My God Is So Good To Me

This handwritten note was found in a Unity booklet entitled, “Oneness With God.”  The booklet was printed in 1921 when Unity School of Christianity was still located on Tracy Avenue in Kansas City, MO.  This booklet was part of the library of Cordelia B. Lane that her family gave to me after her passing in 1960.  I discovered it just the other day as I was sorting through my own library in an effort to begin releasing my treasures and lightening my load.  I share it with you hoping it blesses you as it has me.

My God is so good to me.

The same God of all good who worked so-called miracles through His beloved Son Jesus is the same God of all good who just as willingly works in beauty and truth and love through you and me today.  The Master Jesus was continually aware of His God, His Father and Creator of all, and that is the requirement for you and me now, to be aware of, to recognize, to acknowledge, and to accept, good only.  Our aware(ness) of good awakens through prayer, through our putting our thoughts and hands to good and constructive use.

It is then, dear friend, “that unto every one that hath” this growing faith in and awareness of the dominant power of good, shall indeed “be given, and he shall have abundance.”  (Matthew 13:12)  Then our loving Father shall be heard speaking from within our heart saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Thou has been faithful over a few things; I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”  (Matthew 25:21)

“In thy presence is fullness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11)

The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul.  The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple.  The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart. (Psalm 19:7, 8)

(Healing prayer:  Weekly Unity, May 31^st 1953.)

God’s life, a river of healing, flows through me, and I realize that I am renewed, refreshed, restored.

When I received these treasures from Cordelia Lane’s estate I could never have known that fifty-eight years later I would be reading this beautiful note from a wonderful woman who believed so deeply in the presence of God blessing her life.  I am sure I did not notice the note when I received the booklet those many years ago at my first ministry.  It wasn’t until I actually started typing them for this posting today that I realized they were meant for me at just this time!  I looked up the biblical references and added them to her original note.

I am so blessed to have had many wonderful experiences through the years.  Sometimes a few simple words will send our attention back in wonder to times that have enriched our souls.  In remembrance shall my strength be renewed and my joy made full once again, today!

And Now About Social Engagement

As soon as I posted the quotes on solitude I knew I was going to have to balance those ideas with thoughts about how we engage socially with each other.  Below are just a very few of the thoughts that great minds have shared.  Enjoy both sides of the story!

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.
Mohandas Gandhi

I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.
Andy Warhol

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him. 
Samuel Johnson

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.
William James

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you..  You have to go to them sometimes. 

Winnie the Pooh

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.
Helen Keller

This is the way we want to interact with everyone. . . .That’s always our goal.  The more that we can interact on a positive level, the better, . . . We are out there stressing cooperation and building positive relationships. 

Chief Joseph

If one by one we counted people out For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long To get so we had no one left to live with. For to be social is to be forgiving.
Robert Frost

The concept of randomness and coincidence will be obsolete when people can finally define a formulation of patterned interaction between all things within the universe. 

Toba Beta

(And just for the heck of it--)

I was too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security and too tired for an affair.  
Erma Bombeck

Wise Words About Solitude

Many great thinkers have found solitude to be the best company.

The best of all is to be alone to experience one's soul in Silence. To be nakedly alone, unseen, is better than anything in the world, a relief like death. To be -- alone -- is one of life's greatest delights.

-- Sunyata

To find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.  To be in company even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.  I love to be alone.

-- Henry D. Thoreau

Many teachers praise love as the highest of virtues; I, however, place solitude higher than love.

-- Meister Eckhart

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily.

-- Plato

The greatest saints avoided the company of men as much as possible, and chose to live with God in secret.

-- Thomas a’ Kempis

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

-- Aldous Huxley

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.

-- Voltaire

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

--  Arthur Schopenhauer

Settle yourself in solitude, and you will come upon God in yourself.

-- Teresa of Avila

(Excerpted from “Spirituality For Dummies”)

Bridges, Trails and Trees

For my morning walk I returned to one of my favorite places, the Tualatin Hills Nature Park, where I go several times a year during different seasons.  At this time of year the environment is still very much like early spring due to our late arrival of spring and summer.  Never the less, it is a rewarding experience to walk the trails, some of which are paved and the side trails that are more natural.

Every time I enter the deepening forest I am humbled by the natural beauty of trees, some well over 100 years old, wild brush, the occasional wild flower and when summer is in full bloom, there are even a few berries (if you get there first).  But what I am even more grateful for are the wonderful people in local government and volunteers who care about maintaining these areas for all of us.  Today there were at least three groups of school-age children on nature walks, a number of runners and even a biker or two.  The stillness of the forests absorbs all that might otherwise distract from the naturalness of the trails so their presence melted into the background.

 

I have taken photos every time I have gone to the park.  Each time a new story unfolds in my awareness.  The intricate boardwalks that bridge the swampy areas always impress me.  I see them as a metaphor for the bridges we construct in our consciousness that take us across the bogs of challenges we sometimes face in our daily life.  Someone had to see the problem and devise a pathway through.  In our efforts to meet challenges we often find that others have been there before us and they made our traverse easier by the bridges they built.  Teachers, ministers, friends and confidants provide us with a range of opportunities to cross hazards successfully.

The paths that wind before me in the Park also bring to mind the many wonderful people whose paths I have crossed, or with whom I have walked for a time.  Each has brought me something of value, something I can look back upon with deep appreciation.  I have always felt that the people in my life are not there by chance.  No matter how we might describe our coming together, or how long that closeness remains, I am convinced by my experience that there is purpose and meaning to be found in the connection.  So I relish the memories as I move through my present paths that I know are leading into new opportunities to connect with others.

In many respects I lead a solitary life and I am mostly satisfied by that choice.  On occasion, however, I am reminded of the broader world around me.  That world is filled with wonderful experiences, past, present and even in the future!  I choose to be aware of the trails before me and to welcome all that I find along the way.  I seek to more clearly understand the bridges that will take me through my self-conceived limitations into new opportunities for long lasting satisfaction.

More About “What If I Die . . .?”

Too often it is easy to dismiss the questions others have about life because we are not in their shoes.  Though we may want to “help,” our shoes seldom fit them.  Additionally, because we may not understand where the question is coming from in the context of their life, our dismissal of the question, intended or not, appears to dismiss the person as well.

Being able to muster great personal “truths” from our own experiences does not necessarily mean it is the truth for another person.  In the end every experience is personal.  Our efforts to be of assistance is admirable as long as in offering it we are not inadvertently knocking down what little support the person may currently think they have.  It is simply not good enough to reduce them to rubble in order for them to begin to rebuild.  I have never really accepted this form of psychological assistance.

When a person is in a place of uncertainty, especially about who they “really” are and what may lie beyond their current physical expression, it is not helpful to moralize.  At that point, talking about pop-psychology solutions, or even professionally accepted psychological principles might only appear like a spaghetti-bowl of confusion.  It may be true that all things work for some people, but I do not believe it is true that all things work for all people.  Sometimes our solution may not work for anyone else.

It may be that all a person wants or needs is to be heard!  They are neither asking for nor desirous of a cure-all process to heal them.  Just listen honestly without judgment or the urge to say the right thing. 

Really, sometimes I just want to be heard! Is the message.