“Be It Song, Sermon, or Science”

“Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be it song, sermon, or Science – blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

And in the spirit of that quote –

Here’s a song:
Here’s the first song I sang on “singsnap” – a song by Jason Mraz that feels like an anthem to the world – not just a love song between two people, but a promise to the planet: “I won’t give up on us…we’ve got a lot to learn, but God knows we’re worth it.”
https://www.singsnap.com/#/d/listen/1020508

Here’s a sermon:
We have just a tiny scrap of existence here
– a miniscule piece of our eternity –
to love and learn and live
and leave something good behind.
Let’s not waste it on nothings.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

In his sermon, The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond asks,“Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because there is some one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and love back? There is no other reason why we should live on than that we love and are beloved.” Drummond writes, “There is a great deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful, there is a great deal that is great and engrossing, but it will not last. All that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, are but for a little while…You will give yourself to many things; give yourself first to love.”

And here’s some Science:
Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed  by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics,  thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.  Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive  and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal.”
– from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

Here’s an example of the use of Science for a healing of a puffed-up hand:
Observation: My right hand appears to be puffed-up like a balloon.
Question: Can I use Christian Science to heal this puppy?
Hypothesis: If I use my understanding of Christian Science, then I will experience healing.
Predict: I predict my hand will be healed.
Test: I’ll use my understanding of Christian Science to heal the “ballooned” hand.
Analyze the data and draw a conclusion.
Present the findings:

November, 2011:
I woke up to find my hand inflated to twice its normal size, and really painful – I couldn’t bend my fingers or anything. My first thought was, “Well, this is interesting.”

I got myself dressed and drove to my workplace. I figured I’d just work around my inflated hand until it went back to normal. But when I showed my hand to my co-workers to see if they’d had any experience with something like this, they were all really scared for me. One of them told me about an allergic reaction that had nearly killed her son. Three or four other people mentioned that flesh-eating disease, or other serious infections, that had nearly killed them or their loved ones. Everyone advised me to see a doctor post haste.

Well, I really like my hand, you know – and the thought of losing it was pretty scary to me. So I called our family doctor right away and left work to see him. Normally he laughs with me about stuff, but this time he was not laughing. He was pretty serious, actually. He said he thought it was either a serious infection or rheumatoid arthritis – although my case wasn’t typical of either one of those because I didn’t have any open wounds and my joints weren’t inflamed. He wanted to start me on drugs right away – some to address the one thing, and some to address the other – and he wanted to run blood tests on me. I agreed to the blood tests, but I told him I didn’t want to start taking any drugs until I knew better what was going on with me. (The one or two times I’ve ever actually taken pharmaceuticals, I’ve always had a bad side effect from them. Also, when I’m working out a problem through Christian Science, part of the process for me is real-izing the “reality” of Spirit, and the nothingness of matter – and, in taking drugs, I’d, in essence, be giving power to matter, and working contrary to what I needed to do for a healing in Christian Science.)

So I didn’t take the drugs, I went in for the blood tests, and came home and called for prayerful support from a Christian Science practitioner.

Although there’s no template or anything for Christian Science healing – sometimes healing can come so quickly – instantly – with just a quick change of thought – that there’s really no process involved. But I usually start my treatments with an affirmation of God, Good, Love, as the only power, the only reality. My application of Christian Science to this problem probably went something like this:

I am the idea of Love and Truth and Life – eternally perfect and whole, healthy and active, unchanged, undimmed, loved, loving, intelligent, alert, aware of all good. The belief that I can ever be less than my perfect, ideal self, is a lie. The belief that I can ever be separated from Love, Good, God, is a lie. As an idea, I dwell forever within the consciousness of Love. I am the image and likeness of Love. I am the perfect child of perfect Love. I reflect nothing but Love, Spirit, Life, Truth, Principle, Mind, Soul. There’s nothing about me that is imperfect, for there’s nothing in my Father-Mother out of which imperfection could come.

And, for the treatment of my hand, I definitely handled the fear in my thought. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook: “Fear, which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for God… Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man… ”

The next morning my hand was even MORE puffed-up. But the fear in my thought was completely gone, and – even though my hand didn’t appear better – I knew I was healed. By the second morning my hand was completely back to normal.

When I called the doctor’s office to find out what the results of the blood test were, the receptionist said that one of the markers in the blood test indicated rheumatoid arthritis, and they wanted me to set up an appointment with a rheumatoid arthritis specialist. I told her my hand was completely fine now. She was really surprised by this, and called a nurse to the phone to talk to me. I told the nurse the hand was deflated, and there was nothing wrong with me at all. She didn’t say anything right away – I could imagine her trying to process what I was telling her. She finally said okay, that if anything changed to let them know, but she guessed they wouldn’t “go any further” with it right then.

That was ten years ago and there’s been no return of the condition.

Conclusion: Love heals.



Joy Wins

Does it make sense to sacrifice
the very things we’re battling to win?
To give up our joy, and lose our love,
would be to let hate and fear win in the end.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Cause and Consequence

The joy is always here, you know.
War and famine, pestilence and pain,
can’t stop joy from bubbling up,
unrestrained.

Love is always with us, too –
unhampered, irrepressible, strong –
heedless of whether you’re the “wronged”
or the “wrong.”

The thing about Love and joy
is they don’t depend on circumstance,
happenstance, or material substance.
They are both cause and consequence.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Holding Eye Contact

Have your eyes ever held onto someone else’s
during labor, an earthquake, storm, tumult?
And, while conflict and terror rage around you,
you feel safe held in that eye contact –
you feel the calm, the courage, the strength
coming through the space between you.
You know, whatever happens, you’re not alone.

I want to be that for you.
Look here. Look at me. You’re not alone.
I’m with you in the storm.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

***

Holding eye contact
with God – with Truth, Life, and Love –
focused on what’s true.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Sun Shining Through the Clouds. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.




