Lesson from the Sun Chimes

The gentle chime caught my attention. The pleasing tinkling sound roused me from deep thought. The past few days were spent deep in thought, not sleeping well, worrying and wondering. The world news had produced darkened thoughts, stories of irresponsible and depressing American political antics, terrorism in Europe, violence in the Middle East and Africa, domestic violence and other serious problems raining down on humankind, the world seeming to come apart.

Prayer is truly effective but recently the world seemed so threatened, I wondered "what could one individual possibly do to ameliorate this overwhelming plethora of problems facing the world?"

Then, a faint, gentle chime, a beautiful contrast against my troubled thought, gently singing its lovely tune in the background attracted my attention. Although it was not at all loud or forceful, more like the “still small voice” described in the Bible as the voice of Truth contrasted with the violence of earthquake, winds and fire, the music came through very clearly.

Click here to hear Sun Chime 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQmv40ybjYo

This “sun chime” was new to me and fascinating upon realization that the chime was powered, not by the wind nor batteries nor a hammer swung by a bell ringer, just the light of the sun streaming through the window.

In today's words we would say that the creation of that lovely sound “had no visible support”!!

This sunlight manifested an invisible force that was not just a passive glow giving light to the room, providing warmth and stimulus to growing things but a power that could produce sound, ring out a beautiful harmonious tone and lift my thought.

In a world where the forces of matter and mechanics, the push and pull of "human will",  seem to prevail, the tinkling chime gave me a better sense of the unseen power in the Universe.

Having just finished study of the wonderful guidance for living contained in the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible, my “User’s Guide” to finding peace and comfort, I was immediately reminded of Jesus’ encouragement for each of us: 

" Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid," (1.)  letting our light of spirituality shine, being a beacon to all mankind. Could our actions actually emulate the sun’s effect on that simple chime, and in similar fashion chime out inspiration, harmony, comfort and healing?

Christ Jesus promised: "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. 2.)


This “light” that he reflected was not visible light rays but was “enlightenment”, the understanding that Life is Spiritual, that God is ever present, active, vital, the Truth of being. His light extinguished the darkness and depression of the mortal, material scene that would pull us downward by suggestions of doubt and fear, concerns that we are helpless, alone and “without God” or that we are separate from God, fearful even that God may be a myth.

Religious leader Mary Baker Eddy, author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, describing the science of healing used by Christ Jesus, stresses the power of the “light”: "Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind."  3.) 

As Jesus proved, In the glow of his “light”, sin, disease and death could not stand. Without medicines, surgery, psychic or psychiatric treatment, with no mechanical forces or physics, just the light of Truth shining as God’s presence he and the disciples brought healing and changed the world!  There was the answer I sought.  Jesus, along with his disciples,  taught and demonstrated that each of us CAN bring help and healing to the world. In a reassuring statement he said:  "He that believeth on me, The works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." 4.)

Thank you my little Sun Chime for the reminder that we are not slaves to a material universe but, as the Apostle Paul proclaimed: “In Him, we live and move and have our being”.    

 Let the Light of God's Love shine forth from each of us to continue the work of the Master Christian.

1.) The Bible - Matthew 5:14
2.)      ""         - John 12:46

3.)   Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - Mary Baker Eddy     p 162

4.)  The Bible - John 14:12

A LESSON FROM THE ROSES

My assigned chore recently was pruning back the rose bushes surrounding our home.   How beautiful the roses are with their vibrant colors, their red and pink faces shining delicately out from the dark  green leaves, lovely to look at as they gently share their fragrance and loveliness. 

  

As I worked carefully among the branches an interesting  thought came to me. The roses display their beauty confidently and don't seem inclined to try to convince the other flowers to be just like them.  They grow alongside the other flowers around our home without comment, without competition, without criticism, without bragging or gloating.

I suppose these thoughts may have been triggered by a recent encounter where a gentleman was trying to convince me to embrace his  religious thought.   While there was no specific criticism of my own religious understanding or my view of God and Life, it was pretty obvious from the stern looks and rather harsh warnings about God’s wrath and my obvious unwillingness to understand that God punishes people like me, revealed a  contempt for my “obvious ignorance” and misguided faith and understanding.   

