Noah's Ark...

Just for fun…

Have you ever seen this?


Everything I need to know about life, I learned from Noah's Ark

One : Don't miss the boat.

Two : Remember that we are all in the same boat.

Three : Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.

Four : Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do
something really big.

Five : Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.

Six : Build your future on high ground.

Seven : For safety's sake, travel in pairs.

Eight : Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.

Nine : When you're stressed, float a while.

Ten : Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.

Eleven : No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Don't take on another's resentment

I made the most fascinating discovery last week about not letting another’s resentment become my resentment.

On my USTA tennis team, one player who signed-up last December, abruptly quit after the second team practice and joined another team in another club. It was an odd experience with no visible explanation. All the other guys wondered why he left, including me.

I let his decision go, figuring it was his choice, and found another player to replace him. I had no resentment about what he did.

Unfortunately, though, whenever we crossed paths, I sensed negative tension between us. It was puzzling, and I didn’t like it because I choose to be friends with everyone, including this man who I had gotten along fine with for years.

I tried once to talk with him about it, but he put off the discussion, which I took as meaning, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Yet, these negative vibes kept coming and soon I was feeling resentful about the situation.

Resentment is not a mental quality I choose to harbor. It’s an enemy to success in Christian Science, and definitely an anti-God state of mind that is harmful to our spiritual progress and expression of divine Love. It is not to be tolerated, I figure, for it is unhealthy, and I knew this. But I couldn’t shake it off.

What to do?

Well, the answer finally came last week after I played doubles against this guy on men’s night. We were friendly enough toward each other, but when I sensed that negative stuff coming again, I silently rebelled and vehemently declared inaudibly that I was not a resentful person. I loved everyone as a child of God, even this dear one.

Suddenly, the spiritual light shined, and the voice of Truth said, “You don’t have to let his resentment become your resentment!”

That was it! I inwardly yelled.

I had let what I perceived to be his negative feelings become mine, not because I was resenting him, but because I had unwittingly let his belief that he had a reason to be resentful toward the team become my belief that he was resentful, and this dupe caused me to start resenting without realizing why. It was a very tricky way mortal mind has of making us feel guilty when we are not guilty.

“I was not a resentful person,” I yelled from within again. And instantly, the negative junk vanished from my thought. All of it! It was like a huge weight lifted off my mental shoulders, and I was truly free. And I still am today.

Lesson learned: We don’t have to let other people’s resentment become our resentment! We can maintain a position of pure unconditional Love at all times. But we have to make this demonstration. We cannot be naïve about the adverse impact other people’s negative beliefs have on our belief system if we do not properly defend ourselves from the lie that evil has any influence over anyone, including our “opponent” to begin with.

“Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.” Mary Baker Eddy

So, if you’re harboring any resentment toward anyone, perhaps some, or all of it, isn’t of your creating at all. You can choose to love, and demonstrate that you are not under the influence of resentment, no matter where it appears to come from. Know the truth and shake yourself free. God alone governs and controls our thinking, not other people.

I expect this episode with my tennis buddy to pass and a healthy friendship restored. It can't help but be, for Love requires and facilitates healing on both sides of the issue. We were all created to love each other, not resent, and this player is an individual I hope to have a healthy happy tennis relationship with for years to come.

Progress over arthritis

Here’s an email I just received from a seeker for Truth who walked into my office one day a few months ago. He said I could share it with you.

I love his story because it eloquently spells out a journey he’s been on from discovering Christian Science for the first time, to grappling with it’s teachings and not always successfully, to the healing light that inevitably began to dawn as he persevered in his prayers and studies.


Happy Feet

I walked a mile this evening around the neighborhood and it was wonderful. While this may not seem like a significant announcement to some, it has considerable meaning for me. Having struggled many years with arthritis in my feet and surgical removal of two toes and regular visits to the foot doctor, I had been previously limiting my walking to around the house. And even that had been a painful exercise.

But all that has changed. Let me explain.

For a few months I had been driving by a strip mall where an office sign said Christian Science Healing. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I walked in and asked, “OK, who are you? And what do you do?” That led to an interesting talk and loan of a book called Science and Health.

For a bookworm like myself, I found it a difficult read. Very hard to grasp what the writer was saying. So much of it seemed conflicting with what I understood. But the chapter called Fruitage had some stories of people who by simply reading the book began to experience better health. While that didn’t make sense, it sure caught my attention. I needed an increase in better health, so I read some other sources of information and set the book aside for a spell.

