Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Moving from Sense to Soul

By Dee Mahuvawalla CS



In today’s day and age, where we hear about people moving from location to location due to natural disasters, political uprising, marriage breakups, job downsizing, seniors moving into retirement homes and other unexpected crises that come up. The issue of moving deserves a lot of prayerful thought and urgent attention before, during and after the move.

Mind directs each one of us and prepares the way, for the move. As we continue to listen the directions become clearer. Mary Baker Eddy writes in our textbook, “When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress.” (S & H 426:8). In reality we are not moving from location to location but from sense to Soul, from uncertainty to certainty, from fear to freedom, and from limitation to abundance.

There are three stages involved in each move. First is the, spiritual preparation and practical planning for the move; second is the move itself; and third, the settling-in and the adjustment process.

1.     The Spiritual Preparation and Practical Planning
In the book of Psalms, the psalmist asked the question, “Whither shall I go?” (Psalms 139:7). As we pray to be guided to find our new location and home, the Christ goes before us to prepare the way for us. We are listening to this Christly message to make the move a harmonious, restful and effortless process without any stress or strain. Hymn No 51 reads “Love and Love’s work must fit”.

The buying and the selling process takes place as God attracts us to the right party and the transaction takes place smoothly without delay, disturbance or distortion. Every transaction takes place honestly with equality, joyous expectancy, humility, safety freedom and gratitude. In the book of II Corinthians, we read “For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.” (II Corinthians 8:13-15) This spiritual preparation forms the basis for a safe and peaceful transaction.

2.     The  Move itself
The spiritual foundation laid in preparation for the move makes every detail of the move unfold in a very progressive and systematic way, making the whole move a safe one., free from anxiety, pressure or fear, as “God rests in action”. (S & H 519:25)

“And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick…; I will feed them with judgment.” (Ezekiel 34:13-16)

3     The Settling–In
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from us now the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace. (Hymn No. 64:1)

God’s Law of Adjustment is operative and demonstrated to meet every human need in a very effortless way. There is a saying that reads “Man shapes into God’s plan as water shapes into a vessel.”This Law of Adjustment operates smoothly, helping each one of us to express dominion and gratitude for a safe move and for the adjustment.

A favorite hymn reads -
From sense to Soul my pathway lies before me,
From mist and shadow into Truth's clear day;
The dawn of all things real is breaking o'er me,
My heart is singing:  I have found the way. (Hymn No. 64:1)