Aspects of Forgiveness, Part 1

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

Jesus' prayer requires you to practice forgiveness.

But this is more than just a tit for tat kind of forgiveness. And it is not a "Get Out of Jail Free" brushing it all off kind of forgiveness. And it's certainly not a self-sacrificing "it's always all my fault" kind of forgiveness either. It is something much more than that.

Mrs. Eddy's spiritual sense of this verse is "Love is reflected in love." That gives you a strong sense that something much deeper is going on when true forgiveness really happens. There is a divine law at work. The law that Love, God, is always reflected in love - in love expressed, in love made manifest, in love that has an impact, in love that awakens.

OK so maybe you're asking if God, good, is the source of all being, then what is it that needs forgiveness? What is it that needs redemption? What is it that needs correction? Certainly not God's creation! but our view of it - and hence our experience of it - does.

Doesn't the belief in duality, the dream of life in matter (matter as limitation, separation, personal "ego", sin, sickness, death) constantly suggest that there are evil people? evil circumstances? fatal errors? terminal mistakes? lost hopes? horrible tragedies? a world full of evil and hatefulness needing to be corrected, redeemed, forgiven?

Yes.

And the kind of forgiveness that Jesus is asking you to experience does not ignore evil. But it does ask you to raise up your point of view. It does ask you to look at the world with a holier perspective. It does ask you to see the way Love, God, sees.

Mrs. Eddy expressed it this way:

"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

The kingdom of God is intact? universal? and man is pure and holy? Huh?

Not to your limited human way of seeing things. But consider this: Suppose you are asleep and you have a dream. And in this dream a friend does something wrong, maybe even evil, to you. In the dream you might get upset, angry, maybe even try to get even.

But then your alarm goes off and you wake up.

Do you then start praying to forgive this dream of wrong-doing? No. You of course realize that it was just a dream. Your friend was completely innocent. And nothing had ever actually happened to offend or hurt you. You see the entire experience for what it is: a dream, an illusion, a misconception. You would never hold a grudge against your friend because of what happened in a dream. By waking up, you realize not only that you are safe, but also that your friend is innocent.

This hints at the healing way Jesus saw those around him. Where you may see a debtor, a tresspasser - an enemy, Jesus beheld in Science (in the spiritual Truth of Being) - what?

God's own likeness.

Right where you see someone (or maybe even yourself) needing to be forgiven, right there - in spiritual truth - is God's own likeness, God's own activity, God's own reality.

And in God's own reality, there is nothing to forgive.

This may seem at first to be counter-intuitive. It may seem like you're just trying to mask over the evil in the world, the hurtfulness others to do you - and that you do to yourself and to others. And yes, the world is constantly parading a showcase of evil being done everywhere in the world.

And here in his prayer, Jesus is asking you to forgive. Why?

Jesus saw all creation as God sees it: perfect. But he never shied away from calling a spade a spade - of denouncing evil whenever and wherever it showed it's hideous malicious face. What Jesus never did however was make evil a reality that could overpower him, that could manipulate him, that could cause him to act in turn like evil. He never strayed from acting like God's Likeness, like God's Son, like Christ.

And though in spiritual reality there is nothing to forgive, Jesus knew that for those deep in the human dream of good-and-evil, there is an enormous power in forgiveness. He knew that forgiveness is a spiritual alarm clock. It wakes you up. It stirs you to reconsider things. To ponder who it is that actually needs forgiveness. It prompts you to start loving the way God loves, unconditionally. And most importantly, it alerts you that you are dreaming. Dreaming of personal egos. Dreaming of multiple minds. Dreaming, instead of adoring the one infinite God, good, and His perfect spiritual creation.

And by just yielding to the idea of forgiveness you are forced to reconsider everything. Maybe you need as much forgiveness as the one you think is in the wrong! Maybe you begin to understand the value of the way Jesus beheld everyone. Maybe you become a little bit more like him. Begin to see the value of looking with new eyes. To open yourself to that intuitive sense that there is actually something more going on. That Love, God, is expecting to be reflected in the love you express.

