Avoid the straitjacket of timetables

October 28, 2024 | 31 comments

Time-tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies against manhood and womanhood.

~ Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 246

You’re too young!  You’re too old!  You’re not young enough.  You’re not old enough.  Oh goodness, the reasons why we can’t do this or that and other things because of our age, are endless.  

If we were to believe all the material arguments about age that circulate in public consciousness, we might start to feel like our age is holding us back from following through with a grand idea, or our age is robbing us of opportunities to keep accomplishing grand works.

Not true!  “Timetables of birth and death” are filled with “so many conspiracies” against Life’s potential.  To keep living grand, be wise to deny them, walk away from them, and not believe them.

Our capacity for significant accomplishment and demonstrating a continuous stream of good works for many decades is not a derivative of time.  It’s a gift from God.  And God is not paying attention to how old we think we are.  We shouldn’t either.  What matters is the quality and worth of the idea.  If it’s a good idea, then all the means it needs to succeed come with it.  We have what we need to follow through coming from God without limit.  Age is irrelevant.

Mary Baker Eddy established an international movement in her senior years.  Age didn’t limit her success.

You choose what clothes to wear each day.  Choose not to wear the mental straitjacket of “I’m too young,” or “I’m too old.”  Accept your God-given ability to follow through with right ideas God is sending your way, and continue to prosper no matter what age the earthly mind-set identifies you with.

31 thoughts on “Avoid the straitjacket of timetables”

  1. Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 246:20–23) Awesome! Enjoying more is to be Infinitely expressing God.

  2. I had to laugh when I saw this title, because before I read today’s SpiritView, I was thinking “I need to look at my daytimer to see what I’m doing today!” So I took your title to mean don’t be constrained by rigid daily schedules! This is True. It’s important to live with enough open thought that we are receptive to opportunities which present themselves and can’t be planned for.

    I feel blessed to have come from a family who really took your subject of countering the idea of deterioration with years. My grandparents and parents were as vigorous and active and productive in their last year ad they were throughout their Long and remarkable lives. And I look to Mary Baker Eddy For her example of finding her true path, seemingly in the middle of it lifespan. Her Extraordinary accomplishments, prove that age cannot diminish or thwart ability or capacity. She was receptive, brilliantly alert.

    1. Annie I related to what you said about not being locked into rigid schedules, so that we can be present to the moment and humble and receptive to God’s good plans, which often differ greatly from our so-called human plans.

      I once worked for the editor of a magazine and he said I was one of the best employees he’d ever had because he saw that I didn’t do things rigidly in the exact way he outlined, but would notice opportunities in the moment and point out possibilities to approach things differently, perhaps in a better way. It was a very nice and unique compliment.

    1. Yes J, I cannot open up the article “Timeless healing”, and I am very interested to read the whole article. Thanks a lot in advance, as I understand you could eventually open it if needed?

      1. Just studied this wonderful article. It’s an eye opener to timeless eternity! And it’s very helpful for our own healing practice and our dwelling in eternal Spirit! Thank you dearly J and Pat!♡

        Dear Evan , I’m very very grateful for today’s helpful and healing and blessing SpiritView! It lets me ponder my real being in spiritual eternity never aging and ever being God near. Thinking more deeply about it makes me very happy!

        I just searched the Bible for something comforting, something to do with God and eternity. I found the following verses in Psalms 57: 10, 11, 12 which comforted me a lot. Thank you God!♡

      2. Thank you, Pat W
        The link is always with Mr Talbot, an oasis and moment of eternity!
        Thank you all, and Evan, for his daily compassion for the Truth.

  3. So beautifully stated, Evan, and so very needed. Thank you. Mortal mind would attempt to hold us in the dream of “age” as it sees it — at every turn.

    Some time back, while ordering a food gift on line, the company wouldn’t allow me to go forward without listing my birthday. Recently, I experienced the same thing with another app. It’s so important to guard thought against the intrusion of mortal mind in trying to limit good in our lives.

    This particular SpiritView is worthy of framing and hanging on our walls.

