To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
~ Winston Churchill
In Truth, we are perfect reflections of God. However, the human concept is often far from realizing this ideal.
If entertaining a lower human concept, are we ready to quickly drop it for something better? For the divine ideal? Are we ready to change our point of view so we can see improvement, and ultimately, perfection?
When we seek perfection there is an underlying thought that we are not perfect at the moment, yet we cannot seek perfection unless we first behold it. This is the beauty of prayer, we start with the absolute, and are drawn towards it. There is always a perfect balance to be struck, but that balance is of the moment, for in infinity everything is always changing. I AM THAT I AM is constantly true, but never the same. Our reflection is constant, but the individualisation of God in man is unique to each one of us, and perfectly in union with God in the way that is perfect at that moment. Our relationship with each other and with God is always perfect.
Divine Love [perfection] always has met, and always will meet, every human need.” What can be more perfect than that.. The perfection of God and man never changes, but the manifestation is infinite.
To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 160:5)
Dear Evan, what an interesting picture the person who matches images with the daily subject/content came up with today! It’s like a study in left brain-right brain recognition. “Is the chameleon looking forward, or back over its shoulder?“ Ha haaaa! Seriously, thank you, again, for posing questions that make us sit up and pay attention. (And I also greatly appreciate your article in the April 18, 2022, Christian Science Sentinel.) Much gratitude to you today and always.
Cheryl – I hadn’t really examined the picture of the chameleon properly, and I am not very
familiar with them. I initially assumed it was looking over its shoulder!! – or even
lying on its back!!!! Then I saw it correctly and I saw that it was an illusion. The chameleon would have been pleased it fooled me for a moment! Changing our view of
something entails our looking more closely at them, understanding them,
and identifying them correctly. That concerns both our thoughts and our vision of what is real and what would fool us into believing them. So thank you, Cheryl for the laugh and the lesson.
And thank you Evan – we must always be alert and ready to change our course, and
not cling to old beliefs and ways of thinking and doing things. It must always be
a change for the better if we listening to God and following the laws of C.S.
Thank you Evan for this helpful article & post today in particular, Thanks Cheryl for referencing it, & Thanks to all for such wonderful posts:
‘Finding the Deep Peace of God’:
https:sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2p0om9zpryc?s=e
& here’s the link:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2p0om9zpryc?s=e
Angie thank you very much for the link to Evan’s current Sentinel article!
Good Evan,:
God’s perfection will always be manifested in His creation.
Evan thanks for the reminder to push off the status quo and to be ready and open to seeing ourselves as God sees us, it is a moment by moment choice we need to be alert to and make. And Ken, thanks for digging deeper, as I heard somewhere this week CS is not a “group thing” it is an individual journey of constant unfoldment. I love that word ….unfoldment. Perfect God and perfect man.
Thank you. Just what I needed and my soringboard for today. Dee
I love Adam H Dickey’s “Law of Adjustment”. In it he addresses change:
“Christian Scientists are sometimes accused of being changeable. What if they are, if it is always God that changes them? Is a Christian Scientist any less a Scientist because he changes his views of things? Is a general less fit to lead his army because in the heat of battle he changes his tactics under the guidance of wisdom? A too determined sense of carrying out a preconceived plan is more likely to be the enthronement of erring human will.”
Evan, your message is marvelous as are all of the above comments.
Thanks to all!
Robin thank you for mentioning God’s Law of Adjustment, an all-time favorite of mine and so powerful. The quote you picked is perfect for today’s topic, the idea that if God is changing us as we turn to Him then there is no limit to the new understandings and vistas and good that can come to us. God’s law is a law of progress, and as Mrs. Eddy says, (p.74 S&H) “In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.” Onward to greater good!
Evan thank you for pointing out that even though we never leave the state of present perfection, our awareness of that perfection continues to expand to see more of what God sees.
Here’s a link to God’s Law of Adjustment
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1eq8h7y4cpw
“Change” is a result of “Awakening” to TRUTH. And are mutually inclusive.
The chameleon has the ability to change its colors to blend in with its surroundings as needed for protection. It knows what to do every moment. As a reflection of the all-knowing Mind, so do we!
A candidate that I have been canvassing for was saying how she developed a perspective on things and a response to life from her years as a professional basketball player. To pursue the goal and to pivot as needed, to stay daily disciplined and apply that practice in the heat of conflict, to use different strategies to accomplish the goal. If an opposing team player blocks one strategy then she pivots and tries another strategy and if someone interferes with that she pivots and tries another. She doesn’t waste time stuck and disappointed or taking it personally or hating the others or adversaries/growth partners bringing out the best in her because her first attempt and other peoples’ behavior was not what she wants. She just quickly pivots and improves. She learns and supports others learning on her team and others in her sport, She role models and encourages other Black girls to make the best of challenges to learn and to improve oneself and to serve others. Practice and pivot.
A former pilot and aeronautic acrobatic instructor who became a Christian Science practitioner said that almost the entire time a plane is in the air it is off course but the way it gets to its destination is that one is quickly and constantly adjusting without oversteering and over reacting. The plane arrives at a destination safely without wasting a lot of fuel because of constantly changing in the right way.
Someone else was talking about ADHD or brain injury caused dementia challenging the ability to know when to change one’s focus of thinking and behavior. To value different perspectives and approaches and expanding one’s repertoire and depth of skills, with increased inclusivity and empathy and compassion.
Thank you, for the reminder I need.
oh I like this! I need to be reminded that change is GOOD!!!!
I loved Evan’s thought-provoking questions: “If entertaining a lower human concept, are we ready to quickly drop it for something better? For the divine ideal? Are we ready to change our point of view so we can see improvement, and ultimately, perfection?”
So what keeps us from quickly dropping that lower concept? It reminded me of Anthony Whitehouse’s talk on “Impediments to Healing” that someone posted a bit ago from High Ridge House:
https://www.highridgehouse.org
Anthony mentions that we can’t have two egos. Only one Mind. That “personal sense” is mesmerism and that when we see that something physical isn’t true, we are using the mind of God. Because God doesn’t see what isn’t true.
Thank you Angie for posting Evan’s excellent article from the Sentinel, and Rose for posting Adam Dickey’s article. Appreciate all the amazing and helpful comments!
It’s several days later, I’ve returned to this post twice now & just watched & listened to carefully & transcribed Anthony Whitehorse’s remarkable talk. Wow
As always, thank you, Evan, for your original subject, perfect accompanying graphic , and providing this SpiritViewing forum in which we may carry out enlightening conversations!l
Love to all