There is an awakening spiritual Truth right where the dream of wrong seems to be. There is something Good right where evil seems to be. There is God's own likeness right where "sinning mortal man" seems to be. God's own likeness is actually all that's really there. And Jesus proved beyond any doubt that his correct view actually forgives - corrects, redeems, heals - you and anyone from any seemingly evil experience. God and God's likeness are Love and love expressed - nothing to forgive, but everything to rejoice in.

Jesus knew that God's creation is perfect, whole, healthy, holy. And he did more than just know it philosophically or intellectually. He knew it practically. He healed every instance of sin, sickness, and death that he encountered. His "correct view" is God's view - and the healing impact his view had on the world is still shaking and awakening and redeeming - claiming for God what is His. And that is all of creation.

Your part in this is to follow him, to shake up your own perspective, to wake up! and to forgive.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive those we think are in debt to us." Love is always reflected in love because all is Love and its infinte manifestation, for Love is All-in-all.

Considering Grace and Forgiveness

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

Grace and forgiveness are beautiful concepts to consider.

Forgiveness seems fairly straight-forward. But have you thought of forgiveness as absolution? as acquittal? as allowance, amnesty, benevolence, clemency, compassion, condolence, destigmatization, dismissal, exculpation, excuse, exoneration, favor, feeling, forbearance, forgetfulness, heedlessness, humanity, kindness, leniency, mercy, mitigation, pardon, pity, purgation, relief, remission, reprieve, sympathy, tolerance, vindication, and yes, even grace?

And dictionaries give the word grace at least 9 different shades of meaning: There is the aspect of grace that includes kindness and good will. The aspect that means effortless fluidity and power of movement. And that which shines with inherent beauty. But the most important is the aspect of grace is that one which relates to God: the grace of unconditional love.

And it's this concept of grace, this unearned unconditional love, that both sustains and forgives.

Consider Jesus' words:

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

This is not an invitation to be a doormat. No. Just the opposite. Nor is it an invitation to think you're better - or worse - than anyone else. No. It is an invitation to understand something surprisingly much more important:

Unconditional Love is an irresistable everpresent power.

And it's yours to live. And it's yours to give.

God pours out this sunshine and rain - this power - His Love - to everyone (including you) unconditionally.

You don't earn it. You don't have to obey some bunch of human rules or bribe some hierarchy or bow down to some organization or win some special merit or favoritism. No. There is no earning of God's Love. God's love is always unconditional. And it's powerful. It has the power to sustain. It has the power to heal. It has the power to forgive. And it is a power that Love gives you.

This is humbling. You are being given this gift without conditions. You are being given it not because you are better than anyone else. Nor because you are worse than anyone else. You are not more deserving or less deserving. You are not more able or less able. The Love of God is a gift. To you. Right here and right now. Yield to it. Accept it. It really is yours for the living. It really is yours for the giving.

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

Imagine: you should love others as God loves - unconditionally. His love sees no evil versus good, no just versus unjust, no enemy versus friend. Neither should you. He sees only His perfect creation. So can you.

As it says in Genesis:

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

Such are the eyes of Love with which God looks out upon His creation. Such are the eyes of Love with which God sees you. Such are the eyes with which God asks you to see your neighbor.

God's beautiful grace, His warmth and light are shining on you, through you, as you, right this moment. His refreshing rain is awakening you to see cleanly and clearly all that you - and everyone - are as His likeness. You are already Love's loving-in-action. This is your real state of being. Here and now. Accept it. Feel it. Act on it. Rejoice in it! There is grace to be lived and famished affections to be fed! Get busy!

Give us this day our daily gracefulness.
Give us unconditional Love today; feed ours and everyone's famished affections.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive those who we think are in debt to us.
And Love is always reflected in love.

Aspects of Reflection (Part 2)

Definition of Reflection
...
6: a thought, idea, or opinion formed or a remark made as a result of meditation
7: consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose

To think deeply in a focused attentive way on some thought or idea is to reflect upon it. Meditating - reflecting - upon that thought or idea means you are considering all of its many aspects. You ponder them. You pay specific attention to them. You are consciously alive with them. This gives you insight and understanding of the thought or idea. It awakens in you a deep appreciation. The thought or idea becomes alive to you.

