Our Bible Lessons (from the Christian Science Quarterly)
order our thoughts each day and it’s wonderful how often a passage from the
Lesson will resonate with other reading or experiences during the week.
Section four this week includes the story of Jesus meeting
the Samaritan woman at the well early in his ministry and also the loved
passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
about “giving a cup of cold water…and never fearing the consequences”. There are some beautiful examples of this
joyous sharing in our book “Healing Spiritually”.
The first is from a fascinating interview (see pp 186 – 192)
with Ardis Krainik, who was general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and
who had turned around a negative financial situation to see a healthy
profit. When asked about her mode of leadership
she replied that “people want and need to be loved….I work very hard to see my
colleagues and staff, friends and artists—everyone in the company—as perfect,
spiritual expressions of the Father. My
goal isn’t to make happy artists; it’s to see each individual as he or she really
is.” She goes to explain that “if
[people] ask” she would say “something that helps them recognize not just that
I love them but that God loves them and that ‘underneath are the everlasting
arms’ supporting them and their performance (Deuteronomy 33:27).” Interestingly she adds that “…people still
believe in the authority of the Bible!
The truth is true. And people recognize and believe it when they
hear it.”
I love her account of helping a colleague from another
company which culminated in her asking him “Do you want me to pray for you?” What a great example of how to share a cup of
cold water with someone in need.
In thinking more about “giving a cup of cold water” I
re-read a couple of testimonies to find out about those willing to offer
that cup. Here are some examples:
A girlfriend’s mother: On p. 174 we read that the writer had
found out about Christian Science “from having talked with the mother of a
high-school girlfriend, who had spent a great deal of time answering my
questions”.
A young woman on
campus: On p. 177 we read that the writer “was introduced to Christian
Science through a young woman I met on campus.
She intrigued me because she had such a different and positive philosophy
of life…”
A radio program: On
p. 184 Harold Dyer, whose wife, a Christian Scientist, had “tried for years to
awaken [him]” and who at that time had left him, speaks of listening to the
radio one Sunday morning “when a program came on that included healings that
had come about through Christian Science”.
This proved a turning point.
Magazines in a Laundromat:
On p. 208 Betty O’Neal (now a Christian Science lecturer) shares her experience
of finding Christian Science magazines at a Laundromat. “Every week while doing the laundry there I
read more of the magazines” and then after several months she “found employment
in the business field where a co-worker gave [her] a copy of Science and Health.”
A school
administrator: Pages 212 – 214 tell us how a school administrator was able
to share the idea brotherhood by referring gang members to the opening two
words of the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father”.
He told them to notice that it doesn’t say “our Indian, Mexican, white,
or black Father”. Within a couple of
months the gangs had broken up! And “there
was also general consensus that things were more peaceful, that “being
different races doesn’t make that much difference now”.
Finally, here is a great idea from Leonard Offer in Kent,
England when he had the threat of redundancy hanging over his head: “…there
[are] unlimited opportunities for intelligent action” (p. 195).
Julie Swannell
No comments:
Post a Comment