In the United States, Hurricane Sandy mesmerized national attention last week after it severely hit regions of New Jersey and New York City. Images of flooded communities, washed-away houses, sand-filled streets, torched homes and flooded subways saturated the airwaves. Tens of millions of people struggled with no water or electricity. Gasoline ran short.
For those caught in the aftermath, the lack and loss was an unasked for adversity they had to deal with in everyday practical terms. People needed to be saved from wreckage, shelter found, wounds treated, hearts consoled, lives rebuilt, homes restored, hope found once again. For those watching from a distance, the massive wreckage and loss was hard to assimilate. The question, “How could so much go wrong in such a short period of time?” begged an answer.
Probing the “why” of evil takes one on an unending journey of unsatisfying answers that build up anger, resentment, frustration, fault-finding, and guilt. The more constructive way is to pursue a spiritual view that lifts thought out of suffering, lack and loss to the infinite resources of divine Love that can pull people’s lives back together again and put them in a stronger and better place than ever.
God is on the scene giving storm-beaten residents the inspiration, guidance, direction, ideas and hope they need to rebuild and go forward. Millions of other people not in the storm-affected areas can express divine Love’s presence, too, in the form of their prayers, care and donations of time and money sent to the storm-affected regions.The resources of God are infinite and up to the need of the moment. Storms and their wake are no fun to endure, but their effect is temporal. The ever-present care and provision of divine Love is eternal. It is sufficient to counter the effects of Sandy, repair its wake of destruction, and restore communities to an even better status than before.
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19
This is a very difficult for me to understand even though I prayed to know that as far as God is concerned, these storms never happened. I must of done something right for I and those that my thoughts were on didn’t experience the monstrous damage others experienced. I have to admit; I know that I shouldn’t doubt, but being human, I can’t help being compassionate. All I can think is that God governs, and since he is all good, then the outcome has to be good.
Tobias’ thoughts are running deep!
It is good to hear comments from those who are not judging by appearances, but with righteously knowing the underlying Truth. Gary
Your post reminds me of the story of Elijah on the mountain top. He found that God was not in the strong wind, but a still small voice. That still small voice is with all the people picking up and recovering from Sandy.
One thing unfortunatelly can not understatnd: If God is present everywhere and watches over his biloved children, how come He allowed this catastrophy to happen to them? If God is with it so why has He allowed all this upsets happen to those innocent people, children of God. How could I sit still and think after such a shoking aftermath, that God loves me when He could have easily protected and saved me from this happening? I’m sorry but I can not accept this injustice. What do you have to comments on this? I shall be very gratefull to hear some opinions. Thanks and God bless. Laura
Some of the above comments have asked why a loving God would allow this to happen. I certainly don’t have an answer to that, and my heart goes out to those who are still suffering. But I think that as Christian Scientists we have to realize that we don’t step back and try to dispassionately observe a situation and try to understand and evaluate it. It’s actually happening in “real time.” As we spiritualize our thought right now, our situation improves, right now. So instead of seeing a bad situation as static, we need to see that our experience is directly proportionate to our current thought. It’s not always easy! But that’s the way I’ve learned to look at these things – don’t try to figure out why God wasn’t there. Know that She’s there right now!
Hi Laura,
You ask a good question, and one that many people wonder about.
The answer lies in understanding the nature of mortal existence.
In mortal existence, evil seems to be in control and cause horrible things to happen, like destructive hurricanes.
Mortal existence is the whole belief system of life in matter. To the thought that believes life is in matter, evil seems real and powerful, and destructive. Bad things happen.
However, through understanding that God is all-powerful good and able to save us from evil, a human can demonstrate over the claims of mortality and find freedom from them. But that’s the key. God’s purpose is not to make life comfortable in mortal existence. Quite the opposite. The divine purpose is to lift our thought out of a sense of material existence, to the spiritual. This is where Jesus took his followers, to a spiritual sense of existence.
God does not allow destructive storms to occur. They are the effect of mortal error. The carnal mind of the world is responsible for them. Yet, God is all-powerful in the sense that when we turn to God and honor divine power over the carnal, we can overcome evil and its bad effects. It’s a step by step demonstration.
So, when a bad event happens, like hurricane Sandy, God is not standing by letting innocent people suffer. God is coming to our rescue and being present for all of us to turn to and find our way out of the path of suffering. God is there to help us. But we have to do something. We have to turn to God for that help, and we’ll find it. And it is sufficient to overcome the evil.
Hope that helps.
I have found the good we do, the allness of God as Good we claim, and the spirit of good we live whether through storms, tragedies, or unexplained events, is the power that truly governs us. Good is the steppingstone out of tragedies, not the cause of them. Using these steppingstones delivers us and helps to deliver others. Then we are not left without compassion to help others. Sher
Yep….if I know enough about the real, spiritual source of my good – how it plays out or changes in the material view doesn’t matter so much.