One of the first things I learned was how prayer can be both a science and an art. I considered myself a praying person and had asked for help on many occasions. Yet, it seems that a practitioner uses prayer as a tool in an entirely different way that I had used prayer.

I finally determined to ask for help and see if this practitioner would apply prayer to my painful feet. He agreed and later emailed me some ideas and thoughts that I printed out and read and re-read and considered their importance. He ended with the thought, “happy feet.” Let me assure you, that was a new thought for me!

His treatment seemed at first nothing more than a positive affirmation and I didn’t notice any difference. But I soon learned that a spiritual healing comes first before the reflection in matter.

I next read a biography about Mary Baker Eddy and was surprised at what I learned. As a student of the Bible, Eddy devoted herself to understanding the Scriptures not just as a literal history of events but rather as transcending beyond the words and to seeing the spiritual principles involved.

I returned to both Science and Health and also the New Testament to read with different eyes.

What I discovered surprised me. Not seeing the written words as a material experience but as a spiritual experience opened up whole new vistas of learning. I began to look forward to my morning hour of reading to find what new idea would come to me that had never been mine before in previous readings of the New Testament.

Christian Science was a new way to discover the character of God and the attributes of the Spirit. Here was a way to see myself in a different light. It was an opportunity for me to recognize errors of thought that I had held for many years.

Each day was a wonderful journey.

I don’t know when it happened exactly, but I began to notice that my feet no longer hurt when I walked around the house. And I gave thanks in prayer for this experience. I continued to feel stronger in limbs and renewed in spirit.
Now I would be happy if that was the end of my experience with prayer and treatment but it was not.

By this time I had read the Gospels twice and was starting in a third time. I begin to see times in the day when certain ideas from my Scripture reading would reappear and come to mind. I then realized that Spirit was taking opportunity to teach me at times most appropriate. I began to take these thoughts more seriously. That is why when I awoke this morning at 6 a.m. and my mind turned to the parable of the talents and how some servants had more added upon and one servant had his talent taken away, I took notice.

I realized this parable was not about money and the material things, it was a spiritual lesson. I thought of what I had received from God. That it was a gift and I felt it included an increase in health and my “happy feet.”

As I thought of what I could do with my “happy feet,” I was impressed to take a walk. So I wrote that on my white board under my TO DO list. Before the day was out, I put on my coat and took a walk. A wonderful walk! A spiritual walk!

As I walked an old song came to mind and I could not get it out of my mind…

I’ll Walk With God

I'll walk with God from this day on.

His helping hand I'll lean upon.
This is my prayer, my humble plea,

May the Lord be ever with me.
There is no death, tho' eyes grow dim.

There is no fear when I'm near to Him.
I'll lean on Him forever

And He'll forsake me never.
He will not fail me

As long as my faith is strong,
Whatever road I may walk along.
I'll walk with God, I'll take His hand.

I'll talk with God, He'll understand.
I'll pray to Him, each day to Him

And He'll hear the words that I say.
His hand will guide my throne and rod

And I'll never walk alone
While I walk with God.

~ Paul Francis Webster

Evan here again...

I enjoy reading this account because it shows how our journey is not always easy. Questions loom to be answered, challenges beg for attention, and doubt appears. To understand Truth may require some major wrestling, agonizing, soul-searching and yielding. But God has a blessing for every honest desire, and the pure motive brings its rightful reward. Healing comes...

Tiger story revised

Last Monday, I posted pictures of a tiger cuddling with a number of cute piglets. I’ve discovered since then that the pictures are real, but the story I forwarded with the pictures was made up by an overly creative writer.

The real zoo was in Thailand, and the scene was the work of imaginative zookeepers striving to entertain audiences.

But, nonetheless, the pictures do break stereotypes and illustrate “the lion shall dwell with the lamb” type of possibilities.

Be your best

I’m captain of a USTA men’s team (as in tennis…), and we have our first tournament on April 27th. The excitement is building!

Last night, our coach shared bits of wisdom to mentally prepare us for the matches. And one point he made was very helpful to me.

He taught:

You have no control over whether you win or lose. You have no control over the other players. But you do have control over your own playing. And that is the one area of concern where you need to focus all of your attention.

He wanted us to quit thinking about winning, and concentrate on playing our very best.

He pointed out that if you play your very best you are doing all you can do to win the match. And if your opponent wins, then he’s a better player than you are, and he deserves to win. But if you focus on winning, rather than playing your finest, your thinking is distracted, and you err when you would not ordinarily err.

