One truth Christian Science teaches over and over again is that we live in a world of thought, and for outward change to happen inner change needs to occur first.
People often wait on matter, or on another person for change to happen, and nothing happens. Or things grow worse.
Perhaps they wait for time to pass thinking conditions will improve with “passing time.” Or they wait for another person to change their mind, and that person never changes their mind. Or they wait for the body to heal, and it doesn’t heal. If facing these types of situations, it’s helpful to remember that we aren’t helpless. All is thought and thought can be changed for the better through prayer and spiritual awakening.
I have to remind myself when playing tennis that my game is not going to improve unless my thought on the court improves. Every swing of the racket, every positioning for the ball, every reaction on court is preceded by thought—or lack thereof. And the better the thought, the better the outcome. If I ever leave court in the same mental position as I entered the court, nothing will have changed in my game. I will make the same mistakes next time, and see no improvement. But if I actively strive to improve my understanding of how to play tennis while on court, my thought goes to a better place, my game improves, and I see better results. And it works every time.
The same rule applies to life. If we want to see change for the better, our understanding of Life needs to improve. Our thought has to go to a better place, or nothing will change. Thought has to move for progress to occur.
We can’t keep thinking the same thought and have a different experience, for thought is our experience.
Sometimes we do think better thoughts, but still struggle. In this case, some evil belief is having the preponderance of influence, and it needs to be rooted out so the good thought can have ascendency. It may take a strong dose of humility to discern the evil belief sufficiently to annihilate it, but nonetheless, the proper mental work needs to be done. When overall thought is improved, overall experience will improve too. There is a direct correlation.
So, never sit around waiting for something better to happen. Ensure it happens by allowing thought to go to a better place. Awake to Truth. Live in Love. Abide in Mind. Be energized in Spirit. God has a perfect life for you to live, and the more your thought moves in a spiritual direction and realizes perfect Life in Spirit, the more of God’s blessings you’ll experience every day, for experience follows thought.
So, if you’d like to make progress, let there be no more sitting around on your mental backside. Move!
Why do we resist “change” but willingly accept “new and improved”? And how true that change will not happen if we all just sit and watch. It does take involvement and commitment. Thanks for these good and motivating thoughts.
Thanks so very much Evan, for giving us such simple ways to understand the bigger truths. Yes ofcourse, until and unless thought moves forward, the situation does not change. As you correctly put it, if we take our thought in a spiritual direction upward, away from the material beliefs and pictures, we realize and enjoy perfect Life in Spirit, God. When we understand our true identity as spiritual, pure, innocent, perfect, then Truth (another name for God) sends a report of good health.
There is some times great resistance to change because change is often accompanied by the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure. But in reality change is going on all the time and so the question becomes not whether change will happen but rather will be participate in the change that will happen. Changing our thought about our reality is great way to have some input into the change that will happen to bring about a truthful understanding of our being. Thank you Evan for the excellent perspective and example.
This was a great spiritview ,Thank you so much for this website.
A clear and concise description. Thanks.
Why am I not getting my healing? I guess you just answered it! Something has to change, and it surely isn’t matter. It’s thought and we are God-endowed to think clearly. Once our thought base has shifted from matter to Spirit, we are on our way! Thank you for this, Evan. It’s to the point and very helpful.
The greatest example of change of thinking are DOGS! Yes, Dogs can teach us many beautiful things. One mistake a Dog makes, that’s it, never again. A dog learns from that mistake and says to itself, “That’s it, never again.” So they aren’t such dumb animals after all. Did you ever think of a Dog becoming President of the USA? What’s going on in this country, I have.
Thank you Evan! Great wake up call as to where change needs to take place!
Thank you, Evan!! Your example of the effect of a change of thought on playing Tennis is excellent and so helpful in making the point!
I’m ready to pay attention to those thoughts that would hold me right where I am and step out to change my experience by changing my thoughts about it.
I look forward to your “Spirit Views” every day! Thank you for your dedication!
Thanks Evan, I love your message. Spirit is timeless and changeless. As the hymn says, “nothing changes here.” When I feel stuck or to seek change, I realize I am experiencing my own limited human view of reality. As I rise higher in my understanding of Spirit, I see things differently, and I experience this as a change in my human situation, but it is really just reality appearing. When Jesus healed, he removed the delusion of imperfection, and perfection appeared. I like to think that the world is just a projection of my state of consciousness, and when my thought changes, so does everything in my experience. THANKS FOR YOUR INSPIRING MESSAGES.
