If I’m so busy running around this world gathering cars, big houses, a career that I spend at least 70 hours a week plus, the husband, the kids, the dog(s) when do I have time to compare ‘spiritual things with spiritual’? With all the schedules that family, work, school, life brings when is there time?
Once I was bogged down working in a business my husband owned. My office was between the foyer and the kitchen of my home. There was a joke that went with talking to me about anything. It was, “unless someone was dying or the house is on fire, don’t talk to me.” Things were getting worse and worse. My marriage was getting shaky, my kids were getting sick, and my house was becoming more of a dumping ground than a home. I wasn’t happy, no one was very happy. I was having problems with other family members. My spiritual life was becoming non-existent in my thoughts and schedule.
What is our ‘spiritual life’? It is our real life. It is what we were created by God to be, His reflection of His activities, thoughts, expression. The farther we forget this the less our spiritual lives become and the more problems we have. It is a natural outcome to the ratio of lacking spiritual lives and problems; the lower the ratio of a spiritual life, the higher the ratio of problems. Why? Because God is Spirit and Man is His image and likeness, His creation. The farther we move from this Fact this Truth of Being the farther we move from our true selfhood, the nature and being we were created by God.
So there I was in an office, unhappy, tense, feeling pressure, with bills, problems, and complicated relationships. What did I do? I stopped going into the office first thing in my day and went back to my church books. I went to my Pastor, the King James Version of the Holy Bible and the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy for answers to all of my problems. I had realized that because I wasn’t putting God first in my day, through my day, and at the completion of my day, I wasn’t living my day correctly. The temptation of the stacks of “things to do” in the office and around the house was a battle at first. But looking at how things didn’t seem to be working I fought for the right side, the side of God.
Diligently I gained back my spiritual life through prayer and study. I set up a chair in a room in the opposite side of the house from my office. There I sat in the mornings reading my Bible Lesson (a weekly Lesson read by all Christian Scientists throughout the world). The chair was by a window looking out into the back yard. At first the view was snowy then spring came along with the huge lilac bush and its blooms, then the summer flowers. During this time I regained my sense of peace, purpose, spirituality. I found that even when I spent four hours working with my books I got more done in those days in the office and around the house than when I used to work all the hours in my office toiling, and getting nowhere.
Lots of changes occurred. I was able to work less on the business office and more in my office as a Christian Science Practitioner (one who helps others in their prayerful work for healing and spiritualization of consciousness in their daily lives). My life began to harmonize, large changes began to occur including a move and the closing of the business. Changes in the family circumstances, a new and better school for the children, a permanent job was found by my husband, and my mother came to live with us after the passing of my dad.
Not all struggles disappear completely from our lives. New challenges come to teach us new lessons. But the most important lesson for me in all of this was that our spiritual life is Life. It is the most important point to our being. It is the ‘be all end all’ of our existence. It is the only Life we really have. When we turn our thought consistently to our Life as God, through God, from God, our lives become more harmonious. It is filled more with the love that is Love, God. Our purpose in life becomes clearer, our goals become more refined.
Mary Baker Eddy states in her main work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth.” (page 91:5)
When we feel like life just keeps becoming more and more uncomfortable, frustrating, inharmonious…let’s look to see where we are putting our spiritual life. Is it a priority or not even a second thought? Let us flip this around and make our spiritual life, our true life, making it the highest and only point of view to all of our lives.
Gentle hug
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