Don't you think that when Mrs. Eddy talks about you as the reflection of God, of divine Mind, that this sense of reflection is included? Not just the passive reflection of a mirror, but the actively engaged reflection of Mind. This is an aspect of reflection. This is how God, divine Love, considers His creation. This is how God, divine Love, thinks about you. Specifically. Attentively. Deeply.

You are consciously alive to your Father-Mother God. And by reflection, your Father-Mother God is alive to you.

"And Love is reflected in love."

Feed the famished affections (Part 1)

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today. Feed the famished affections.

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

"God setteth the solitary in families:" it says in Psalms. God delivers you from loneliness and into love. How? By giving you the grace - the love, the fluidity of thought and the movement of perspective that, what? Awakens you to your authentic purpose: that you are the active expression of His Love in the world. You are Love alive in the world. You reflect that Love that feeds the famished affections. You are the living proof that Love is unconditionally forgiving. You are "Love reflected in love."

Because Love is your true nature, you're naturally attracted to Love's expression, naturally appreciative of it, and naturally connected to it - even while glimpsing that it is something bigger than just any one person. In fact, it isn't personal at all. God's Love is divine, even if it seems humanly expressed and experienced.

As you become more conscious of, feel, appreciate - embrace - this divine sense of Love, you realize that this is why you're here: to live Love, to live to give Love - not live to get love (which is the lie spoken by loneliness). Living to give Love embraces Jesus' command to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Living to give is "Love ... reflected in love."

Gently embrace this idea of living to give Love. Your intuition will show you opportunities. Expectancy helps you see them. Faithfulness helps you act on them. And as you practice living to give, living God's precious "grace for today," you'll see that it's for a reason: Because the way God feeds your famished affections is by having you feed someone else's.

"Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, 'Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.

"You will learn that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself."

Yes. It is actually your duty to love at least one other person as you would yourself.

Yes. You get to be the answer to someone else's prayer for love.

This is Love reflected in love. This is obeying God. This is letting "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" This is adoring the Divine Name of Love by being loving. This is striving to know and reflect God's true nature in your relationship to everyone and everything around you.

This isn't necessarily though all easy-peasy. It usually involves some hard work letting go of maybe some not too God-like ways of acting. Because to withhold love is to be in debt. To take love without giving it is to be in debt. To ignore, belittle, mock love is to be in debt.

So if you feel in debt, challenged, by the idea of living to give Love, and want a good example of how this is done, take a look at the life of Jesus in the Gospels. You'll see that Jesus' followers weren't perfect either. Far from it. But you do need to do the same thing they did: follow his incredibly challenging but loving teaching and example as best you can.

And as you do, you begin to understand what Jesus knew implicitly: that that which is the cause and creator of everything, that which is the most fundamental primary power, that which we call God, is actually Love itself. And Love impells expression. Love must be lived.

So the only way to pay off that debt is to do likewise, to live your God-given purpose as His Love-light rejoicing no matter what the circumstances, shining from the top of the hill, bright and active and radiant and loving impartially and universally.

This is not theoretical. It is practical. It can be challenging. It can be difficult. You might resist it. This resistance is the cross. Take it up! This work is the practice. Bring it on! Love is imperative. It has to be seen and felt. It has to be made manifest. It can't just be talked about or thought about or wished for. As an old friend of mine used to say about living Love: "Put some skin on it!"

Sticking to the Love that is God, you find yourself - and all around you - held in His arms, safe, satisfied, rejoicing. And there is never any loneliness or famished affections there, for living in Love is living in the presence, the power, and the glory of God, forever.

Awaking to this as your actual state of being, you'll be too busy loving God and your neighbor as yourself to ever be suckered into that lie of loneliness again.


"Give us this day our daily companioning."
Give us unconditional Love for today. Feed the famished affections of us, our neighbor, and the world.

"And forgive us forgetting to love as we forgive those who we think have forgotten to love us."
And Love is always reflected in love.

Give us this day our daily Communion

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

In this simplicity, and with such fidelity, we see Jesus ministering to the spiritual needs of all who placed themselves under his care, always leading them into the divine order, under the sway of his own perfect understanding.... To the students whom he had chosen, his immortal teaching was the bread of Life.