Wow. There was never a more concise statement about Christian Science than this one outside of our textbook. Principle is the structure behind these statements, and Soul is “the smile of the Great Spirit” expressed in your tennis game. Thank you Evan!
Excellent message here!..Thanks Evan! I had this idea just this morning that our quality of thought will improve when we put God first! God must be the beginning of our every thought, so if we do this there are no worries or fears. When we stand with God in thought, with the Christ, Truth that is always present we are free to be how God made us!
Also….this idea of how intangible thought “seems” to be that this intangibility holds everyone of us back because we’re placing “matter” before Spirit even when we don’t mean to. Spirit is “true substance”…”the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen”….So how do we correct our thought?…by always placing thought with God first!…this removes the lie of matter!
We must ask ourselves..”Is this a thought that I could glorify God with?” And if it’s not, we will “know” that this thought needs to be removed! It can not be a part of us! God IS All..all Love,Truth and Mind!
So..for our thought to “move” we should “move” it into God’s thought..rest it on the “One Mind!!”
Joy to All! : )
One can be unstintingly devoted to a health- and spirit-oriented mindset and still be ill. We see in your post about the problems inherent in positive thinking that action on our part is critical, and that we are not just to subside into an amniotic state of hope alone. Well and true enough. Better to think positively than negatively!
But the upshot is that, when all our efforts, mind, body and otherwise, fail, even when combined with strong faith, a reliance upon God, and a trust in Him for all outcomes, CS leaves us with the feeling that we have somehow failed when the desired and expected results do not come. We weren’t “good enough” to make it happen.
I don’t think God wants us to feel like failures. Ever. His grace and mercy are immediate and nourishing, healing our spirits if not our bodies. A sense of personal failure, resulting in discouragement and hopelessness, is most effectively employed by evil, but never, I suggest, by God.
As long as things are positive and going well, CS is a great mental playground for the hypothetical and metaphysical. But it doesn’t hold up in the real trenches of life without a huge, exhausting effort to keep all the beliefs afloat. I think God wants our spiritual effort to be directed toward Him, and His immediate will for us, not toward a concept that leaves out some very important realities, fails to nourish the soul in the ways we need it most, and often creates a distinct sense of personal failure when actually put to a real-world challenge.
I realized too late that my words may be seen as provoking a defensive response. Not my intent. I respect everyone’s individual spiritual journey; such journeys are never easy or simple. I tend to blurt my own questions and struggles a bit too quickly. I’m curious about how to deal with the sense of personal failure inherent in the idea that we can control things with our thoughts.
Hi Rebecca,
No offense taken at all! Comments from varied points of view are wonderful because they make us all think and stretch out of our mental comfort zones. And that’s healthy.
Your understanding of how to practice Christian Science, though, is much different than mine. I’ve been taught to yield to the divine Mind. In CS, the human mind is not a factor. It is to be put aside and the one Mind as honored as above all.
The feeling of discouragement and failure you mention are all symptoms of the human mind trying to make a healing happen. And that does lead to a dead end. The human mind is not a healer. The divine Mind is the healer. CS is not about the human mind. It explains how God governs the universe through the divine Mind, and the purpose of prayer is to yield to the divine Mind and honor’s God’s harmonious control over all things through the way we live and think.
You are so right about feeling loved and comforted, and that does come from the Mind of Love.
A mathematician may feel like a failure when he fails to solve a mathematical problem. But he doesn’t get upset with math. He digs in to gain a deeper understanding of how to apply the mathematical principles so he can solve the problem. The same rule applies in CS. We all have lots to learn. Me included!
Much love…
My statement, “I’ve been taught to yield” comes from experience. If I rely upon human will, Evan’s plan, or my outline of how things should happen without following God’s direction first, it usually leads to trouble, mistakes and regrets. So, I learn from experience to let God lead the way. His way is always better!