For example, I have a tale of two fires…. The summer of 1988 at the height of the massive Yellowstone fires, when the moisture content of live trees was less than that of kiln dried lumber, an arsonist set our family cabin in that region on fire. At first report there was no way to save the entire canyon or nearby town….but we were unswayed in our prayers about the power and presence of Gods goodness in that very place. Miraculously a small breeze came up at just the right speed and right direction to sweep the flames over the bank into the river. With that and the firefighters work what was lost was the cabin and 3 large trees. It should not have been possible. Was it sad to lose the cabin and contents Yes, but it was so overpowered by the saving of the town and canyon.
A dozen years later a fire caused by a road accident set the same canyon ablaze. Having seen the first powerful view of goodness in action I was not about to give in to this larger terrifying view. I recall a practioner I had called telling me to look right at that fire until I could see the face of God. It took awhile to figure that one out but after several hours of watching the fire and praying I learned that God is in the still small voice of Truth-not in the fire. And, that omnipotence has all power and to acknowledge ANY other power to to dishonor God. I had to leave then as they were beginning to evacuate the town but I knew no matter what was lost materially I was not going to dishonor God by acknowledging another power.
Well, just then a strong wind came up….but the wrong direction from the approaching weather front. It blew the flames back on themselves and continued to change directions over the next couple of days until it consumed all the fuel in that area. It never grew beyond that point between the firefighting and the changing wind. And, no personal property was lost….and trees grow back.
It seems to me that mortal experience is constantly stirring up new ways to try and convince me to dishonor God. But, when I remember these experiences I’m not so quick to get excited about the wind, the fire and the earthquake.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
Thank you for sharing the above experiences I found them so helpful – in particular the idea that by acknowledging, even for a moment, that a power exists apart from God is to dishonor Him. Mortal mind will indeed try all sorts of outrageous and attention-seeking ways to convince us there is another power and have us dishonor God but we can instead deny the drama of the mortal experience and seek refuge in His calm and gentle presence. Thanks to all who have shared their thoughts.
Hi friends
Thank you for this good advice and divine ideas. You know, I didn’t realize that I have to turn to God, a bit silly but there we are, tha’s me. Well I shall try and do that, although I’d like to confess that I have been a bit skeptical and I find praying extremelly hard. By the way how do you turn material ideas into spiritual ideas? I find that interesting. I certainly can’t do that I haven’t got a clue. Hope is not a dificult one. Maybe if I get to know that I’ll be able to transform all that is material/carnal/mortal turn them nicely into spiritual ideas and bingo I might get something and Praise the Lord I’ll be the winner, how about that? Thanks friends,look forward to that divine answer. Bless you all!
Laura
I notice no one has yet attempted to respond to the above question by Laura about changing material ideas into spiritual ideas. I’ll give it a layman’s try. Remember we are talking about “ideas” here, not real-time things that the ideas may represent:
Briefly speaking, I think “ideas” are an accumulation of thoughts. And, an accumulation of ideas is considered a concept. A material idea, as an example, could be thoughts regarding, say, a tangible automobile, or a material house. You might be picturing a real car in your mind’s eye while thinking about a particular model you would like to have. This is a “material idea,” or one form of a material idea.
The spiritual idea of a car, however, would be the invisible intangible concept underlying the vehicle’s existence: one of transportation, movement, convenience, supply, harmony, orderly happenings in spirit. Even without a tangible auto these ideas are always present – are a part of the spiritual existence including all means of transportation.
How do you change a material idea into a spiritual idea? I think we do this by reflecting on divine ideas that make up the material idea’s existence. By thinking about what God is seeing or reflecting in the situation (God’s “very good” concept of all His Creation) instead of our thinking about the specific material thing or things desired – we can get God’s Will in our life, which is, in my opinion, more to be desired that any material thing. I believe God knows my needs better than I can ever know what is needed, and I like to trust in the Lord.
Kind of a vague response, here, sorry, but I hope it helps somewhat.
Heloo to you all dear friends, and thank you for taking the plunge to reply to this quite difficult point, I can say. Yes it makes sense so on has to think of the qualities and what that idea might do if it was real what I would like to do if I had it in my hands so to speak and what sort of pleasures would give me and that summary (spiritual of course)can help one translate in spiritual ideas, gosh a difficult one but there we are, a worthwhile challenge and a lovelly satisfaction at the end of it. Thank you again, much appreciated.
Bless you and regards, to you all.
Laura 🙂
Hi Linda. On the sidebar of this Spiritview Blog is a list of previous articles. Under the second listing of “demonstration” you’ll find a previous article that might be helpful regarding your perspective. Also listed under “thinking” are several other informative articles to read over, if you are interested. Love your writing skills in expressing yourself.