A friend shared an enlightening analogy with me the other day that I wanted to pass on…
She equated the aggressive suggestions mortal mind pops into our mind on occasion to the pop-up ads often encountered when browsing the Internet.
Are you familiar with those obnoxious pop-up suggestions?
They are suggestions of evil that want to trip up our progress and keep us from prospering. They are silent, inaudible implications like…
You’re going to fail
You can’t do it
You’re getting sick
Your efforts are hopeless
Life is depressing
You lack
You are not worthy
…and on and on and on.
The carnal mind lurks at large in this world looking for mental seedbeds in which to plant evil suggestions. And its “seeds” of negativity often pop-up in consciousness without warning, like weeds sprouting randomly in a garden. If we believe them, they take over, and tempt us to feel like we have no choice but to suffer.
But we do have a choice!
You can delete those suggestions before they take root and gain anchor in thought.
Like deleting a pop-up ad!
When you’re browsing the Web looking for information on how to clean a stain off your kitchen counter, and an ad pops up advertising a remodel for your kitchen, what do you do? You click on the X and delete the ad. You get it out of
your way, out of your view, and remove it from your experience. Why? Because you don’t want to remodel your kitchen. You simply want to clean a stain.
Well, you can do the same with the carnal mind. Stay on mental guard for the good and the pure, and whenever an advertisement for evil pops up in your thought, delete it pronto! Don’t even read its banner. Click on the X and make it go away. And it will.
You don’t have to entertain evil suggestions. You do not have to listen to them, give them audience, acquiesce to their demands or relent to their banter. Kick them out of your mental auditorium!
During the three temptations the devil threw at Jesus, Jesus ended the devil’s campaign with, “Get thee hence, Satan…Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10). And Satan left. No more pop-ads from evil for Jesus to waste time on.
“Get thee hence, Satan” was Jesus’ way of clicking on the mental DELETE button.
You have one of those buttons too.
Use it!
What a terrific, inspired idea! And you know, what makes it so special is that our mental delete button gives US the upper hand, WE have the control over unwanted feelings and ideas.
Having ‘authority’ over evil was one of the concepts that amazed Jesus’ listeners. And Christian Science teaches us that yes, we too have GOD-GIVEN authority to give the Devil, evil suggestions, the BOOT!
Thank you Evan, you always help us start our day with real dominion and grace. You have a wonderful day too……..
Yes, Evan, this goes into Evan’s best of the best blog file! Love it, analogies are so helpful! And this one is simple and straightforward: Hit the delete button. We don’t fuss around when we want to delete something online either, do we? We simply DELETE. How important not to “dance with carnal pop ups” but just delete them with a deliberate touch. LOVE this! Thank you, Evan!
Just like you can get a pop-up blocker with your virus protection program, you can have a prayerful pop-up blocker too, by defending yourself against those awful suggestions beforehand.
This is one of Evan’s best. Never thought of it that way. Whenever I go on line, especially to read my favorite Newspaper, THE C/S MONITOR, a pop-up from the right always comes up obscuring the content. It’s quite annoying.
Or there is, I forgot it’s name, a pop-up warning us of dire happenings. But thank God for C/S educating us how to spot these annoying temptations and do away with them.
I’ve been thinking about being more alert to what I’m “agreeing” to/with. Just read a book called, “The Four Agreements”, which was very interesting. I guess we should be dis-agreeable when it comes to mortal mind’s pop-ups!
REALLY helpful, Evan! (As are all your blogs.)
Thank you! Mrs. Eddy tells us in our textbook
that “spiritual teaching must always be by symbols
(Pg 575:13).
I so appreciate analogy, metaphor, symbols, etc.
to aid me in my learning.
And who can’t relate to a DELETE button!!!!
:<))))) ~Sue
This analogy is so true and it was so very helpful! Thank you!
This is a great metaphor, Evan. The pop-ups can happen so frequently, that I start to think it is ME who is coming up with all this negativity, and I blame myself for not being a good enough Christian Scientist, for not having enough understanding. Even those thoughts are pop-ups! They are not my thinking! Thank you for making these unwanted thoughts easier to detect and handle.
Love it!!