Thank you so much for this Evan. I’m spending a month at one of the most beautiful places on earth and have clearly seen that it is thought that is making the experience. I had several days when I was feeling down and full of negativity, trying to pin it to a cause outside myself. I finally came to my senses and saw that it was my thought alone that needed correcting. I prayed for the thought I needed and in the middle of the night I saw what it was that I was believing – that I was a guilty mortal. It wasn’t just positive thinking I needed, but the uncovering of the false belief. When I prayed to know the truth about me and all mankind, the heaviness vanished immediately and I am back in Paradise! Aloha!
This article reminded me of something a piano teacher once told me. He said that if a person learns to play a song, or part, incorrectly (hitting the same wrong key/note each time), s/he will continue to play it incorrectly until it’s corrected. And that the only way to correct it is to re-learn it, as if playing it for the first time.
I guess this popped into thought because that’s what I’m essentially doing in Christian Science: relearning how to think about things. How to see, hear and “feel” spiritually. The seven synonyms of God (Mind, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul) are the keys we can use to relearn to think more progressively, encouraging change for good. Playing the song correctly, so to speak. It’s a lifetime–an eternity–of learning.
Thank you Evan.
How grateful I am to all the above for the way they think, analyze, pray for understanding and guidance. I learn so MUCH from these wonderful Spiritviews and the dear ones who contribute where they are in their thinking and praying. I know each offered sentence is sent with love and where they are in their own demonstrations that God is ALL. I hope everyone commenting can understand how very grateful I am for the contributions that pour in after Evan’s wonderful outreach. There is always, ALWAYS something that stands out to me, helps me with a problem with which I am wrestling ,and helps me over that boulder.
Thank you Evan and everyone!!!!
I too, love this very helpful blog, especially today. Thanks Evan.
it is a process but where we begin makes all the difference. I think I will never understand this completely and then I realize where I have begun- as a human with a human mind. We can’t stick the truth onto our human mind and understand it. For a long time many years ago I kept asking myself who is studying, who is yearning? For a long time I didn’t know I was trying to use the truth to make my human life work. It took a long time to understand you do not have to struggle, the kingdom is at hand. But I think it takes embracing the truth as your life and acknowledging sincerely you were made in spirit and love and that is all there is. It seems almost reckless to my human thought. But I am weary of that thinking. One of my teachers said, start with where you want to go. It was a simple tool to keep my thinking on the truth of my being. Each day, I pray a layer of this old thinking, simple melts away to its ‘native nothingness.” I find I usually am aware of the melting as a footnote. “Oh that” i sometimes say.
Thanks, one and all. I really have loved all the remarks that have been made. Now for the next step, demonstration.
I agree that these comments are fantastic. I love being associated with all of your clear thinking. Your kindness, generosity of spirit, and love of truth is inspirational. Your good thoughts and deeds are indeed blessed by our loving Father Mother God. Blessing to all!
Rebecca’s comment made me ask myself “Do I study C.S. just for physical healing?”
When I started studying C.S. the answer would have definitely been “yes”. But my spiritual path since then could be likened to a child who meets the owner of a candy store. Periodically the child goes into the candy store hoping the owner will give them a piece of candy. However, over time the child grows to love the owner of the candy store so much that they start going to the store just to spend time with the owner rather than to get the candy. Although I first started studying C.S. for the candy (healings), I now study it out of a deep love for God and His idea. And even if I never had another healing, I would still study it just out of this deep love of God and to learn more about His idea.
A few weeks ago a cold sore appeared on my face on a Saturday morning. So I prayed as we are taught in C.S. and really felt “thought had moved to a better place”. But on Sunday it was still there. So I prayed again. And on Monday it was still there. I was embarrassed to go to work with the cold sore more from a feeling I had failed as a Christian Scientist rather than from embarrassment about my appearance. So I prayed again on the drive to work and got such a sweet sense of the presence of God. Mrs. Eddy described this presence perfectly when she wrote “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power”. At that point the physical evidence lost all importance to me and my focus changed to such a wonderful appreciation of God and His idea. At work nobody seemed to notice the cold sore and in a couple of days it disappeared. But what will stay with me from this experience is that sweet sense of peace and love, the presence of God, which filled my thought as a result of just appreciating God and the wonderful idea He has created.
Especially love your Blog writings when you use tennis to make a point…this one is a perfect lob for me to ponder right now. Thanks Evan.
You are welcome! Keep a swingin’…