Wise words! I decided. And not just for tennis, but for all of life’s activities.

In marriage, in relationships, at the office, in the business world, on the playing field, if our motive was to be the best representative of God we could be, rather than to beat out the competition, wouldn’t there be less envy, jealousy, elbowing, strife and heartbreak? The best in human character would surface rather than perhaps the worse, and we'd perform better all the way around.

When we play to be the very best we can be, rather than to win, our thinking stays focused on doing well, on the building of character, virtue, and godliness--qualities which improve the effectiveness of our work and increase our success. The long run effect of this approach is always healthy and progressive, and we’ll end up a winner in the activity of Life whether we bring home a trophy or not.

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Paul

Virginia Tech aftermath

I’ve had many people comment that they are struggling with emotional aftermath from the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

In finding my own peace of mind about the crisis I go to the Christ consciousness of Truth that lifts human thought out of the temporal scene of evil, hate and anger to the heavenly consciousness of omnipresent Love.

In predicting the end of the world,--or scientifically rendered, the end of material sense,--Jesus Christ prophesied,

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Jesus did not end his prophecy on a dismal note, but said those who “…endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

So the question arises, How do we “endure unto the end?”

Mary Baker Eddy, a powerhouse spiritual thinker in her own right, explains what Jesus meant when she wrote,

“This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace.”

We have a choice as to which side of the conflict we stand on: on the side of “discord and dismay,” or on the side of “Science and peace.”

I, for one, choose to stand on the side of Science and peace. It’s the only helpful way I know to bring healing to the dismay.

People stricken by loss and grief don’t need more fear and distress heaped upon their perspective. They need comfort. They need hope. They need help and healing, and it’s the spiritually enlightened consciousness of Love’s ever-presence that is going to help them the most.

To make a positive contribution, we need to maintain a healing state of thought that dispels the darkness of remorse and angst and shines the light of hope and peace.

Jesus said, “…see that ye be not troubled,” by the conflicts that arise in this world. They are the clash of good versus evil, and until humanity loses all faith in evil, they will continue.

So, while the conflict of good vs. evil is worked out, and until good is seen as reigning triumphant, I seek a path that resolves the conflict in the favor of goodness and love. This path, I believe to be the path of Love.

The rampages of evil cannot be ignored, wished away, or mindlessly cast aside as unreal while they are running roughshod over the rights of humanity. They must be addressed head-on and proven unreal and powerless by dismantling their claims and eliminating their influence. But they cannot be built up into unconquerable monstrosities either. The evil must be addressed and conquered, and it’s the way of Love that gains the victory.

I pray that the impressive aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy is not a darker cloud of despair cast over the human outlook, but an increased commitment amongst mankind to love one another so that similar tragedies do not occur in the future.

We can help one another, and if there’s a sign of mental trouble in a neighbor that is foreboding, we can take time out to heal that distrubance and prevent it from multiplying into something larger.

“…see that ye be not troubled,” Jesus counseled.

Don't let evil take over your perspective. We can side with Love, with peace and harmony and be a healing influence in a world that needs to feel more of Love’s comforting presence. It's the healing way...

No need in God

Where there is love

There must be faith;

And where there is faith

There is peace indeed;

Where there is peace,

There must be God--

And where there is God

There is no need.

~ Author unknown

Where is God?

I sought to hear the voice of God,
And climbed the topmost steeple.
But God declared: “Go down again,
I dwell among the people.”

~ Louis Newman

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

~ Jesus Christ

Virginia Tech shooting

A horrendous tragedy occurred at Virginia Tech yesterday, where an armed man killed 32 people in classrooms and wounded 15 others. My heart sunk with grief when I read the news.

“Something has to change in the mentality of this country,” I protested to myself.

For years, I’ve been convinced that the violent video games children play and murderous movies they watch have produced insensitivity to killing and violence in their thinking. Their moral sense gets dulled and pushed into dormancy while they develop an attitude of “The killing doesn’t matter. It’s all pretend, not real.”

But the mindless mindset developed when playing these games is real in the sense that it affects a person’s attitude about life and how they conduct themselves toward others. It’s an uncaring, thoughtless, callous, indifferent and self-entwined attitude that leads to mindless destruction and self-destruction. It’s not healthy.

