Category Archives: religion

“Graciously Preparing Me”

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“God had been graciously preparing me during many years…”
– Mary Baker Eddy

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes that “God had been graciously  preparing” her for many years for her discovery of spiritual healing. How did God “graciously prepare” Mary Baker Eddy? Well, let’s see… she lost a beloved brother at a young age; she was widowed shortly after she married her first husband; she was separated from her only son when he was just four years-old, and he was taken across the continent and raised by others; she was challenged with chronic health problems; and endured a failed marriage… for starters.

I’m grateful to say that nine years ago God “graciously prepared” me, too, for future challenges that I couldn’t foresee at the time. Nine years ago I began my journey through a massive depression. At the time I was going through the depression I didn’t see an end to it – I feared I would spend the rest of my life in mental agony. I felt hopeless, helpless, guilty, and fearful. I contemplated ending my life, lost my appetite, and felt like I’d lost myself, too. My struggles turned me to God, Love, in a way I’d never before turned to God. I clung to Love like a drowning man clings to a board on a stormy sea. In time, I learned not to battle the waves, but to surf on top of them. I learned that if I could love I had a reason to live. I learned I could be happy even when I was sad. I learned to focus on now and move from moment-to-moment, step-by-step. And when, in a year, I came out the other side into the light, I recognized my own strength, and the tender love God has for me, and for all Her creation. I came out of the depression with a fearlessness that I hadn’t had going into it. I felt reborn.

The other day I realized that I needed that experience in my life – it helped prepared me for the challenges my world is facing right now. At the time it seemed like the worst thing I’d ever experienced. Now, looking back, I realize it was a wonderful blessing.

 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart…
– Psalms 10: 17

(Click here to behold a way cool rendition of Godspell’s Prepare Ye the Way that I found on youtube. This’ll get you in the Christmas spirit. 🙂 )

Philanthropy

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“Philanthropy is loving, ameliorative, revolutionary; it wakens lofty desires, new possibilities, achievements, and energies; it lays the axe at the root of the tree that bringeth not forth good fruit; it touches thought to spiritual issues, systematizes action, and insures success; it starts the wheels of right reason, revelation, justice, and mercy; it unselfs men and pushes on the ages. Love unfolds marvellous good and uncovers hidden evil. The philanthropist or reformer gives little thought to self-defence; his life’s incentive and sacrifice need no apology. The good done and the good to do are his ever-present reward.

“Love for mankind is the elevator of the human race; it demonstrates Truth and reflects divine Love…”  
– Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellany, p 287-288, *Prose Works*

bring-love

Why waste time with it?

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Never Outside the Reach of Love

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“Love now is dawning over every nation…”
– Margaret Morrison, Christian Science Hymnal

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I Can Choose

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“Trust.”

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“Peals that should startle the slumbering thought from its erroneous dreams are partially unheeded; but the last trump has not sounded, or this would not be so. Marvels, calamities, and sin will much more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and foreshadows the triumph of truth.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

Taking the dog for a walk,
the shooting star got my
attention when it flew across
the heavens on the evening
of November eighth. I stopped
in my tracks, looking skyward,
alert now, and the voice said,
“Trust. Everything is happening
as it needs to happen.
Don’t be afraid. Trust.”

And crap. I knew then. I knew
who’d won the election – why
else would I need to be reassured?

I went inside. And saw my fears
confirmed. And felt weirdly
stilled inside. Holding on
to that message: “Trust.”

The voice didn’t say what was to come
would be easy, or without struggle
or challenge. It didn’t provide
details of how, where, when or why.
It just said, “Don’t be afraid. Trust.”

And the earth rises now.
Thirsty for Truth. Joining in Love.
Crying for justice.
In the streets. From the rooftops.
Through the wires of computers
across the world.

“Everything is happening 
as it needs to happen.
Trust,” said the voice of Love.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

 

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Standing with the Peacenik People

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Every Friday at noon, for 30 years or more, a dedicated little band of peace people have stood on the corner outside the local courthouse holding signs of peace and justice. Today I decided joining them would be a fine way to spend my “Black Friday.” So I scribbled a “LOVE RULES” sign and headed out for the courthouse.