Happy Onslaught of Banjos and Love

(From ten years ago.)

I just had a wonderful drive with Alison Krauss. Well, okay, Alison Krauss wasn’t actually in the car with me. But her voice was. And it was lovely.

I was driving home, after a visit with my parents, and just as I got to Seattle big, fluffy snowflakes started floating down around me. It was like being inside one of those glass bubbles that has “snow” trapped inside it. It was dark, and the snow made it even more difficult to see, but I was suddenly filled with such a sense of peace and joy, that driving felt more like a celebration than a hazard. I’d put an Alison Krauss CD in my car’s CD-player, and, as the snow started falling, her delightful riff leading into the Beatles’ “I Will” filled my car with a playfulness and a joy that was almost tangible. I realized that the cars around me were moving in complete harmony with me and with the song – it was like we were all doing a happy dance together – perfectly-timed and choreographed.

“Who knows how long I’ve loved you? You know I love you still…” I’d always thought those words and that song were romantic – it was a song I’d sung at least once at a wedding. But now I found those words and that song taking on a different meaning for me. My mom’s sweet, smiling face came into focus in my thoughts and I held her there for a moment – just completely filled with the joy of the love we share for each other. Then my dad came through my thoughts, and I mentally hugged him; then my husband, my sons, my co-workers, my bosses, my neighbors, my friends – even those with whom I’d had conflict – one-by-one passed through my thoughts. And as each new face appeared I mentally wrapped love and joy around my thoughts of that person. The playful, irrepressible joy of that song, and Krauss’s performance of it, simply could not be overthrown or trampled down. Anger and frustration had no choice but to melt away before the happy onslaught of banjos and love.

It was a transforming experience for me, and when the snow finally stopped falling and the song had ended, I felt like I’d just been privileged to be a part of something magical and wondrous. The feeling of joy still lingers.

Later I thought some more about the song and its words:

“Who knows how long I’ve loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime?
If you want me to, I will.
I love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.
And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do, endear you to me
Oh, you know I will, I will”

And it occurred to me that God, Love itself, could sing those words to you and me. How long has God loved us? Forever and ever and for always. She loves us when we’re near Her in our thoughts, and She loves us when we’re not. She loves us when we know Her, and She loves us when we don’t. And we are dear and precious to Her. “I will, I will,” are our Father-Mother God’s words and promise to us. Unconditional, unfailing love is ours to give, and ours to receive.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Originally published in 2012. Now a part of The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Middle Book.

Blue Cosmos (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

Love, Open My Eyes to See

Love,
Open my eyes to see
there’s no separation
between You and me.

Help me see no one
in any nation
is beyond salvation.

Help me know there’s no wall
dividing the good of one
from the good of all.

-Karen Molenaar Terrell




My Mother-Heart Breaks

My mother-heart breaks today.
Stop!
Stop sending our world’s children
into wars they don’t want.
Their lives are worth more than that.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Joan Baez singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

“Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth… the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places…”
-Isaiah 43

“The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.”
-Mary Baker Eddy

“Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.”
-Mary Baker Eddy

Morning Prayer (February 26, 2022)

You are my precious child.
Feel yourself embodied in my body –
embodied in the body of Love.
I AM Love, all-power, all-presence, always with you.
I AM impenetrable Love,
all encompassing – the only presence or power or Mind.
You are never separated, isolated, or apart from Love.
There is no place you could go,
or be taken,
that is outside of Love.
You are never apart from Love.
You are never in danger because you are never outside
of what is Good.  You are in an impervious armor of Love.
You are a part of the Life that fills all space and never ends.
You are the expression of never-ending Life itself.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

The Love That We Draw Near

There are nobler things than “shows
of strength,”
stronger things than greed,
more worthy things than ego,
better things to feed.
There’s Love and Truth and Life itself –
all-power, always beautiful, always here.
Greed and ego don’t have a chance
against the Love that we draw near.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

“Draw nigh to Love and love will draw nigh to you.”
-James 4:8





Five Years Ago…

Five years ago today we brought Moz into our home. The nurturers from hospice came in and showed us how to care for Mom. Moz and I spent the afternoon telling each other how much we loved each other. At the end of the day it became hard for Moz to speak, but I was greedy. I needed to hear it one more time. “You love me, don’t you?” And I’ll never forget the expression in Moz’s eyes as they locked onto mine and poured her love into me. I knew exactly what she was saying to me with her eyes: “You KNOW I love you!”

No one loved me like Moz loved me.

Early the next morning, as I lay sleeping on the couch next to her bed, she passed on. I could feel her brush by me in my sleep – it was this beautiful, joyful dream – full of peace and joy and love.

Since Then

It’s been almost five years since then,
but it feels like yesterday that you left,
brushed by me as I slept, on your way
to the other side of infinity.
There are still days when I think I should
pick up the phone and give you a call.
But I know I don’t really need a phone
to talk with you. I feel you with me –
here and now.
The sons are both married now; and Dad
has gone – joined you on the other side
of infinity; I’m retired, sort of; and we have
a new president. Everything has changed
and nothing has changed since then.
I feel your love. You must feel mine.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell, from Since Then

The Brush of Angel Wings

The end was like the beginning –
the oxygen machine breathing,
making the sound of the womb,
a soothing rhythm in the room
as she slept on the bed next to me.
All is quiet, but for the pumping
of O through her mask. In my dreams
I feel the light brush of angel wings
and fear is replaced by freedom
and limitless joy that comes
through an opened heavenly portal.
I open my eyes to see the battle
over and done. She has won.
I rise and stand on holy ground.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell, from The Brush of Angel Wings

Moz

“…individual good derived from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow from the departed to mortals…”
– Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures