I sought some spiritual perspective yesterday after hearing about the stock market free fall on Wall Street.
Daily, people are calling me with their financial fears. Retirees are watching their portfolio bleed day by day. Business men and women can’t get loans or find credit to keep their operations running. Homeowners are facing foreclosure. Moms can’t afford food. Dads are losing their jobs…
If one were to soak in all the negative news without an understanding of spiritual wealth and sustenance, one might start to feel depressed and worried.
But there is a spiritual perspective that brings hope and restores peace of mind. The Dow Jones average does not affect our ability to be supplied anymore than the size of the brain affects how intelligent we are.
I grew up on a family farm. You might say that we “saw everything,” over the years in terms of potential calamity. One year, our potato harvest for the season rotted in storage because of a weakness in the spuds. I’ve seen wind destroy fields of seedlings, rain destroy hundreds of tons of hay laying on the ground, frost wipe out whole orchards of fruit and kill trees. I’ve watched my parents lose nights of sleep worrying about how to pay several months of bills ahead of them until the next crop came in. There was a lot more you don’t need to hear about…
But above it all, my parents survived and thrived. The good years outweighed the bad years, and when dad retired, they had much to show for their faith, hard work and effort over the decades.
What got them through the tough times? It was faith and understanding that there was a higher power at work in this universe that would sustain them despite the disaster of the moment that threatened to deprive them.
This is the kind of perspective that can help now as divine Principle sorts out the issues on Wall Street and works to strengthen and increase the moral and spiritual integrity of our financial system and bless those who depend upon it.
The temporal storm on the surface appears fearsome, but there is an underlying force for good at work that will keep our ship afloat.
Our economy is bigger than Wall Street, mightier than the banks that have fallen, and stronger than any economic measurement coming out of Washington DC. We live in a divine economy where divine Mind meets all needs, present and future.
The substance that sustains us is spiritual. It is not in a 401K or a pension fund, a failed bank or other financial instrument. The love of divine Love gives us life and all the means to live it out fully.
Divine Love sustains us now and forever. Its blessings never dry up, shrivel away, decline into nothing, or disappear. They are spiritual, and built into our being for all of eternity. We never lose these assets—ever!
I saw this truth lived out in my parents farming experience. When times got tough, and I mean really tough, they went higher and reached deeper into the divine Love that was always present to sustain them, and found the faith, strength, confidence and encouragement they needed to keep on going and trust that the next day would be brighter. And eventually, it always was.
We live in a divine economy where infinite Love meets all needs. There is no lack in this economy, and there is no threat to the health and well being of the supply that sustains us. God is the source of that supply, and this source never goes into a free fall. It is ever growing and multiplying for those whom it is intended to bless—which is you!
Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace;
Joys are vain that end in sadness,
Joy divine shall never cease.
Mid the shade of want and sorrow
Undisturbed, our hearts rejoice;
Patient, wait the brighter morrow;
Faithful, heed the Father’s voice.
Christian Science Hymnal, 263
Thanks, Evan. I’ve posted this on Facebook with a link to your site. 🙂 Linda
Thank you for the wonderful insights.
Some time ago, when we went through one “downturn” I wondered where I could go to get some understanding or what I could do, how I could pray, and overcome the fear and anxiety for our young family. The idea came to me to go to a Christian Science Reading Room, and look up bound volumes of periodicals from the Depression years. As I read articles and testimonies, it was clear that each individual had an individual experience, -all quite different.
Some found new prosperity, or a new career, some were not touched by the general economy, some had unique experiences of supply coming to them,in many different ways. I came away with a new view, comforted, and refreshed, confident that we would be OK. And we were. It enabled us to weather other lean times with confidence.
Thanks so much for this, Evan. I’ve been working on readings for our branch church testimony meeting tonight and what you’ve shared here, is inspiring. The last 2 lines of hymn 138 in the CS Hymnal came to mind just now:
“When all these blinding veils are drawn, Thy love has always guided me.”
Thy love has always guided me.
I have thoroughly enjoyed these last few posts on the economy. As a middle aged father of 8 I found myself laid off from an Ivy League college on Good Friday this year. I immediately adopted an attitude of gratitude for everything that I had, everything that I could express.
I took a job substitute teaching. It allowed me to express Mind and Love to children that I previously had not known. Because I was supplementing my unemployment I found myself granted into a job training program just days before the class was to begin. I spent the summer training for a position in IT. I was blessed to know that the acceptance process that normally takes weeks went flawlessly for me in days. I immediately was enrolled in a 10 week training which ran during my summer “break” from teaching.
The economy was “awful” so I returned to substitute teaching, waiting to the right time to move into my new career. I accepted a long term substitute position for a teacher on maternity leave. Then I received 3 separate emails about an IT position at a local bank. Because I had not actually tested to receive my certifications, I at first did not apply. I did not feel “qualified” since I knew that the world wanted diplomas and I did not yet have one. I found though that the “still small voice” spoke clearly since I had stayed the din of the world clamoring about the crisis. I applied and interviewed for the IT position, letting them know that I did not yet have my certifications and could not start for several weeks because of my commitment to a class of 8th graders who needed me. I felt secure knowing that I displayed a level of integrity that few would recognize, but that God would require of me, and I was pleased to do it. This small rural local bank was looking for just such a person, someone with quiet integrity over experience and diplomas. Long Story short, after a lengthy notice was given, I began this week at a local bank in their IT department.
Bottom Line: Christian Science is not a religion; it is a philosophy, a way to live. If you are worried about your retirement or investments, or credit, pray to know that you are already supplied and think about what you are supplied with; an infinite supply of Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love. Demonstrate intelligence, compassion, faith, love, charity. The rest will fall into line. You can not gauge your progress with a material measuring stick. Remember Job? He was restored two fold, and yet never do we hear him lament over the loss of a particular lamb of his flock, after all that was lost was restored first in Mind. You might realize that what you finish looks nothing like what you began, but you will see that it too is perfect because it is authored by the Divine. –John-
Thanks for sharing John. “Patience has its perfect work…”