It’s been a challenge to help our 13 year old son understand this point, who loves to play video games. “That’s all they make and sell,” he protests. And he’s almost right. It’s very difficult to find engaging video games that don’t have some element of destruction in them. So it has been an on-going effort to educate his moral sensibilities to the importance of keeping his thinking free of the subtle destructive influence these video games perpetuate. I’ve wanted him to understand on his own why they’re harmful, not just because I said so.

So, this morning I asked him if he’d heard about the killings.

He said, “Yes.”

And then I had a little chat with him about keeping our thinking free of violent influences so events like this don’t occur.

He listened attentively.

I was impressed!

I pointed out that in the article the killer was observed as being unemotional about his murders. There was no expression on his face. He was like a mindless zombie on a heartless mission, the newspaper reported. Then he shot himself.

I told my son that large doses of violent games have a similar effect on their players. Gamers start shooting and killing so much they become uncaring about what they’re doing. They don’t think anything of it. It becomes normal to them. And then I explained this is why mom and I don’t like violent video games.

He listened without resistance, for which I was very grateful! And he even agreed with what I said. Hooray!

I think our years of talking on this subject have paid off.

It’s been a challenge because most of his male friends play these games everyday, and when he goes to their homes, the video games are often front and center of activities they choose to play.

Something does need to change in the mentality of our country, and perhaps much of the world. Mindless killing, pretend or not, is not natural or normal and should never be seen as such. It’s evil. It’s very evil, and should be treated for what it is.

I’m praying for all people touched by the tragedy yesterday to find peace of mind, assurance of life eternal and a release from grief. Large doses of Love alone will quench the fear, anger and remorse such events trigger.

But I also ask, “What can I do to help turn the tide of violent thinking so events like this don’t happen again?”

I began with talking to my son about it this morning. It’s a start!

You may have practical tangible steps you can take too.

A mother's desire fulfilled

Forwarded to me by a reader—

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother.

The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly were a litter of wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger.

Would they become cubs or pork chops??

Take a look........

When I saw the above pictures, I couldn’t help but see the universal mothering presence of God in the love the tigress shows for the little pigs.

To Love, all is love, and what a wonderful world we'd have if we all expressed the same type of unqualified love toward our neighbor whether they were of our “kin” or not!

Who do you work for?

A Small Place

“Father, where shall I work today?”
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed me out a tiny spot,
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh, no, not that.
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done.
Not that little place for me!”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern,
He answered me tenderly,
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;
Art thou working for them or me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”

~ Author unknown

What place do you occupy?

Your Place

Is your place a small place?
Tend it with care!—
He set you there.

Is your place a large place?
Guard it with care!—
He set you there.

Whate’er your place, it is
Not yours alone, but His
Who set you there.

~ John Oxenham

What do you expect to happen?

It’s an absolutely crucial question to ask when praying for healing.

What do you expect to happen?

Do you expect the body to get better?

Honestly now, don’t just mouth the words, “Yes, I expect the body to get better.” Do you honestly believe and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the truth you are praying is going to heal you mentally and physically?

We’re always expecting a certain type of result. When struggling with a physical illness, we need to know whether we’re expecting to get better or expecting to get worse. Typically, one choice or the other has been made whether we’re aware of it or not.

Too often, I’ve noticed, patients expect to get worse. Doctors have told them the illness is incurable or will go through stages, and the patient believes the doctor, agonizes over his opinion and fears the consequences, and then lives them out. Even though they believe prayer heals, their faith in the doctor’s verdict is stronger than their faith in God. Their expectation is formed more by the doctor’s opinion than by the spiritual truth. And this mesmeric hold has to be broken to improve one’s expectations and move the weight of thought onto the side of the healing Truth.

We have to be on vigilant guard to defend our expectations from evil influence. Mortal mind wants us to believe in error, to accept suffering as natural and normal, and to give into increased distress. That’s the whole agenda of mortal mind, to perpetuate and increase suffering.

But Christian Science comes to the rescue and declares, “You don’t have to suffer. There is a spiritual healing to be had. Disease is not the reality it appears to be. Health is the reality and is yours to demonstrate today. Christ is at work on your behalf making it so.”

When my eye was hit severely by a tennis ball last year and the evidence of damage in my eyeball was highly distressing, I included in my prayer an expectation of physically getting better. I knew there could not be a disconnect between what I was knowing spiritually, and what I was experiencing humanly. If it was spiritually true that my vision was indestructible and that God gave me a seeing eye, then I could not have destroyed vision or an unseeing eye, in the spiritual or in the so-called physical. This meant that the physical evidence of a damaged eye had to disappear. And it did.

