I chuckled when a woman shared a story with me at a recent lecture.
She reported that her daughter’s tennis team had advanced to National play-offs. She and her husband wanted to attend the play-offs, but the matches were 2000 miles away, and they didn’t have the funds to make the trip.
One Sunday, at church, a local Christian Science practitioner quizzed her about the trip and asked, “Why aren’t you going to watch your daughter?” The woman replied, “We don’t have the funds.” The practitioner rebuked her with the reply, “No, what is the REAL reason you’re not making the trip?” It was as much as to say, “Money is not the reason. Understand the significance of the opportunity and tell me why you’re not going on a trip you should be going on!”
The response startled the woman enough to go back and talk with her husband further as to why they weren’t making the trip. The two decided they should make the trip, even though they didn’t see how to pay for it, but they loved their daughter, wanted to support her, and felt it was the morally right thing to do.
Shortly, her husband received a letter from the Social Security Administration advising him that they had underpaid him. A check was enclosed that was sufficient to cover the expenses of the trip.
The practitioner’s spiritual sense was vindicated. Money never was the reason they weren’t making the trip.
Making the trip was a matter of understanding the moral and spiritual issues at stake. Once those were resolved, the money appeared to make follow-through possible.
The issue was never about money.
That’s a really good take on finances in general. It is that old thing about ‘if it is right for you to do it, you will find funds’ and the ‘rightness’ of the correct thought underpinning is what makes the difference. And that is always personal. Lovely, I really like this very much.
Sometimes, you really don’t have the funds. The adding of guilt does not help.
I think I understand what Dennis R. is saying. The point is that in our practice of Christian Science we don’t accept lack and limitation. It was right for the parents to attend and the demonstration was made on that basis.
OK … I will stick my foot in this one … I don’t see why my children need me to watch them play sports. I do sometimes, but not all the time. And if it would put a strain on the family finances? There’s enough strain there, thank you.
Our children always need our support whether they are playing sports, dancing, singing or in a play at school. We had them and we are the ones to nurture and support them in all their endeavors. It helps them to feel loved and to succeed. If we do not support them in all they do, who will?
To 2 above,
I think you are correct, that you don’t necessarily have to attend every single sporting event if it causes conflict in other parts of the family organization. But that really isn’t the point of the above story. The point is, “it’s all about love.” When love is the power behind the impulse or inclination, divine Love provides the means for the idea to be fully expressed. With the above story, the parents didn’t have other major demands on their time. They thought they lacked. They were staying home, not because they didn’t feel love for their children, but because they thought they lacked. Once they saw there is no lack in divine Love, the appearance of lack vanished. It could be an entirely different outcome in a different situation, but the moral of the story is, there is no lack in Love.
And also, you are correct, that it would not be wise to strain family finances to attend countless sports events if attendance increased family debt. The greater good would be lost in that situation. Another moral point to consider…as you pointed out.
It’s never about the human outcome, but the spiritual thought behind it. The practitioner wisely didn’t say “You should go, why aren’t you demonstrating supply?” (That would be adding guilt)She said, “Why are you really not going?” If the answer (from God) had been “Because we don’t need to and really aren’t supposed to” the outcome would have been different, but still harmonious. Thanks, Evan, for the reminder that we need to look beneath whatever error is telling us the issue is to the divine idea that is foundational to all reality.