Give us this day our daily bread, our daily communion with God, our daily companioning with God.

But to accept this bread, this communion, this companioning, you have to come home to God, enter the house - the consciousness - of God. How? The Bible says "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

So this is how you enter the house of God: through gratitude. And what is true gratitude if not the conscious acknowledgement of the true nature of God as omnipresent Good? How do you know that God is Good? Because God gives us the gift of grace - "he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." You don't earn God's love. God is just Good, universal Good, unconditional Good. You don't have to beg for the bread at His table. It is His 24/7 gift.

Recognizing this opens your thought to actually accepting His gift, to accepting what God really is, what His nature really is: all-harmonious, infinite good, divine Love. This is "Hallowed be Thy name" kind of thinking. This is adoring the Adorable One. And adoring is effortlessly lovingly hanging on every Word of God, is acknowledging Him, is entering into His courts with thanksgiving.

And what do you find there?

Your Father-Mother God's table set, your daily bread - specific to your daily needs - set for you. This is God's gift of "grace for today" feeding your famished affections - and calling on you to feed the famished affections of your neighbor. And maybe even the world.

You can always sit down with God. You don't have to earn it. You don't have to dress a certain way or say certain things or even believe certain things. And you certainly don't have to be "perfect". You just have to be willing.

Come to God as the disciples did to Jesus, after his resurrection, at their morning meal beside the Sea of Galilee.

There, they left their fishing nets, came ashore, broke bread and communed together with their risen Master. What an astonishing experience it was for them (see John's gospel and Science and Health). His ascending thought raised them out of grief and disbelief, forgave their fears and failures, awakened them to their true purpose, and so fed their real hunger - not just with bread and fish, but with the overflowing awakening here and now that God is Love.

This communion was also their companioning with Christ, with that True Bread which comes down from Heaven. So this too is how you commune with God: by leaving your nets - your tangled obligations, thinking you always have to fend for yourself, letting go of your burdensome duties, all those things that nag you and snag you and drag you into ways of the world. Christ calls you to leave all that. Christ calls you to sit in humble grateful adoration, letting divine Life and Love feed you, forgive you, lead you, deliver you.

In fact, Christ is calling you right now to give up your daily distractions for your daily Bread.

So sit still a moment. Open your thought up with gratitude. Let yourself enter that sacred space in your heart where God is. Let Him give you your daily bread, your daily grace, your daily communion, your daily companioning - your daily oneness with divine Love. Let "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"

As you do, you will wake up to see that divine Love is always with you. You have never been empty, never been famished, never been alone, never separated from God - but always only ever at one with Him, your perfect Mind, always welcomed and seated at His table, communing, companioning with "Our Father which art in heaven" - with our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious, forever.

So yes Father, give us this day our daily bread, our daily communion, our daily companioning with You. Give us that beautiful gift of Love's saving grace for today. Let it feed our famished affections, and help us share Your Love to feed the famished affections of those around us.

Obeying his precious precepts,--following his demonstration so far as we apprehend it,--we drink of his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his purity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs over death.

My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

Work and Reflection - the Activity of God

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today. Feed the famished affections.

Life is effortless because it is reflection. It only becomes a pain when the "little ego" claims it is responsible for everything and has to do everything itself.

God is omni-action. And you are that Omni-action's perfect effortless reflection.

Think about this: there is no pain in reflection. There is no stress, no effort, no curse, in reflecting God, divine Love.

"All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" - and all-harmonious. Honest labor and deeds of kindness are therefore effortless, all-harmonious, because they reflect God's good omni-action. This truth is a law of annihilation to every mortal belief in pain, in work being a pain, in work being painful, trying, tedious, difficult, fruitless.

Your work is the unfolding of Mind and its idea. It is an inspiration. It is a reflection. It is a revelation. Look for that. Listen to your intuition about what you do or don't do. Act from the point of view that God is working with you. Move from your spiritual sense - from that intuitively good perspective, from that one that includes the kind of expectancy and faithfulness which grows into a spiritual understanding. That perspective creates productivity because it is demonstrating - manifesting - Reality. In fact, your work - rightly seen - is to bear witness to Mind, God, in action as you. This witnessing is effortless, as powerful as Truth understood and as fruitful as Love lived.