The experience sort of shocked me, made me wonder, Have  I done the same thing from time to time?  Surely not as harshly or pointedly,   accompanied by the stern looks and sense of judgement that I was receiving this day, but have I been so judgmental?   Being convinced of the truth and simple logic that Jesus revealed in his teachings and as taught in Christian Science,   and because of wanting to share the wonderful healing effects realized by my family and myself over the years through the application of those truths, I admit I may have been tempted to spend time convincing others of how wonderful it is.

But on this day, marveling at the beauty of the rose, I remembered Mary Baker Eddy's counsel that : " No reproof is so potent as the silent lesson of a good example. Works, more than words, should characterize Christian Scientists. Most people condemn evil-doing,evil-speaking; yet nothing circulates so rapidly: even gold is less current. " (1.)

  I thought how silly it would be for that Rose to bend down to the beautiful Daylily to convince her to become a Rose, maybe something like this: 

“Well, yes Dear, you would have a few thorns but everyone would want to take you home and put you in a vase.  We roses are wonderful!!  We make lovely gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and are especially helpful to a young man courting a young lady!!   I expect we are responsible for many hugs!!  We are God's favorites!”  

No indeed, the roses seemed very content to glow their particular splendor in the midst of the variety of other fauna.  No conversion speeches needed!!  Just by being there, sharing their lovely fragrance and delicate beauty,  glorying in the sunshine, swaying in the gentle breeze, seemed to be quite enough to keep the Roses happy.  I could see and feel that simply by “Being” they were uplifting and demonstrating God’s presence as “all harmonious”.  

It is believed that roses have been around for over 35 million years, according to fossil evidence.   Maybe they have lasted that long by minding their own business, fulfilling their life purpose  just by being splendid and appealing.    

Matthew 5

That realization convinced me that it would be sufficient  for me, too,  to just do my very best to demonstrate the qualities that I am trying to live, those same qualities we find in the Beatitudes: humility,  love, mercy, purity, tenderness,  peace and righteous and  let the observer judge whether that is something worthy of emulating. I have found it is difficult enough to do that without also trying to drag reluctant others along.

The Bible tells us there are a diversity of gifts,  some teachers, some preachers, some prophets, some wise,  some interpreters, and so on.  (2)    Apparently we can all do whatever we are called to do.   There may be others on the human scene that are better looking, wealthier, more talented, more spiritual, funnier , better educated.    But for each there is opportunity to be “the rose” in their own garden of life. 

In his rounds, Jesus of Nazareth walked through the countryside and was available to teach and preach. But the most fascinating thing about Jesus was that he demonstrated more than he talked.  He didn’t get on a platform and threaten people to listen, to change or to follow him.  He proclaimed that “ behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  ( 3)

 His acts of healing, uplifting and supporting were so much more compelling than words could be. Although his Beatitudes contained in the Sermon on the Mount provided such wonderful inspiration, it would  have been all for naught  if he wasn't actually demonstrating the truth that he taught. In humility, meekness and purity, he gently demonstrated the healing effect of his understanding of God, and taught his disciples to do so as well.

In her Bible companion book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,  religious pioneer Mary Baker Eddy writes: 

“Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth.  Man,  made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.” 

As we follow the spirit of Jesus’ Beatitudes, we can trust others to God’s loving care.

Jesus said: “Follow me.”  


(1.)     Miscellaneous Writings .. page 126

(2.)     I Corinthians 12:

(3.)     Luke 17:12

(4.)     Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 516

Trying to Quit…

I spotted a small folded piece of paper on my seven year old son’s bedroom dresser and was in the process of picking it up to throw it in the waste basket, but curiosity made me unfold it to see what it was.   The paper was so wrinkled… it must have been folded, opened and refolded 100 times.   As I opened it I was shocked to see a scantily clad young woman’s picture, a centerfold picture from an “adult” magazine.  

My son had spent the night with a young friend earlier in the week and upon discussing this with my son I learned the boys had found some of the dad’s "adult" magazines and he tore out this page.

As I showed him the picture and talked about how it looked like it had been folded and  

refolded many times, I asked him if he had been looking at that picture a lot.  He said, “Yes Dad, but I am trying to quit.”   Those sad eyes looking up at me, that regret at doing what he knew was not something he was proud of, that self-disappointment showing on his little face, made my heart melt.