Mary Baker Eddy said it well,

"Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them."

So, back to my original question, “What do you expect to happen as a result of your prayers?”

It’s not enough to outline what we expect to happen in order to be healed, but it is a strong indicator of how much faith we have in the Truth we’re praying to demonstrate. The more we believe the truth and understand it, the less faith we have in error, and the stronger our expectations become of making progress morally, mentally, spiritually and physically.

When Jesus commanded, “Rise, and walk.” The man arose and walked. Jesus expected physical recovery as a result of his spiritual treatment, and physical recovery came.

We can have the same type of expectation, and results! God helps make it so...

Thoughts on expectation

Life is largely a matter of expectation.

~ Horace


“He that expects nothing shall not be disappointed, but he that expects much—if he lives and uses that in hand day by day—shall be full to running over.”

~ Edgar Cayce


“I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.

~ Samuel Johnson

Look for health

I’ve been told that there is no such thing as cold. Temperature is a measurement of heat, not of cold. When the heat is low, we call the condition cold, but cold is not an entity anymore than darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Cold is the absence of heat.

From a young age, my son would go outside in cold weather dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I would go outside in a winter coat and say, “Tyler get a coat on. It’s cold out here!” He would predictably reply, “I don’t need a coat, dad. It’s hot out here!” And he would run and play with absolutely no negative consequences from cold weather. Or at least, what I thought was cold weather.

Disease is like cold. Christian Science explains that disease is not real. It’s not the reality it appears to be to the mortal mind that believes in it. It’s the supposed absence of health. And the cure for disease is not to study disease, but to re-discover health.

Like warming up a cold room by turning up the heat, we cure illness by “turning up the health,” so to speak…

Health is a state of Mind, of the divine Mind expressed through us.

Jesus Christ, the master spiritual healer of all time, never studied disease to figure out how to cure it. He understood health, and cured his patients based upon his understanding of the divine reality.

Disease does not exist, just like cold does not exist.

When there’s little heat, we call it cold, but it’s really just less heat. We dispel the cold by finding more warmth.

When there’s little evidence of health, medical theory calls the condition disease, but it’s really just less evidence of health. We dispel the disease by finding more health.

What’s the moral of all this reasoning?

Don’t focus on disease as if it’s a reality. It’s not. It’s the absence of reality. It’s not a real thing to be gotten rid of. It’s a call to gain more health, and the health we’re looking for is not found in the study of sickness. It’s found in a deeper understanding of Truth and our eternal expression of it.

God is the source and creator of all health.

Happy health seeking!

The proof of love

“I love you, Mother,” said little John;

Then, forgetting his work, his cap went on,

And he was off to the garden swing,

And left her the water and wood to bring.

“I love you, Mother,” said rosy Nell—

“I love you better than tongue can tell”;

Then she teased and pouted full half the day,

Till her mother rejoiced when she went to play.

“I love you, Mother,” said little Fan;

“Today I’ll help you all I can;

How glad I am that school doesn’t keep!”

So she rocked the babe till it fell asleep.

Then, stepping softly, she fetched the broom,

And swept the floor and tidied the room;

Busy and happy all day was she,

Helpful and happy as child could be.

“I love you, Mother,” again they said,

Three little children going to bed;

How do you think that Mother guessed

Which of them really loved her best?

~ Joy Allison
From The World's Best Loved Poems

A story of love...

A story sent in by a reader…

It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 am, when an elderly gentleman, in his 80's, presented to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

The physician took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had a doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer disease.

As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him. "And you are still going every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said...

"She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

I had to hold back tears as he left.


I love this story because it reminds me of what a student of Christian Science strives to do every day.

When presented with suffering and disease, we work to see beyond the evil presented to the spiritual truth God put there to begin with. We do not look to the senses for evidence of Truth. We look to God, and there, in Truth, we discover who the other person really is—perfect, just the way God made them.

Knowing the spiritual truth, regardless of what sense outlines, is true love in action.

Celebrating Easter

Happy Easter! Today is a special time of year when Christendom pays special honor to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ ability to raise himself from the tomb alive after being brutally tortured and crucified by his enemies sent a powerful message to the world that death is not real. Life is real, and it is eternal! Never fear death again… Hooray!

