If your thought ever starts to feel sleepy, apathetic, or lazy at times when it should be active and productive, it’s a time to wake up to Truth!
Inordinate sleepiness and indifference are phases of animal magnetism that would hold us back from making grand progress in our lives toward worthy goals. It’s wise to stay alert to these devious tactics of the carnal mind and conquer them with an understanding of Truth.
In Truth, we are children of God, with the Mind of God present to inspire and guide our activity.
The Mind of God is always active doing something good and grand. It is productive and profitably engaged with worthy activity.
The Mind of God does not “fall asleep on the job,” when it is supposed to be active doing something worthwhile.
The Mind of God is alert to Truth, active in Love, living Life to the fullest.
There is not a dull moment in the Mind of God. There is no temptation to idle hours away in non-sensical emptiness. It is a highly interesting place to be, where fresh vision is the norm, inspired ideas to grow with are everywhere, and Life is a joy to live.
As Paul wrote, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14, NLT).
Don’t be a sleeper in material sense. Remain active in spiritual sense! Stay awake to Truth and prosper.
There are times when I find that my attention span is lagging. In those moments I like to remember a statement made by Mary Baker Eddy as related by Calvin C. Hill in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Volume 1, page 353:
“Many times she said unto me: ‘
All my hours are His. ‘”.
I find that this is a real pick-me-up, and it has an instant effect on my stamina.
This blog and your comment is spot on and just what I needed today. Thank you.
Thank you Evan; this is very very needed!
And thank you Maddie for your comment!
Love that Owl foto – thanks !!
Laugh out loud or LOL, when I saw the big owl wide eyed and wise to my dilemma!!!
How perfect a message the little fellow illustrates when it comes to thought that is not in the right place. And I love that it is THOUGHT that we deal with – MIND is already God. No need to change God. Change thought from lazy to productive and the like.
Thank you for this HELPFUL MESSAGE.
Very interesting and important message, reminding me that we’re constantly alert to where nourishment comes from, both for ourselves & others. (In the owl’s case, her family.)
Just read up on owls. (https://www.treehugger.com/owl-facts-that-will-amaze-you-4863920)
Symbolic to me of these interesting owl facts is that what keeps us alert is what we hear. As stunning as is its ability to see, its hearing is what clues it in. Everything in its design — including asymmetric ears, feathers for silent flight, super-sensitive toes, night flight– makes it effective.
All symbolic.
But I know that what makes me drowsy is giving in to vague negative thoughts and feelings. It’s always a giving up or giving in. So as a predator of error, what I need is to swoop in on the source of these negativities and ask myself, “Says Whoooooo?” Are almighty God’s messages EVER stained with the thought that good in anyone, anywhere, anything, failed, or didn’t or can’t or hasn’t or won’t or has any part of ISN’T? Good fills all consciousness, time and space for God’ is ALL. Symbolically, the owl-like-predator of good is a night-hunter. So let’s make sure our night-light knowing is always switched on– sureness that Truth, God, Love, Mind is All-in-all!
This is in response to Rose’s post of the transcript of Dan Jensen’s talk on beginning rightly yesterday. I did not have a chance to read and view yesterday’s vlog until today. It is a wonderful talk. If anyone would like to listen to it, as I often do when I’m driving, you can find it on Christiansciencect.org. They have a library of historical talks on their website. Actually Dan Jensen has another talk posted there which I think is also excellent.
Remarkable website! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Gregg, I came across that site a while ago but had forgotten about it. I’ll go back and have a another look, I remember there were some real gems there.
Dan also has two excellent ones on the Ardenwood site. One that is rather unknown is, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were.” Unique views.
A few days ago I turned off the light in a bedroom in my house and noticed just how quickly the room got dark. The analogy of light and darkness is often used by Christian Scientists. For example, one might say “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been dark in a cave, as soon as light is introduced the darkness is eliminated.” But I realized when noticing how quickly it got dark when I turned the light out in that bedroom that the reverse is also true…as soon as the light is extinguished, no matter how long it’s been shining, darkness immediately returns.
In the CS analogy, we equate truth with light and error with darkness. Error (darkness) has no power against truth (light). But oh how important it is to never let our guard down and lapse into thinking that allows error to enter (or re-enter) our thought. I’m often amazed at people that want to lose weight saying “I’m going on a diet for a few months until I lose xx pounds but then I’ll stop dieting.” If they are able to lose weight, as soon as they “stop dieting” the weight returns because they returned to the old behavior that put the extra weight on in the first place. I often think of this when I’m tempted to go back to “old ways of thinking” that I’ve prayed to realize aren’t Godlike. Right thinking really does need to be “habitual”. Thank you Evan for your blog today that brings that out so clearly and perfectly!
Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 11:27–31)
Thanks RH for the light/truth and dark/error analogy and your other comments. I came across another analogy of light that connects it with being grateful and thankful. If anyone is interested:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/umh2m4ewuc
wow dear J, you gave us another great, healing article on “Gratitude to God”. This powerful article makes clear how important “Gratitude to God” is for our healing!♡
You’re welcome dear Uta. 🙂
Thank you J. That’s a really great article!!!
Thank you Evan! Often the sneaky snake will suggest that I am getting sleepy or thoughts are wandering when I’m sitting and praying. I find that “Let that Mind be in [me], which was also in Christ Jesus” is an effective antidote (Phil. 2:5) because it is based on the truth that “We have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16)
Thank you for this wake up call. Just what I needed today
“God’s man is not distracted”:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1p59iahkotw
Evan, this is one of my very favorite vlogs you have posted. It compliments and augments a simple prayer that I often silently turn to, which is “God, please put my thoughts where they belong and do now allow me to drift into negativity.” (My own quote.) It makes me think of a quote by Mary Baker Eddy on p. 215:12 — “Whatever is governed by God is never for an instant deprived of the light and might if intelligence and Life.”
