A friend shared a graphic analogy with me yesterday that has given me much to think about.
He had been feeling great frustration and grief over seeing many problems in his life that needed to be healed. The number of ills, complaints and evidence of lack appeared overwhelming, and he didn’t know where to start in his prayers.
While seeking comfort, a picture of a funnel filled with sand appeared in his 
mind, and the sand was trying to pour out the bottom of the funnel. But there was a little pebble stuck in the spout of the funnel preventing the grain above from flowing down through the opening.
He interpreted all the grains of sand to be the many different problems he faced. He realized that if he removed the one pebble blocking the way out, all the rest of the sand would flow effortlessly through the hole leaving a nice clean space behind.
The heaviness he’d been feeling about “healing all those problems,” lifted, and his prayers became filled with hope and promise once again.
His story reminded me of Mary Baker Eddy’s words
“Through different states of mind, the body becomes suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal mind to be the producer of strength or weakness….Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or excited action of any organ.” Science and Health
Sometimes, problems and complaints we face are numerous, like many branches on a prolific tree. But rather than sometimes tediously loping off every branch, we get faster results by aiming the axe of Truth directly at the trunk, and toppling the whole beast at once.
What is the “trunk” of error? The belief that life, intelligence and substance reside in matter…
Well, dear funnel-problem, I can relate!
I’ve been grappling with the idea presented to us by our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, for many years now: “There is no matter.”
No…matter?
What is all this … stuff, then? All the…everything the 5 senses tell me is so solid and real and often so…problematic!?
“Divine Mind is All,” she tells us. AND, this “Mind” is and has substance, has solid forms: ideas!
So this lovely pink Dogwood tree outside my window is…Mind’s idea? Yes, absolutely. But…not entirely, yet, until I truly perceive it to be so! This is how I understand it, anyway. Problems arise while material sense grapples with… the process of translating things into thoughts, and “exchanging the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by MBE, page 269)
I’ve concluded that we can have the most peace during all of this tumult in the degree that we disassociate with material sense!
In Mind’s allness, where we live, really and truly, there is no tumult! No sand or rocks in the funnel! No funnel! Just free-flowing and wonderful (perfect!) ideas! To me this doesn’t mean I have to close my eyes/ears/etc. and live in a …mental monestary! But I have to open my eyes to divine ideas, the facts, and let this process transform what I see! I so often think of Copernicus telling folks about our solar system, about the whole universe! and how his facts were received! Yeah, it is not easy to yield to the divine facts, but we CAN DO IT! In fact, we must do it. Divine Mind is urging this, commanding this! Material sense clearly has it all wrong!
Well, you know all this, of course!
Mind is taking care of you, me, us.
Isn’t that just great to KNOW?
With Love,
Sue :
Sue,
Excellent discourse! Thanks for sharing…