What is God to me?
One Answer May Be a Surprise: Source of Health
Many have been asking where does God fit in this scientific world. A new movie, “God’s Not Dead?” talks about a challenge a young Christian faced when his philosophy teacher asked him to sign a pledge in class that God is dead and he would not. Many young people are finding spirituality through philosophy on the internet. How do you sort through words that sound good and ones that actually have a lasting impact on your life?
The Bible for centuries has been not only a source of wisdom, but a source of comfort, new life and health. One of its profound statements of wisdom has been, “By their fruits, you will know them.” The challenge I hear from many youth and others toward modern religions is to point at the hypocrisy and fruits that do not correspond with the teachings. This should give modern religious followers pause to self-examine how their practices match their teachings. Some interpret the hypocritical fruits as the teachings, instead of human struggles to follow them, and quite frankly, ignore all the good that religions do as well.
One new age philosopher has become quite popular on the internet by pointing to these issues within religion. I found some of his insights intuitive and helpful.
Yet, when I looked at the bio of this man and the subsequent blog comments defending this philosopher, the followers failed to recognize or easily dismissed the philosopher’s tragic personal life illustrating that his words of wisdom fell short of increasing his ability to make good decisions to impact his life for the better.
I wondered if those justifying him were willing to recognize that the same test they demanded of others needed to be applied to the philosophy they were following as well.
Clearly bringing forth “fruits of the Spirit” in this mortal experience takes faith, effort, and quite frankly our motive can’t be about being an avenue for getting what we want materially. But I have found the benefits of spirituality scientifically possible when I lift up my concept of God and realize the Source of all Wisdom has all the power behind Him to align the issues in my life to spiritual good.
It is comforting to discover too that this God is divine Love protecting and guiding me, while I am seeking a way to make my life better. Looking back at my life, I have realized how many times the Source of all intelligence, divine Mind, was revealing ideas of great value to me but I was too busy in my own head to pay attention to the peace and freedom that accompany those ideas.
Reflecting on my life, I can see what God, the Source and Oneness of Soul, all spiritual individuality, has done for me. I am a more patient person. I have more control over myself, my thinking and my life.
I find spiritual peace and joy that gives me the calm mental state to deal with the challenges of life and find solutions that have a lasting impact for the better. I have found the freedom that comes from loving unselfishly and forgiving others, because my own heart has found healing and release that only God can give.
I have found guidance in my life from the daily discipline of prayer and putting into practice meditating and living the inspiration from the prayer throughout the day.
How do we do this in our busy days filled with constant chatter? Make space for spirituality in our hearts, prioritize it in our days, look for the good, live spiritual love, grow in our concept of what God means to us and allow that mental state to be our identity that will become more naturally our state of being.
There is a surprising result to this budding concept of God and true identity. Health. Everywhere, people are looking for health, but all too often, health becomes a way of managing or attempting to prevent disease, while believing it is inevitable.
When I visited for a while a yoga class, which I came to find out for some it was looked at as a way to prevent aging and disease, the thoughts that were communicated by the instructors included a lot of fear about aging and disease.
This fear and constant dialogue medical studies have already proven invite a mental state of defeat that does not help our health. The more I find God as an observable presence and power in my life that can be proven to have an effect, the more I realize God is divine Science.
This came to light for me and has been an effective source of health through studying a book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. She discovered throughout the Bible a timeless divine Principle behind Jesus teachings and healings that is scientifically provable now in our own lives.
When my daughter was young, she experienced a few earaches that were quite painful. When I thought about what I have learned and experienced about God’s Love, the pain and inflammation did not fit.
His law of absolute good that I have come to know as the true law governing the universe does not include suffering. Just as Jesus showed when he took up the cross for us to illustrate how Christ overcomes sin and suffering, I could allow this illustration of God’s law of Love to lift my understanding out of mortality and its consequent concept of suffering to our original and ever present state of innocence that Christ revealed to us through Love.
This not only quickly healed the earaches, but identifying her spiritually stopped earaches from continuing to plague her childhood. After three earaches, I had overcome a mother’s fear and grown in spiritual understanding to see this did not have a place in God’s all inclusive nature and therefore in her experience and she didn’t have any more earaches. My next two children never experienced them either.
As you come across words of wisdom, are they grounded beyond the surface of human thinking or even the deep thinking that is grounded materially? Are we defining that materiality as spirituality? The fruits of Spirit reveal a God that is not dead, but Life, and one that makes a lasting difference in life, a life of greater love and freedom.
Anne Cooling
First Reader
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Laguna Niguel
