"I will open my hands..."

"I believe in a peace
that flows deeper than pain.
That the broken find healing in love.
Pain is no measure of his faithfulness.
He withholds no good thing from us,
no good thing thing from us.
I will open my hands,
I will open my heart."

I've been thinking about the insidious nature of pain this week. How loudly it screams, and how it tries to convince us that it resides within us, and therefore must be our pain. But it's not.

Pain, disease, fear, poverty, sorrow are never ours. They are impersonal. They only try to parrot, or mimic, the impartial and universal nature of God's goodness, healing, and peace, that Sara Groves' sings about in her new recording, "Open My Hands."

This week, as I've prayed deeply about the power of peace, and the impotence of pain, two experiences, in particular, have been constant reminders that I can rest my case on the law of Love. That precedence has already been established, cited, and ruled admissible in the court of Spirit. And that finding freedom from pain's unjust sentence is man's inalienable right...right here, and right now.

I return to the power, and authority, of these experience, as shared in: "Screaming has no authority..." (from October of 2006), and "Turn the beat around..." (from July of 2010), more often than you might think.

I know that I've often felt helpless in the face of pain, but Mary Baker Eddy has provided me a lifeline, in those moments of darkness, when she says in her writings, Miscellaneous Writings, 1883 - 1896 and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

"No evidence before the material senses
can close my eyes
to the scientific proof
that God, good, is supreme."

and

"Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless;
nor are the so-called laws of matter primary,
and the law of Spirit secondary."

What promises! Pain [evil] is not supreme, and good is not helpless. Quite the opposite. Good is supreme, and therefore pain is helpless in its presence...in the sovereignty of peace. Peace is not the absence of pain. Peace is not an absence. Peace is a presence. Peace is not found in the vacuity of pain's retreat. Peace is substantial. Peace is a power. Peace is self-assertive and confident. Peace has authority, and pain flees before its strength...as naturally as darkness flees before the light of day.

In the final stanza of her poem, "The New Century", Eddy assures us that:

"The dark domain of pain and sin
Surrenders — Love doth enter in,
And peace is won, and lost is vice:
Right reigns, and blood was not its price.."

Pain can often feel like a vice...racheting a tighter and tighter hold on our freedom, but Love comes in, and pain surrenders, fleeing from the authority of God's law....the law of impartial and universal goodness that is irrespective of person. Love, unburdened by the false fears of human thought-taking and self-determinism...of what we could of done, thought...even prayed...differently. Peace isn't waiting for us to think the right thought. Peace is the voice of Love speaking to human hearts, minds, and bodies...a tuning fork that realigns everything according to His purpose for us.

Just as pain is not a personal failing or weakness, peace is not a personal achievement. Peace is God's impartial and universal substance. It constitutes every mental molecule of our being, and we can no more be denied its power in our lives, than we can do something to suddenly make light retreat in the face of darkness.

It's a promise...it's the Law.

of Love...
Kate

"You may say that I'm a dreamer..."

"Imagine all the people,
Living life in peace....

You may say that I'm a dreamer
but I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you will join us,
and the world can live as one."

I love this original  John and Yoko video for "Imagine."   It is a song that I believe speaks to an imperative promise...and not a distant dream.  Poet and lyricist, William Knapp once wrote,

"The one far-off divine event is now. 
And that event is Love."

Today, these are the thoughts I am holding to in defense of my heart...and the collective heart of humanity. 

Gunfire at a community event, anger across the dinner table, violent wretching over the toilet...intolerance for the views of "the other side", misunderstanding, self-loathing, complaint, criticisim, judgment.  Enough!! 

There was a time when "all the world"...or at least almost everyone I knew...told me that I had every right to be hurt, angry, to give up, feel bereaved, and seek redress. 

I remember thinking, "How is it that their love for me is giving them (my loved ones) permission to be so unlike themselves. To be so unlike the incredibly generous, compassionate, kind, and loving people they are by their very nature as children of God."

I then realized, that I had to love them enough to NOT believe that this kind of empathy was what I needed.  I remember thinking that it was my own belief in my need for "sympathy" that was the back door to "symptoms" of depression, hopelessness, heart-ache, and fear-based agony about the future.

The second stanza of Mary Baker Eddy's poem, "The New Century" (found in her slim volume Poems, became my constant companion:

"'Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower:
Love hath one race, one realm, one power.
Dear God! how great,
how good Thou art.
To heal humanity's sore heart;
To probe the wound, then pour the balm -
A life perfected, strong and calm.
The dark domain of pain and sin
Surrenders - Love doth enter in,
And peace is won,
and lost is vice:
Right reigns, and blood was not its price."

Yesterday I found the tattered slip of yellowed notebook paper I had written this snippet of poetry on in 1988.  I'd carried it tucked into the back of a journal that I used for recording my thoughts. During a particularly aggressive bout with self-pity, I'd turned to it often, fingering its soft folds and letting the strength of its admonition steel my resolve.  I've carried it in my heart...memorized like a Psalm...ever since. 

I realized then, and again now, that when Love enters the wounded space...the heart, the head, the home....peace is won, God reigns, and our lives are no longer broken, shattered, shaken, or violated, but more tender, softened, supple, and rich with compassion, mercy, and grace.

This slip of a Psalm is back in the front pocket of my heart today....I will caress it in my prayers.

with love and hope...
Kate
Kate Robertson, CS

"Love has one race, one realm, one power..."

"Now is the time approaching,
By prophets long foretold,
When all shall dwell together,
One Shepherd and one fold.
Now Jew and Gentile, meeting
From many a distant shore,
Around one altar kneeling,
One common Lord adore.

Let all that now divides us
Remove and pass away,
Like shadows of the morning
Before the blaze of day.
Let all that now unites us
More sweet and lasting prove,
A closer bond of union,
In a blest land of love."
- J.W. Elliott

The following second stanza from "The New Century" found in Mary Baker Eddy's small volume of published poetry, Poems, is singing through my heart today.  I will let it speak in "eloquent silence" to each of you:

"...Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower:
Love hath one race, one realm, one power.
Dear God! how great, how good Thou art
To heal humanity's sore heart;
To probe the wound, then pour the balm —
A life perfected, strong and calm.
The dark domain of pain and sin
Surrenders — Love doth enter in,
And peace is won, and lost is vice:
Right reigns, and blood was not its price."

-Mary Baker Eddy

Kate