May the spirit of Easter be with you throughout the year! Never fear death—the death of supply, of wisdom, of health, of love, or of life, for Life is God, and it is eternal. It’s immortal, and all of Life’s good abides in the fullness of Life too. You can never lack. That good is not in matter to be lost, but forever in Spirit to be enjoyed.

Enjoy your Easter!

The Stremnaya Road

Have you ever seen these pictures? They are of the Stremnaya Road in Bolivia, otherwise known as “The Road of Death.”

The incredible risks and dangers people take to drive down their chosen path is often breath-taking. I’m not sure I’m ready to jump into a pack wagon and drive it down this road! There’s no turning back…and sometimes, no place to go.

When I saw these pictures, I asked myself if this road is similar to the “straight and narrow way” Jesus told us we had to walk to find heaven. I think not, I decided. The “straight and narrow way” is not a dangerous path to pursue. It is a path of safety and protection. It’s God’s path, and He protects us and keeps us safe when we follow His will. There are unyielding “guardrails” of Truth on either side of the pathway of Life that keep our feet firmly planted on solid ground.

The path of materialism, consumerism, and sensualism are the dangerous paths to pursue, for they are fraught with untold danger that shoves us off-track morally, spiritually, and physically. The materialist is unsure about what’s coming from the other direction, and often gets pushed aside and sent over the brink when squeezed by trying circumstances.

One moral I pick up from studying these pictures is to not let mortal mind take us down a road we don’t want to go, namely, down a path of seeking success through material ways and means which yields unpredictable, uncertain and unreliable results. To remain safe, we must stick to the straight and narrow way of Spirit that is girded and governed by divine Love.

Driving down the road of Life, there will be no obstructing traffic coming from the other direction, no competition for space along the path, and no danger of slipping over the edge. Love holds our feet in place, and keeps us out of places we don’t belong.

Happy journeys!

God never comes up short

The new office I moved into last week had to be remodeled from floor to ceiling before it was ready to occupy. Part of the landlord’s terms required me to choose carpet out of a small stock of floor coverings he owned. Three months ago, when I signed the lease, I had found one acceptable color and design in his warehouse, and so consented to his deal.

But lo and behold, what happened last week? Two days before I am to take possession, I get a call at 10 a.m. from the contractor telling me the carpet layer was coming at 2 p.m., and he had just discovered that there wasn’t enough of the carpet I had chosen to cover the space.

“Would I come over and choose another design?” He asked.

This was not good news! I knew the other choices were ghastly, 20 years outdated, and very ugly.

A bit forlorn, I agreed to meet him at the warehouse and decide what to do next.

As I drove over to Richland, I reminded myself that divine Mind was carpeting my office with the graces of Love, and there could be no mistakes, no oversights, no shortages, and no lack of every right quality necessary to finish the project with splendid results.

When I arrived at the warehouse, two men were waiting outside with a roll of carpet in the parking lot. Unsure what to do, they pointed to the bundle and said it was 6 feet too short.

We went into the building, and as I had suspected, the only other choices were two gross colors that obviously were in storage because no one would want to use them, including me! I wasn’t sure what to do except stand, listen, and be patient until a solution appeared.

It would have cost me $1500 to buy new carpet at a store, which was an unnecessary expense since I already had a deal with the landlord to do the job.

At the moment, the situation looked hopeless. The two workers stood around with the attitude of, “Now what?”

I stalled. I just couldn’t stomach saying yes to the other choices and knew there had to be a better solution.

At an impasse, and unwilling to accept a compromise I would regret for years to come, I stood silently and listened to God for an answer. I insisted in my prayers that there was an acceptable alternative, and that God would reveal it to me.

Be patient! I affirmed. Listen. Don’t act in haste.

Finally, I was impelled to ask the men if they had any other carpet in the back rooms of the warehouse. They shrugged their shoulders in doubt, but said they would look.

Five minutes later they came bounding back down the corridor to tell me they had found a remnant roll of the exact carpet I had chosen to begin with that was almost to the foot what we needed to finish my office.

Alleluia! I thanked God for telling us what to do.

Sure enough, in a dark forgotten backroom was the perfect answer to my prayer. It was new carpet in the proper design. Only God knew it was there, and He told us about it.

The carpetlayers came on time, did their job, and the carpet looks terrific, if I may say so myself. I enjoy it everyday now, and am so happy to have learned the lesson, “Never give up!” There’s always an acceptable answer.