As I looked within myself at that moment, I thought, ‘ 'Yes, my boy, Dad knows that sinking feeling of guilt and disappointment,' not a necessarily a sneak peek at racy pictures but the awareness of doing something, maybe a lot of things that I was ashamed of, or not happy to have as part of my character, longing to quit, to change for the better.

Haven’t many of us been in that situation?  Maybe experiencing disappointment with ourselves for not “measuring up”, for doing things we regret, painfully aware that what we are doing is inappropriate, unwise, impure, perhaps not necessarily hurtful or really bad, but something beneath our standards.    But we continue to be powerless to resist the attraction to the wrong actions.  We are Trying to Quit!

It seems fashionable today to “Go to Rehab”, that mecca where an endless stream of celebrities, elected officials and maybe even the person next door go for a miracle cure.  So many wonderful people seemingly chained to bad habits of drugs, alcohol, sex addiction, abuse or maybe just being excessively critical, hurtful, “slightly dishonest", or just falling short of the mark we have set for ourselves.    They are “Trying to Quit”.

The Bible, that historical record of mankind’s efforts to rise higher in spirituality and to escape the downward pull of materiality has many examples showing this is not a new phenomenon.  Even for those whose life mission was to follow the teachings of Christ Jesus, sin was still a struggle. A Bible quote from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans  reflects his struggle where he writes:  “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” *  He was “Trying to Quit.”  

Anyone who has tried to quit smoking or the use of alcohol and drugs knows that Quitting is difficult!! But maybe Quitting is not the answer after all, and perhaps Starting is a better solution. Instead of trying to extract the unwelcome and undesirable habits and activities, filling their place with good ones is easier and more profitable. After all, in our schools we don't try to pull out ignorance, we pour in "learning"!

Recently while cleaning our duck pond I remembered how in the past I had used every method in the book to get the dirty water out of the pond including  a pump, suction

devices, a shovel and anything at hand.  Getting the sludge, feathers and dirty water out was a real chore.    This time  I began filling the pond with clean water which eventually forced out the dirty sludge, replacing it with clean, sparkling water.   How much easier it was to let the clean water do the work of purging the impure contents rather than spending hours dredging out the unwanted dirty water. And, the added benefit was that the dirty water fertilized the land around the pond.  Best of all,  when I had used the old method of emptying and draining I only ended up with an empty vessel. By filling with clean water the end result was a clean and sparkling pool, delightful to the eye and welcoming to the ducks.

In the Holy Bible we see where Christ Jesus shared a story** with his followers that held the key to our freedom.  He described how a  farmer had planted good seed in a field but someone had overnight planted some bad seed in that same field.  That "someone" described as an “enemy”, perhaps was the same enemy that plants those bad ideas in our thinking, those temptations, selfish ideas, greed, sensuality, insensitivity which cause such pain, distress and discouragement.   Jesus told how the landowner advised against pulling up the weeds, but instead nurturing the good seed,  faithfully cultivating and encouraging the good until the bad could be rooted out at harvest.

Religious pioneer Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, counseled that "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfection is won on no other basis."***

Each of us can decide how best to "Stop Quitting and Start Starting"!!!  But for me, the straightforward lesson in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, contained in what are termed the Beatitudes, provides an excellent starting point.   This is a daily challenge,  but the results are surely worth it. 

For starters I am going to practice living these initial steps, several Beatitudes paraphrased from the King James version of the Bible and the Message translation:

·       Blessed are those who are gentle. 

·       Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s approval.

·       Blessed are those who show mercy.

·       Blessed are those whose thoughts are pure.

   Blessed are those who make peace.

This is a start, and the rest of the list can be found in Matthew, chapter 5. 

So,if we become discouraged  “Trying to Quit”, to leave behind some unwanted habit, personality trait, or hurtful way of thinking, we need not despair nor wrestle endlessly in a futile effort to extract the bad qualities. Rest assured that diligent and sincere efforts to pour in love, meekness, purity and other good qualities will soon clear out the “dirty water” of our lives.  And, best of all, we will not end up an “empty vessel”, but will reflect more of God's goodness and float more peacefully on life's waters. 

*    Romans 7:18

**    Matthew 13:13-24

***   Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy