“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
~ Unknown
The Gift of Love Matters Most
December 5, 2014 | 20 comments
Spiritual ideas that inspire healing
December 5, 2014 | 20 comments
“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
~ Unknown
That is so true! and it makes us feel good. When we love, we just cannot stop giving. 🙂
The picture brings out the concept of the father imparting love to his son, so beautifully.
Its such an eye catching and lovely picture. Speaks volumes of selfless love expressed.
Truly appreciate the lovely pictures you put on your blog Evan. All are so very exquisite. Thanks.
God keeps pouring endless love on all His children and He meets all our needs abundantly, always. All that we do, is to very naturally reflect and express Gods love, since we are His reflections. The loveliness of Love is all around us. Governed by Divine Love, we all love to give from the heart to our brethren.
Giving with love is the most satisfying and joyful experience, a high feeling, beyond words.
Nargis..lovely comments. Jesus didn’t just pray “Universal Prayers” that all is well on earth and in Reality everyone is fine.. He believed in associating with the less fortunate..lepers,prostitutes the blind etc…. all those who craved physical healing also gained true Spiritual healing as well…May I suggest that you volunteer at a food bank and witness the eyes of hungry children of parents struggling to make ends meet. Some parents struggling with addiction and unable to feed their children. Try volunteering to deliver hot meals to the homebound and watch their eyes light up when you arrive..Talk about gratitude!! The things we take for granted are miracles and blessings to those individuals..It’s time we all start emerging ourselves in areas where we can do the most good practically and spiritually.and not just know “That all will be well”..or that in actuality all is well..”And ye shall know them by their works”…
Hi al, Is it really necessary for you to criticize someone each time you make a comment to this blog? First Evan the other day and now Nargis? How do you know Nargis doesn’t already volunteer at a food bank?
But I get your point and thank you for encouraging everyone to make their prayers “practical” by taking the human action we are inspired by our prayers to do to meet human needs. I certainly am one who could do more in that regard. So thanks again for raising that point!
I find a lot of unknowingly hyprocracy being expressed especially this kind. A person tells someone working in an institution a problem that he is going through. This person says that he understands the person’s problem, pats him on the back and gives this poor soul advice that doesn’t help him at all.
I put forth a rule of an act of Love: Individuals saying they understand others going through any of the hundreds of hardships must, in order to be a legitament compassion of understanding must experience it themselves or else it is completely nonsense and hypocritical .
Just love in whatever way your heart and soul directs you. We all use Love’s talents to lead us to do whatever it is we can do.
Al, I thank you for your practicality. To assuage Brian you might think through how you present your ideas. For myself, I would like to see more balance to CS’s lofty principles with ideas of action such as you have enumerated. It is comfortable/comforting to read the uplifting directives from MBE, and quite another to translate them into action.
This blog response is a good example of why ME wanted the books, Science and health, plus the Bible to be our only pastors. When personal sense tales over we are lost.
The blog responses generally are very healthy. They are always healing, helping everyone see a different perspective that can enlarge their own perspective and broaden their love for their fellowman. So, I never fear them. I appreciate them, even when varied, diverse, and different from my point of view.
They also help me to keep seeking loving ways to share deep ideas. It can be a challenge at times!
Thanks for sharing.
Or typos! Takes over, and MBE
It seems to me that the citation “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” is so cristal clear. When we love, we give – we cannot help but to give, because we love. We give freely our love, our time, all we have. So, the most important thing is to learn to love, and then it will be natural to give in every way possible, as Patty Mylar says it so beautifully.
I know I’m jumping in a bit late here….
Speaking as someone who deals with “crack babies”, “meth babies”, fetal alcohol syndrome on a daily basis as well as a plethora of other maladies that come with homelessness and addiction – I can say I’ve learned that crawling into another’s “dream” doesn’t actually help them or make me more loving.
I am most effective when I recognize that poverty (or defects or addiction) are not real for anyone and look for and see the strength, supply, clarity and right-mindedness God put there in the first place. To me that is the kind of love Jesus and the disciples lived. It’s like the lame man begging and the disciples saying “silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee – rise up and walk”. And, he, leaping up stood and walked praising God.
As always, demonstration speaks loudest……
Big Sky..I don’t think I “Crawl into anyone’s dream” but I agree with you we can do our best work by being there to assist metaphysically.That was my point in my original comment.Sitting home with Universal Prayers for all mankind and knowing all will be well or all is wellis a nice gesture but getting in the trenches and putting what we know to work seems more practical if we are to put to work what we know. I don’t think Jesus crawled into anyone’s dream either but put himself out there for the good of all mankind while helping the individuals spiritually and physically at the risk f his own life..
Love thy neighbor as thyself is a very good rule to follow. Our neighbors are benefited, and so are we in the act of giving.
This discussion has reminded me of a talk I read about that was given by a CSB to a group of Christian Science nurses. The point was made how important it is to decide what we SEE (allow into thought) when presented with material evidence that is disturbing. On page 477-478 of Science and Health is the statement:
Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.