"Let there be light" is how God works. God "spake and it was done" is how God works. And by reflection, this also your proper relationship to what you are called to do. This is how you truly do your work. This is how you truly live your purpose. This makes your activity light - brilliant - as well as light - weightless. Let there be light! Let your work be light. Let your light be shining. Let who you are as God's child pour out of the core of your being. Let your calling be made manifest, your purpose spoken, your work tangible. Let everything you are and do be all a reflection of God's activity in you, as you.

"As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scripture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being." "

And your being includes everything - your relationships, your supply, your purpose, your activity, your work. In Him you live, and move, - and work - and have your being.

You only get into trouble when (to paraphrase Mrs. Eddy) you think you are an independent worker, personal author, or ever a privileged originator. But you're not. You are a reflection. God is the Cause. You are the effect. Your job is to be a reflection. Your job is to shine. Your job is to make manifest the action of Life, the light of Truth, the warmth of Love. In fact, spiritually speaking, this is already what you are and what you do.

Don't think so? Then shift your point of view. Shift it away from the fanatasy of a personal human "ego" and over to the reality of the Great I Am - the Divine Ego. What does that mean? Think about it. Think about the implications. How would you work and act if you actually understood yourself to really be the divine reflection - expression - of the Great I Am, the infinite One Mind? of the Holy Spirit? of Eternal Love? Try it! See what happens. As you do, step by step you'll demonstrate your action-as-reflection. Step by step you'll see what Love has already prepared for you. Step by step you will witness God at work through you, as you.

Think about this paraphrase of an amazing sentence from Science & Health (the original is here):
Jesus beheld in Science the perfect work where sinning mortal work appears to mortals. In this perfect work, the Saviour saw God's own Action, and this correct view of work healed the sick, labored, failed, boring, frustrated, painful, overwhelming sense of work.

"God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science. The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work."

God rests in action.

And by reflection, so do you.

Thy work be done in earth as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God's work is omnipotent, supreme.

"Give us this day our daily ideas."
Give us graceful activity for today, support our awakening purpose.

Give us this day our daily Grace: Seeing what Love has prepared for you

Some years ago I’m driving my old 1968 VW camper bus with my friend Scot up to visit his grandpa on his homestead along the Wind River in Wyoming. My VW has a habit of occasionally eating its fan belt, so I always carry a couple spares. I am between jobs so I figure it’s cheaper replacing the fan belts than repairing the problem.

Scot and I’ve been driving non-stop for hours now across the vast lonely open spaces of eastern Oregon when suddenly the VW’s warning lights come on. It ate a fan belt. We pull over, open the engine hatch, I pop on another, and we’re on our way.

A half hour later the warning lights come on again! What?! Another fan belt’s gone. I know I have one more, so I fix it. But now I’m nervous. We haven’t passed a town or a gas station for a long time and the idea of being stuck without help and maybe missing out on visiting Grandpa is disconcerting to say the least.

I’m thinking “well, if it’s right to see Grandpa, it’ll work out.” But it’s Wednesday night and Scot suggests that we have our own little testimony meeting (as is common in Christian Science churches) and so we do. I’m reluctant at first, but Scot starts off and soon we’re sharing things we’re grateful to God for and my anxiety lessens dramatically.

Until the dashboard lights up again.

We’ve burned through 3 fan belts in the space of 60 miles. Plus now there are mysterious metal shavings coming off the pulley. Ugh. I rummage around anxiously and – find one last spare fan belt. It feels like a minor miracle.

We put it on, get back in the VW, and both of us start to pray.

Praying trusts our deepest desires to God. It turns us away from the fatalistic resignation of “if it’s right, it’ll work out” kind of thinking. Knowing that God is Love and that Love is power helps us let go of fear, let’s us become still, let’s us see the solution – the salvation – Divine Love has already prepared for us.