WOW! What a colossal SpiritView today! Simply Jam-packed with wonderful thought! All brought to us by Mind/sponsored by God!!
Owls are amazing; thank you diane w.a. with even more information & delightful owls’ abilities: we can indeed ask “Whoooo told you that you’re anything other than God’s individual ideal?! “
Maddie’s reminder that “all my hours are His”, Gregg’s referral to the wonderful Daniel Jensen talk, and RH adding that we need to not let dark take us over…. Of course, initiated by Evan’s charming & insightful owl analogy.
I’m surprised no one yet has included the favorite Hymn 412: “O dreamer, leave thy dreams for joyful WAKING [my caps]…..
love to my dear fellow Viewers
I agree with all the wonderful comments brought forth today. You summed it up perfectly Annie. Seeing the Owls wise face immediately made me smile.
Annie I also thought of of that line, which I love, “O dreamer leave thy dreams for joyful waking, O captive rise and sing for thou art free…”. Many times I feel like a captive of mortal mind thinking and almost like I am hypnotized when I sit and watch TV or read things online for way too long when I know darn well there are much more vital things I need to be doing. Then I feel guilty, unproductive and disappointed.
I’ve been pondering these lines from Hymn 58, “We would hear no other voices, We would heed no other call.” I’ve seemingly been heeding the call of error distracting me from my good. I’m endeavoring to know that I can heed only God’s call, as I listen to Him only to guide my moments and activities. I can’t do by my own will, but can lean on Him.
Oh, Rose, I could have written this! Thank you for posting. It has made me acutely aware how alert I need to be. Error seems to be having a hayday trying to distract us from our good works! We can’t let it!!
Thanks for your words Rhonda. Yes I’m with you. We CAN’T let error have it’s way distracting us, We CAN let God help us stay alert and on track!
Dear Evan, So grateful for your rousing post represented by the alert, steady and wise owl, to keep a watchful spiritual eye on our thoughts and attitudes. Love your description of divine Mind’s realm of “fresh vision”, inspiration, and joy. Your message today breaks the mesmerism of dullness, apathy and indifference that attempt to obscure the mental clarity and love of life that are natural to all God’s children.
So many encouraging comments today. Thanks to all my SpiritView sisters and brothers.
I remember on many occasions my Mother rousing us from apathy with the statement: ‘Apathy is the most active form of evil’. When I feel this sense of drowsiness announcing itself at the door of consciousness I remember her wonderful exhortations to gather up our thoughts to the God-work we are designed for.
Today it is referred to as ‘mass hypnotism’ or Mass formation psychosis. There are not ‘minds many’, only our precious “divine Mind”, which has no need to hypnotise its own precious thoughts. This week’s Lesson is a beautiful reminder of the Mind we live and move and have our being in. ❤️
RH thank you so much for your reference to going on a diet. How many people make that mistake that once they have lost the weight desired, they can go off the diet, and then they gain back the weight lost. I also liked your analogy of how instantly the light fills the room as soon as the switch is turned on and how quickly it gets dark when the switch is turned off. Keeping our mind turned onto the Truth can have immediate results.
Thanks to all for your contributions.
I can see I am not alone with the feeling of apathy. Thanks Evan and and all the posts
Thank you Evan. To those who shared inspiring thoughts, thank you too.. We must hold thought in check at all times.
I *love* that owl-eyed pic!
It reminds me of those mind-blowing moments when you have read something a million times before, but suddenly you have to put Science and Health (or other material) down, because now you understand, rather than just accept what is read. I know we’ve all had those types of aha moments when you’ve had to put the book down, or yes, even cry at the beauty of the truth.
Trick: I’ve gotten well past the point of becoming sleepy or tired studying CS, so distraction found me in a new way: The latest trick is to read too fast for too long. Just page-turning over and over with the same old words. I found myself studying for about 2 hours with absolutely nothing gained!
Slow it down, and sometimes the owl-eyed understanding moments come back!
I loved todays blog and all the wonderful thought’s expressed. I’m truly grateful to all responders because “ You give a “hoot” to share Gods gift of love.
Something weird is happening so I’m revisiting this just as a note of interest in regards to staying awake.
Most of my life S&H, lessons, and other materials were read in a droning sleepy-talk kind of voice. I learned to get beyond that, but yes, sometimes that is a chore. I’ve read it that way myself. OR, a new hyper-sensitive approach with near ridiculous intonations for emphasis that went the other direction.
Instead, I’m now reading 19th century material as if I’m having a conversation with a modern-age woman, as much as the text allows. The droning is gone, the intonation isn’t artificial etc.
By NO MEANS am I suggesting any sort of sense of spiritualist connection! Far from it. It is just that although the meanings haven’t changed for me, the reading of the material has become more relaxed and almost conversational in nature.
The voice – if I had to actually define it, isn’t grand-motherly either.
The words are the same – it is just odd that I noticed this recently. Again, nothing magic or mysterious – just interesting in nature.
I was lying and God exposed it when I randomly opened to 1 Corinthians 15:33 ! (in a future subject, but only now do I see it applies here too)
The normal voice is back – mostly my own. The above was delusion and misguided zeal to advance. Despite having read the chapter on Christian Science versus Spiritualism about 1000 times.
Guess I have to read it yet again! I’m ashamed to admit that I did this with S&H lying to myself all the while.