I actually got there before the rest of the group and for a few minutes I stood there on the corner alone, holding my “LOVE RULES” sign – I felt very brave and pleased with myself. I started waving at people as they stopped at the light, and giving the thumbs up. “Love rules! Hate drools!” I yelled, grinning. People gave the thumbs up back to me, and laughed. One man in a truck, stopped at the light, shook his head no. I nodded my head yes. He grimly shook his head no. Laughing, I nodded my head yes. He shook his head no. I nodded yes – totally cracking up now. I mean… how can anyone disagree with Love? Aren’t people funny? 🙂

I was soon joined by the regulars: Jim Johnson – a former teaching colleague of mine – and his wife, Marilyn;  John “Peace Wizard” Bromet, a retired science and math professor; John, a former OB/GYN; Ginny, a woman I’d met when I’d been the guest speaker at the local Unitarian Universalist fellowship (her late husband had been mountaineering buddies with my dad); and Jerry Sommerseth, musician and human being extraordinaire – a man I hadn’t seen for years – and whom I was so excited to find again.

There was something really re-energizing about standing on that street corner with my peacenik friends. And there was something really inspiring and encouraging about the response we got from the people who drove by us. The vast majority of people responded positively to my “LOVE RULES” sign – gave me the  thumbs up, waved, gave the peace sign, honked. “Peace on!” I yelled to a couple of young guys in a rental moving van – and they both grinned at me and nodded their heads and gave me the peace sign. When the light changed, they gave one final honk to us as they moved through the intersection. White people, ethnic minorities, old, young, people in trucks, people in sports cars, people driving econo-cars and hybrids – it was like a little microcosm of the United States – and they were all honking for peace!

Isn’t that AWESOME?!

“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

peaceknik-people

 

The Just Right Messages

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What I am finding so heartening right now is how people of all religions and non-religions and races and ethnic backgrounds and genders and sexual orientations are coming together to help each other through these challenging times.

This morning I found the message I exactly needed (and isn’t it amazing how we always seem to get the message we most need when we need it?) waiting for me from a dear Methodist friend: “I am rereading the gospel of Matthew in The Message for some new perspective on some familiar texts and I found a description of your life as Jesus is sending out the disciples. (Matthew 10:16-35) Isn’t that delightful? ‘There is great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don’t quit. Don’t cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you’ve run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived. . . . Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life–body and soul–in his hands.'”

I love that! All of it. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Christ, Truth, will arrive – has always been with us, I believe – to show us the way out of the darkness. Don’t be scared into silence by the bullies. Stand up to them. They can’t touch or harm what’s essential about us – who we really are – the children of God.

And today when I got home – feeling discouraged and alone and surrounded by dark and cold – I clicked onto Facebook to find this message waiting for me from my dear friend, Patricia – a fellow Christian Scientist: “Let us smash this bowl of delusion and rejoice!!! with this clip attached of a little girl exuberantly smashing a bowl . It’s a teensy clip – only five seconds – but I found myself… well, I teared up, actually. Teared up with courage and hope. I really, really needed that clip of the little girl and her happy exuberance.

I believe that if we listen – if we’re open to them – Love is continually sending us the thoughts we need to move us from moment to moment.

“…the angels of His presence – the spiritual  intuitions that tell us when ‘the night is far spent, the day is at hand’ – are our guardians in the gloom.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

“Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love… My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels are God’s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real individuality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain ‘angels unawares.'”
– Mary Baker Eddy

“These angels deliver us from the depths.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

 

 

You’ve Got This

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My dear Humoristian hooligans –

Fill your hearts up with kindness and courage. Be alert. Be aware. Be vigilant. We are entering challenging times, but you have everything you need to face them. You have an armor of love, a shield of humor, and a community of fellow Humoristians who care as you do about the world. You are not alone out there. The world needs you – it needs your hearts and humor and kindness. Go out there and bring laughter to those living in a desert of gloom and doom. Bring hope to those desperate for a kind word. Find the beauty. Live in love. You’ve got this. Amen.

Karen

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Work in Progress

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There were a couple things that came across my Facebook page this morning that really inspired me, and helped me deal with our current situation in the US of A. The first one was a clip of an interview Jon Stewart had on CBS (“I don’t believe we’re a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago… The same country that elected Donald Trump elected Barack Obama….  America is not natural – natural is tribal – we’re fighting against thousands of years of human behavior and history to create something… that’s what’s exceptional about America and that’s what’s… this ain’t easy. It’s an incredible thing.”); the second was a story about what Pres. Obama told his daughters after the election (“You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.”).

The United States of America is a work in progress, ain’t it? And I love that. We can only go forward. In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy says: “In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.” I believe that’s true for my country, too.
work-in-progress