And that’s exactly what happens to Scot and me. Praying lets me glimpse that if God really is Love, and if God really is power, and if God is really actively present in our lives, then I can be a witness to that. I cling to this idea. You could say I “stand still” on it, because it is a solid Biblical truth. Not an “if it’s right it’ll work out” kind of thing. No. Solid. It helps me actively look and see what Love has prepared for us, right here and right now. That’s all I need to do, just see what Divine Love has prepared for us.

What a wonderful feeling that is, to know that my job right now is just to be a witness of what Love has already prepared for us. It’s actually fun to think about - because you know it has to be good. Mrs. Eddy – whose life was full of such witnessing, wrote: “Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.” And so it is about to be proven.

So we drive on. And on. And in the growing twilight we see some buildings up ahead. We’re on the outskirts of Boise already! And there, just off the road is… a VW dealership!

It’s almost 9pm now and we figure we can just pull in there, sleep in our bus for the night, and wait until morning to get help. But then we notice that the back door of the building is open. I start to worry “what if no one’s there” or “what if someone is there, but they don’t want to help us.” Then I remember, no! Let's just see what Love has prepared for us.

So we park and walk through the open door. There are five mechanics busily putting things away and cleaning up and obviously getting ready to leave. I start to worry again about burdening them with our problems but then remember again “just to see what Love has prepared” and I hear myself asking “Can you help us?”

One of the mechanics comes over, wiping his hands off on a red shop rag, he asks us what’s the problem. We tell him the story, how we’re on our way to visit Scot’s grandpa, how the VW ate three fan belts and now there are these metal shavings and we weren’t sure why. He comes out to our VW bus and looks at the engine. Then quietly goes back inside and starts looking through a junk box. My mind is filling again with “what if he can’t find what we need” and then immediately I go back to that solid thought of just trusting that God is present, blessing all of us, that we can see what Love has prepared.

He pulls out a pulley wheel and rummages around some more and – in the midst of this big box of all kinds of junk – finds a tiny shim, the missing little piece of metal that wedges the pulley wheel correctly in place. Then he looks around under a shop bench, finds a box of fan belts and pulls out one that had come off an old Chevy. “This’ll fit” he says, then goes back out to our VW and installs everything, sliding in the missing shim, torquing the pulley bolt correctly, and putting on the belt just right.

Then the worrying thoughts start to come back again: We hardly have any money. How much is this going to cost? How am I going to pay for this? But I stop. And then I go back in my heart, remembering to just stop being afraid and see what Love has prepared. He looks up at us and says “That oughta do it” and I ask him how much we owe him, and he says “Nothing. Just go have a good visit with your grandpa.”

Maybe all of twenty minutes have passed and, after shaking his hand and thanking him profusely, we are back on the road to Wyoming – rejoicing to be witnesses to the wonderful kindness that Love had prepared for us.

I’ve leaned on this lesson many times since that trip. And it has made me realize how important it is not to resign my thinking to fatalism, to the “if it’s right, it’ll work out” kind of wishful thinking that has nothing to do with the way Jesus taught us to pray and rely on God. Jesus taught us to silence that kind of wishywashy fearful approach. He taught us instead actively pray, to be expectant that God's goodness for us is present, to leave fear behind, to stand still with Love, and then go to that place inside where we can see the salvation of the Lord – where we can feel ourselves being an active witness to what Love – not fear, or fate, or history, or circumstances - has prepared for us.

Mrs. Eddy wrote: “Immortal Mind is God, immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith ‘we live, and move, and have our being.’ This Mind, then, is not subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good.” Misc. 82:28

So why give in to thinking “If it’s right it’ll work out" when God is already holding you in His arms? When you are already His “living witness to… inexhaustible good”? Divine Love has great things in store for you. Don’t be afraid. Listen to the intuition that guides you to trust in God. Silence the fear and stand with your thoughts still and focused on witnessing divine Love in action. This is seeing the salvation of the Lord. This is receiving your daily bread - your daily grace. This makes your life a great adventure of giving as well as receiving Love’s blessings.

Oh, and by the way, Scot and I had a great time at Grandpa’s ranch, a safe drive home, and my VW bus never ate a fan belt again.

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.