  4. This topic reminds me of the four seasons and how each nurtures our soul, like
    a perennial garden that withstands “time” and Thrives despite the winds, the cold,
    the heat, drought, deluge or any other deterrence which would try to argue it’s
    existence..
    “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change”.
    – Author Unknown … Like a flowering bush that withstands the frost, If … we can reside
    and grow in God’s beauty and loveliness, eternity can be our blessing. Weaving it all
    together, I had a little doll when growing up, I named after my favorite Aunt, decades ago,
    who was also my “God Mother”, who my Grandmother (who also loved flowers) included
    in my Mother’s middle name. Today – this sweet flower, stitched together in the garden
    of life, is the most special endearing perennial that ties it all together – eliminating the
    limitations of time … from bud to flower, even through winter’s seeming dormancy –
    and lives on through what the mortal senses would seem to be an ending. Divine Love
    conquers all time.

  5. Many years ago, when I reached the human age of 25 I declared myself ageless. This was before I learned of Christian Science, but I already had. begun to recognize how limiting it was to identify with a number— too old for this, too young for that etc., as Evan mentions. It was a helpful concept. Then over the years I’ve noticed thought slipping back into faulty error thoughts about that number assigned to us by society.

    I heard someone say that they were the same age as God, I liked that idea, similar to what Josef said above. Also appreciated Evan’s statement that God is not paying any attention to how old we “think” we are. Those beliefs about age are not in divine Mind so we actually can’t even have those thoughts. Happy ageless day to all!

    1. Thanks very much , dear Rose for your comment, but special for the wonderful idea you wrote: I’m same age as God” If I think a bit longer about those words I come to the comclusion that it is surely very true, and I find it very comforting and helpful.. It reminds me at the words I just read: “Christ Jesus, yesterday, today and also in iternity”.
      For me this describes the eternity of all spiritual being!

  6. Very inspiring. Loved this-“Time tables of birth & death “are filled with so many conspiracies “against Life’s potential.” Thanks Evan

  7. Thank you for all comments. I particularly like Rose of New York:s “I am the same age as God”,

    Years ago. before I knew of Christian Science, I used to say that every birthday I` was taking year off my age., not adding to it. And my Mother – used to say ignorantly “‘I’m as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth!!!” I suppose that is a materially minded light-hearted joke.
    Since learning of Christian science I now declare every day that I am immortal,
    ageless, and brand new every moment – which is much more like it!

    1. Maggie, I love this, “I am immortal, ageless and brand new every moment.” Yessss. This is the Truth.

  8. Love today’s post and comments. A passage from last week’s lesson fits perfectly:

    “Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight. (SH 246:27).
    I think this paragraph applies equally to church…Let us …shape our views of church into loveliness, freshness, and continuity (activity, joy, flexibility, vitality), rather than into age and blight.
    Love to all.

  9. Sometimes, just when we think we are making progress in realizing the many
    devious forms that mortal mind (the physical senses – seem to see or hear or)
    deviate from, who we Really are … which is One Mind/God’s Creation of eternal
    perfection, not who matter pretends us to be .. it attempts to become real again.
    mortal (little) man’s perception, creation or very false portrayal tries to interfere
    and make us into something we are not – drifting away from our spiritual, eternal
    identity – into a man-made false mental illusion, a picture that error, evil tries to
    incorrectly mix unreality with Reality, Spiritual Truth, which ties us to materiality.
    mortal-manmade creation parks us in a base (the lowest part, the de epeststate
    of something) where mortal mind in many various ways can keep coming back to,
    in trying to make it real, which it isn’t. Only One Mind/Truth/God’s creation spans
    all time and awakens us to see that Reality is Eternal. Illusions are not true and
    can try to trick us into believing matter is in control, but only One God is.

  10. i read this post yesterday morning about the ‘straight jacket of time’.
    My boyfriend wanted to wash his windows. One of them is in the back of his house.in a family room . It has a high ceiling looking out over his backyard. The windows are probably more than two stories at the peak of the roof.
    He is older and his son washed them last year. This year he decided he would do it because of his son’s health issues.
    My job was to hold the ladder while he climbed up there with bucket and squeegee to wash the

    I reread your blog again to quiet my fears. Ifocused in on the idea that God gives us , already, our daily supply of everything that we need. We dont need to ask. God has already done the work. I cleared my thought and felt Gods presence.
    My boyfriend got the windows washed standing on a 20 foot ladder on a beautiful fall day. Even the windows at the peak. We rejoysed after finishing the whole room .Both outside and inside. Thank you for your blogs and for caring so much to help others.

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