So while we may be presented with the evidence of crack babies, parents struggling with addiction, etc., we don’t need to SEE that (allow that into thought). I think when Jesus was presented with the idea of 5000 people and only a little food, in his thought he didn’t dwell on that material evidence but instead was able to apply God’s law of abundance and realize that God is always meeting everyone’s need and that allowed all of the people to be fed with what wasn’t materially enough food to feed them. This was also my take away from Big Sky’s comment.
I also don’t think applying this approach to situations where it is not possible to help humanly is just a “nice gesture”. I don’t totally understand why or how it helps, but I believe there is a “collective thought” and we contribute to that. When I see something disturbing on the news happening in the Middle East, I can “behold in Science the perfect man” in thought and I believe that helps to heal the situation, even though I didn’t do anything humanly to help resolve that situation.
If we believe our prayers that don’t lead to human action are just “nice gestures” then it’s a slippery slope to believing that when we are faced with a physical ailment we need to pray but also take some human action (like take an aspirin, or some other medicine because prayer alone is not enough). I believe that I’m 100% spiritual (not a spiritual being living in a material body in a material world subject to material laws) and therefore realizing the truth about a situation is often enough to heal it without additional action being necessary…however realizing the truth can also lead us to take some appropriate human action too, especially when it comes to loving our neighbor, as Al has pointed out in his comments.
“I believe that I’m 100% spiritual (not a spiritual being living in a material body in a material world subject to material laws) …”
This is where it falls apart for me. We may be spirit, but we are living in material bodies. They consist of matter, and matter (excepting if God intervenes) is subject to material laws that God created. In Genesis we see that God approves of matter; He was pleased with his creation of matter, and called it good.
We all have a certain amount of time, ability and resources to spend. We can spend some of it on trying to relieve the suffering of others. If we have loved ones in our immediate circle, like spouse and children, perhaps elderly parents, etc., the most loving thing will probably be to focus our attention on their needs, and on friends and neighbors as needed, and on keeping our own needs met so that we do not have mental and physical health crises that take us down.
Perhaps even sitting here typing about whether matter exists or not would be, to God, a waste of the time He has given us.
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’d like to add that just because you think you live in a material body, doesn’t mean you do. It’s like centuries ago people thought the sun revolved around the earth until science proved otherwise. It was their limited point of view. In truth, the body is in our thought, not the other way around.
Have you ever heard of people having “out of body experiences?” I have, many. Patients over the years have shared their personal experiences with me, and there are hundreds of accounts in books to read. People who have these experiences still see and hear. How? Not through matter. It’s all in mind. We govern the body, move it around and tell it what to do. We are not in it. The human mind is lord over it.
Also, I find nowhere in Genesis one that matter exists. The trees and mountains and seas of God’s creating are spiritual formations and ideas. And they are wholly good, as Genesis One records. Matter devolves into chaos and decay. It is not wholly good. So, creation has to be spiritual. Genesis One is all about God’s spiritual creation where there is no matter.
Just some thoughts to add…
Thank you. I get hung up when you say “Just because you think you live in a material body doesn’t mean you do.” Okay, so I can accept for purposes of this discussion that my body is not material. But then you say, “We govern the body, move it around and tell it what to do. We are not in it. The human mind is lord over it.” So wait, the body DOES exist!
Either it exists, or it does not exist. I’m fully on board with my spirit being in and to some extent governing and controlling my body. I have no trouble accepting the veracity out-of-body experiences, and that our spirits can see and hear sans body. It’s appealing and possible for a time to perceive my body, and matter in general, as being merely ideas in God’s mind. I even understand that sometimes we have to hold two apparently opposite ideas in mind at the same time to truly get to the heart of understanding something.
Genesis 1:31 sums up, after describing the creation of land, sea, creatures, plants, and people: “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” He made it with the inherent fate of, as you say, devolving into chaos and decay. But He made it, and called it good. From that we may conclude that it is real, no?
Matter is a limited view of what exists in Spirit. So, I encourage you to keep stretching your thought beyond matter to Spirit where the finite yields to the infinite. I think of the physical body as being a symbol that I exist, but not the actual substance of who I am. Physicality is temporal. Spirit is eternal. We must all grow out of the limited physical sense. As you do this, what you call a material body will become less and less to you, and your true identity in Spirit will become more and more tangible and concrete.
God’s creation did not devolve into chaos. God’s creation is whole and intact now, in Spirit! The account in Genesis 2 is not a continuation of Genesis one. It’s an entirely different story. A mortal view that ends up in chaos. Thus the reason to not buy into that paradigm. It leads to misery and suffering. God’s creation leads to health and eternal life! Christ points the way.
Much love.
Hi Rebecca, Here is a link to an article that helped me greatly answer the types of questions you are asking. In fact, I can literally say reading this article was “life changing” for me (for the better). If you haven’t already done so, you may also want to consider taking Christian Science class instruction during which these topics are also explained at length and which provides you with the opportunity to learn from an experienced Christian Scientist who has spent years thinking about these topics and better yet, demonstrating them.
http://danieljensenassociation.com/jensen_wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DLJ-Practical-Wisdom.pdf