"Never vulnerable..."

"I've got the power..."

Actually, I don't have the power.   In fact, I don't have any power...of my own.  As Jesus said, "I can, of mine own self, do nothing..."  Nada. Niks. Non, Niet.

There is something so freeing in knowing that I don't have the power, and never will. I get to stop trying to have -- or ever even get -- it.

But, God does. God has all the power, I just get to "see" what He is doing. This little clip from the film, "Bruce Almighty," is a fun little hint of how "kick ass" it feels to know that -- as the very expression of God's being -- we may be powerless, but we are not, and never will be, vulnerable.

We get to act with courage, confidence, humility, and grace. We walk with a skip in our step and joy in our hearts.

As part of our church's healing ministry, the online version of its weekly magazine, The Christian Science Sentinel, asked readers to respond to this question:

"How have you prayed
when confronted with either news of,
or an experience with,
contagion or seasonal illness?

As I sat in front of the screen this morning, thinking about how I might respond, I couldn't help but think of an experience when I felt so confronted. Here was my response:

For me, this is not a matter of my "being confronted with the news, or an experience with, contagion or seasonal illness," but of it being confronted by the Christ consciousness that I represent as a child of God, an expression of Mind.

First, error never exposes itself willingly to the Truth. Mary Baker Eddy, in her article "Ways that are Vain," counsels us to remember that,

"All error asks is to be left alone."

It is the Christ in consciousness that brings error -- the belief that God is, or could ever be, absent -- out into the open.   And it is this very same Christ, in consciousness, that is, therefore, already present to eradicate it -- much as light eradicates darkness.  It is effortless and immediate, without medium -- of process, or human thought-taking.

This was a critical realization for me when facing a terrifying diagnosis and the constant barrage of media information (and images) of this particular illness.

One day, while standing in line at the grocery store, I found myself looking at a magazine where the symptoms on my body were being mirrored in an article about "How to detect...."

I was terrified. I felt that I had been exposed to a visual confirmation of the symptoms I was facing. And according to this article, it wasn't good.

I ran from the market and hurried home to where I felt I had the best chance of dealing with it all. Not only the images I had been confronted with, but now the fear they had exacerbated.

But, a testimony I discovered, in the print version of this same publication, helped me see that I had not been exposed to powerful negative information and images, but that it had been exposed to me -- to the light of my conscious relationship with God, with Mind. Silly error. It had puffed itself up into such a state of self-delusion that it was exposed to ME -- me, the manifestation of God as Mind, as Truth, Life and Love. It was "going down."

Suddenly, I had this "bring it" sense of spiritual self-certainty about what really had power...and it wasn't error. It was the Truth of spiritual being. The All-in-allness of God's powerful love for His creation.

This is a much longer story...but suffice it to say that within weeks, the symptoms, and their claims upon my body, dissolved in the sunlight of this Truth about what really has power and presence.

We are never victims of error. We are never vulnerable mortals. We are never fragile minds, never spongelike in our porousness, never open to the absorption of flat-out lies concerning God's good-sustaining power to maintain the integrity of our wholeness...our health, wellness, and perfection.

We are the very expression, the very-present evidence of the power and presence of divinity, expressed as humanity. We are not sentient. We are not passive beings just waiting to be stimulated by outside information, or experiences, that we then need to react (or respond) to spiritually. We are spiritually radiant. So radiant in fact, that the darkness of error cannot even come close to reaching any of us.

Where there is consciousness, there is Mind -- God. And where there is God, there is the power and presence of good....only. Impartially, universally, imperatively.

offered today, with Love...

Kate

[photo credit: Lila June Jones]