If you’ve ever felt beset by loss, and accompanying grief, there’s a way to turn that loss into gain and to get back one’s inspiration.
To make the transition from feeling lack to finding gain, it’s helpful to ask the question, “What is the spiritual lesson I can learn from this experience?”
Loss stems from the belief that something good in our life was material, subject to disappearance, and now taken from us.
To master the feeling of loss, we must be humble enough to admit that we made a mistake in believing that our good was material in the first place. If we had been clear that our good was spiritual, we would never have been set up to have it taken from us, for the spiritual is eternally ours, and never capable of loss. To worship spiritual good, rather than a material condition, thing or person, is to acquire substance that is never subject to loss. It stays with us forever, and we really feel it.
For instance, when my dad passed on, I suffered a feeling of great loss. While praying for solace, I suddenly heard his voice speaking behind me, “Get busy Evan, you’re wasting your time.” I jolted up in my seat and realized that my dad was as close as ever to me. He was not a physical body that died. He was a spiritual being that I was forever united with in Spirit where there is no death. My grief instantly vanished, and I’ve felt closer to my dad ever since.
If one suffers a severe financial loss, the same rule applies. All supply is spiritual, coming from God in the form of wisdom, insight, foresight, intelligence and sound ideas that lead to productive and profitable outcomes. This supply is never lost, wasted or stolen. It’s always coming to each of us in abundance. To lose a quantity of money is never to lose supply. Money is temporal. Supply is eternal. One can have an abundance of supply no matter how much money comes and goes in one’s experience.
So, never buy-in to loss. There is no loss of anything good. All good is eternal and spiritual. There is only loss of limited material thinking and worship, and that’s a good thing to be rid of! We want to lose error-based reasoning so that we can experience real substance with God.
Turn loss into gain. It’s doable, and the happier way to live.
From the Christian Science Hymnal:
“Love is true solace and giveth joy for sorrow,—
O, in that light, all earthly loss is gain;
Joy must endure, Love’s giving is forever;
Life is of God, whose radiance cannot wane.”
Hymn 174
Dear Evan, thank you so much. A timely and potent reminder – a real God-send today.
With love, Gillian
My mom had a mantra whenever the terror of loss reared its head, “There’s got to be a blessing.” And there always was. Thank you Evan, for reminding us.
Surely Mary Baker Eddy wanted us to really be sure of this. In Mother’s Evening prayer, based on Ps. 91, she wrote,
Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain.
How beautifully written !! Thank you, Evan, for sharing these thoughts with us.
God bless. Nancy
Thank you for these truths, Evan and commenters. I recently “lost” my older dog and was feeling sad as she was such a sweet presence of unconditional Love. My other dog and I were both moping around, missing her, but this sense of loss was corrected with divine Love and the adoption of another dog who needed a home and had been in a shelter for 8 months and it seemed no one wanted him. The thought, what blesses one, blesses all comes to mind, because it really did. By giving this dear, sweet little dog a home, our seeming loss is definite Gain and we all are sharing this blessing of each spiritual quality my older dog had shared, as well as his individual good qualities.
WOW!
This is sooooooo helpful.
Thanks.
Thanks, Evan. My mother just passed two days ago. The sense of Oneness has been so helpful.
Thank you,Evan.This is extremely helpful when dealing with grief.So good to know that one’s loved one was never material,only a spiritual being,never lost.
Yeah…Thanks Evan and All! I think the hardest thing about being a Human Being living on/in a material world is to realize that no matter what we see and experience – it’s really just an out picturing of our material senses and not the Ultimate Reality. I do believe there is a Grand Purpose for us being here, living as mortal beings, and I think it’s merely just to grow out of it, thru our trials and tribulations. Isn’t that called: Working Out Our Salvation….?? So hard to practice what Jesus did: To Be In The World, But Not Of It! All we can really do with our Experience Here is to use it for our Spiritual Growth, eh?
Behind every adversity lies a hidden possibility…..Sufi Saying
Thanks so much Evan and all who have shared their thoughts. The loss I’m struggling with is the loss of the opportunity to share with loved ones who have passed on how grateful I am for the blessings they added to my life and to correct any misunderstandings we may have had.
Thank you Evan and all.
Thank you, Evan, and all. When at a very young age my sweet husband passed on, I felt a great loss. I was told by the man who became my CS teacher that all the qualities I loved in my husband came from God, and that I couldn’t lose them. Hymn 224 was a great support to me. Also, in dealing with the demise of my finances due to someone pressuring me as to where to invest them, I had to deal with resentment and a loss of trust in this person. Forgiveness finally came—it took a long time because the money came from my late husband—and when it did money was restored in a totally unexpected way. Joel’s statement from God, “I will restore unto you the years that the locust hath eaten” has been fulfilled. I have a dear, wonderful husband, and we work together prayerfully in C.S. “Patience must have her perfect work.”
Bless you Carol for giving a home to a shelter dog!
In the article Place it says “Principle brings need and supply together for mutual good.”
Dearest Lori–your loved ones are closer to you now than when they seemed a physical presence. “Talk ” to them now.
Thank you so much, Evan for your so loving and clear and inspiring explanation of the true substance of our spiritual and therefore total supply God imparts on us steadyly.
Dear Evan, I stand in awe of your wonderful experience with your father during your prayer for solace, talking to you, giving you advice what to do, namely to act expressing God and not wasting time. That`s wonderful!
When I look back today I am aware and very grateful for plenty of Good God granted me, and how lovingly and with much compassion He lead me to Christian Science and to our church – thank you God and all helpers, God sent me!
And thank you a l l for your inspiring and lovely comments ! 🙂
Yes… Uta… max is Maximo
My dear friend and fellow poet
Thank you Evan
This has been so healing for
me and loved ones
Hi Max, so good you are back with your poems.
But really y o u are the poet; I am just inspired
to add something nice and suitable, I do love that.
Nice and joyful weekend to all 🙂
Nanny thanks for sharing your ideas. Yes, I do talk to them daily and when expressing gratitude for present blessings I always include those of the past.
Grief cannot be a thief!