Answered prayer

I know not by what method rare,
But this I know, God answers prayer.
I know that He has given His Word,
Which tells me prayer is always heard,
And will be answered, soon or late.
And so I pray and calmly wait.
I know not if the blessing sought
Will come in just the way I thought;
But leave my prayers with Him alone,
Whose will is wiser than my own,
Assured that He will grant my quest,
Or send some answer far more blessed.

~ Eliza M. Hickok

Is there a God?

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read this story…


A college class was led by a professor who did not believe in God, and every day he'd stand in front of his class and say, "Have you ever seen God?" to which nobody would answer. Then he'd ask, "Have you ever felt God?" and nobody would answer. Finally he'd ask, "Have you ever heard God?" and, like the other times, nobody would answer. He then would say, "It is obvious that there is no God."

One day a believer in God had been having an extremely bad day; her car broke down, her mother was sick, her boyfriend was out of town, and she'd gotten a bad grade on one of her exams. She had been fed up with her professor's little act every morning, so she decided to do something about it.

While the professor stood up at the beginning of class and did his thing, the student had an idea. She got up and said, "Professor, would you mind if I said something?" He said, "Of course not. This is an expressive classroom, and I think it would be fine if you spoke your mind."

The girl said to the class, "Have you ever seen our professor's brain?" and nobody answered. Then she asked, "Have you ever felt our professor's brain?" and nobody answered. Finally she asked, "Have you ever heard our professor's brain?" and, like the other times, nobody answered. She then said, "It is quite obvious that our professor has no brain."

Where is God?

Here’s another story that elicited chuckles when I read it. It reminded me of how egotistical the human mind gets at times with the belief that it can out-smart the divine Mind or prove it inferior.

God speaks to us in many ways, and has infinite methods to get His message across!


A professor who didn’t believe in God was teaching a college class and he told the students that he was going to prove that there is no God.

He said, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you 15 minutes!"

Ten minutes went by.

The professor kept taunting God, saying, "Here I am, God. I'm still waiting."

He got down to the last couple of minutes and a Marine just released from active duty, and newly registered in the class, walked up to the professor, hit him full force in the chest, and sent him flying from his platform.

The professor struggled up, obviously shaken and yelled, "What's the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The Marine replied, "God was busy, so He sent me."


Has God sent you on a mission today!

New phone number and address

I have moved my office nearer to my home and was required to change my phone number. So any of you trying to reach me will discover my old number does not work anymore.

Here's the update:

New phone: 509-946-6200


New address:

1370 B Jadwin Ave
Richland, WA 99354

Email:

evancsb@verizon.net

Who is the richest?

Forbes magazine came out recently with their yearly list of billionaires around the globe. It appears that fascination with wealth and adoration of riches ranks high on the interest list of many readers these days.

After briefly reviewing the roster of mega-wealthy individuals and some of their business accomplishments to accumulate such wealth, I wondered when a top-selling magazine would someday publish a list of the spiritually richest people around the globe.

Wouldn’t that be a change—a recognition that possessing the treasures of Spirit ranks above the accumulation of temporal things!

I mused about who might be listed as the spiritually wealthiest in the world, but soon quit for I realized that the riches of the Spirit belong to all of us. No one has anymore of the wealth of Spirit than anyone else.

In Christian Science we are to see everyone as a child of God, as fully endowed with the riches of Spirit without limit. We are to see past the outward picture of materiality to the spiritual reality in Mind, and there we find the truth that lasts forever.

And in Truth, we all are equal benefactors of God’s infinite grace and love!

From a human point of view, the observing eye may see people who do good deeds and spread love as being spiritually wealthier than others who live a self-serving life. And this is true, from an outward point of view. But Christian Science takes us deeper, into Spirit, where every man, woman, and child is the offspring of God, and not the product of an earthly environment or worldly past.

When we look beyond material appraisals to the spiritual truth, every single one of us is as equally wealthy as another. There is one God, and one reflection of that God—the perfect man.

The wealthiest person in the world is the one Person, God, of whom we all reflect in our own individual unique way.

So, rejoice in your birthright. You are rich! You are wealthy! As a child of God, you possess greater wealth than the world can ever offer—the wealth of Truth and Love coming from God, and eternally yours.

You are richer than billions of dollars can ever offer, and wealthier than Forbes magazine could ever measure.

We don’t have to wait for a magazine to publish this good news to be assured of it. We can each live out from it today.

Alleluia!

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” Jesus Christ