 Here is a recent recording of a lecture on Christian Science - "Angry no more" -delivered in Altrincham, UK this spring. The following is a blurb from the press release: Not a week goes by without some report of physical, emotional or sexual abuse making the headlines. People are looking for a way out of the anger that abuse leaves in its wake. International speaker Michelle Nanouche says, “For those who have been trailed by a sad past or marked by abuse, this lecture offers insights to neutralize the perpetual reaction and move on from anger to forgiveness.” Not a subscriber and want to be?
It's easy! Just sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS  My lecture "Angry No More: From hurt to health through forgiveness" is available for viewing in it's entirety online for the next month or so. The lecture was held on November 14, 2013 in Newport Beach, California. The sponsors, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Newport Beach have made the 55 minute video available on their website at http://www.cs-nb.com/ . Today's Your Daily Lift - a two minute inspirational podcast - includes a very condensed version of a healing of chronic pain that I share at greater length in the lecture. Please have a listen! Did you enjoy this post? Did you find it helpful?
The readership of this blog is growing by leaps and bounds due to readers like you - sharing, emailing, tweeting, and posting the link so that others can find it. If you wish to subscribe, simply scroll up and submit your email in the box shown in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS  Here is a 5 minute podcast that shows you a bit of what I am working on for the "Angry no more" lecture that will be coming soon. Hope you find it helpful! Also, if you would like to see/hear short clips from my other two lectures- "Finding God, finding health" and "Unending life within your reach" - they are now available on my LECTURES page. To be sure you don't miss something,
you can have new posts delivered to your email inbox. Simply subscribe in the sidebar. And if this post is meaningful to you, it may also help others. Please share! You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS 6/4/2013 Coming soon: Angry no more Blog readers are always the first to know. A new lecture is under development. Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement on my LECTURES page of when the new lecture "Angry no more" will be available. Here is a synopsis: From hurt to health through forgiveness.This one hour lecture introduces Christian Science and healing through prayer for emotional, mental and physical issues stemming from unhealed anger. For those who have felt victimized by their circumstances, trailed by a sad past, or who are marked by abuse, this lecture offers insights that neutralize perpetual reaction to pain and anger. The spiritual reasoning through prayer, taught in Christian Science unlocks ones potential for peace, forgiveness, restoration and progress. This lecture presents the life of Mrs. Eddy in the context of her personal journey from grief and disappointment to the spiritual insight and healing that led to her becoming a world-renowned American religious reformer. It addresses common questions about Christian Science and its practice:
To be sure you don't miss something,
you can have new posts delivered to your email inbox. Simply subscribe in the sidebar. And if this post is meaningful to you, it may also help others. Please share! You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS  Here is my first attempt at video blogging. Please bear with me. There is clearly a learning curve. Shaky camera work, scary closeups, blurry bits and unsynchronized lips/words aside - it was fun. And hey, you can always listen with your eyes closed! Find a link to a print version of this experience as it appeared in the March 1999 Christian Science Journal. "We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or spiritual law. . . . The harmony and immortality of man will never be reached without the understanding that Mind is not in matter. Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the rule of perpetual harmony,—God's law. It is man's moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never inflicted by divine authority." ( Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 381). I hope you enjoy this blog. And if you do, please feel free to share it!
If having a new blog posts delivered to your email inbox would interest you, you can subscribe in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS  There is a "don't miss" conversation going on at Time4thinkers.com. "Radical Acts" is a summer project - online and ecumenical - inviting anyone and everyone to take one of 18 of Jesus' toughest teachings and to live it this summer. One of these teachings is to befriend lepers, prostitutes - so-called undesirables or untouchables - and the comments and stories being shared on this subject are unbelievably powerful. Melody Colliate is one who has committed to living this radical act. She blogged: "What makes someone undesirable? Their physical appearance? Their actions? Does God see people as undesirable?  "I once had a roommate who I thought was 'undesirable.' This girl had a strong, opinionated attitude, and she was not afraid to show her full emotions and judgments toward people. I was quick to judge too and our interactions included many eye rolls and snotty glares. "I did what I could to change the situation and we ended up in separate rooms. But a week later I heard an angel voice telling me that I needed to befriend this girl so that I could grow..." What she did next was pretty remarkable. And the sharing in the comments section after her post will warm your heart and impel you to stretch your love muscles - finding no one is out of reach. I left a comment, too. I told a story that I also shared last Christmas in a post - an unforgetable experience of reaching out and touching someone who hadn't been touched in a long time.  About ten years ago I was scheduled to lecture in Vero Beach, Florida. Sunday morning before the lecture, I attended a local church. As we rose to sing, a homeless man entered the auditorium. Looking around, he spotted me sitting on my own and made a bee-line to sit next to me. It was clearly his first time in this church. I helped him with the hymnal and showed him how to follow the order of service. A few minutes into the worship, he became very restless and agitated. He smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared to be struggling with withdrawal. I reached out and took his hand. He became very still as he clutched mine. For the rest of the hour he barely moved. I had the sense that he hadn't had such human contact for a really long time and was afraid that I might let go. I couldn't let him go. My heart wouldn't let me. I held his hand for the entire service. At the end, he turned to me and said, "I love you." Then he made his way to the lobby where he was greeted by the church members.  Meeting this man was a gift. I thought about his courage. He broke through the resistance to attend a service at a church he had never visited before, to leave the bottle and his shopping cart full of his belongings outside, to enter even though he was unbathed and didn't know what type of reception he might receive. This man entered the church, sat next to me and gave me the gift of his presence. He loved me and gave me an opportunity to love him right back - simply by taking his hand in mine. This experience changed forever how I think of loving one's neighbor, and of the healing impact of touching the so-called "untouchables." Matthew tells of Jesus healing a man of leprosy simply through breaking cultural and religious laws that restricted human contact with a person in that state. The Message (Eugene Peterson) says, "A leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, "Master, if you want to, you can heal my body." Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be clean." Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone." Fear of contagion or of critics was nothing to Jesus when it came to loving and healing. No one was beyond his touch. Jesus was a true friend.  If you are interested in this, or other Radical Acts we're focusing on this summer, check out these links: 1. BE childlike. 2. BEFRIEND lepers, prostitutes, “undesirables.” 3. CAST the beam out of your own eye. 4. CHALLENGE Pharisees. 5. DO GOOD to people who hate you. 6. FEED the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter strangers, visit prisoners. 7. FORGIVE 70 x 7. 8. HEAL the sick, cast out evil, raise the dead. 9. LIVE more abundantly. 10. LOSE your life to find it. 11. LOVE your neighbor as yourself. 12. MULTIPLY loaves and fishes. 13. SEEK the kingdom first — don’t worry about food/drink/clothing. 14. SELL what you have - give to the poor. 15. TAKE up your bed and walk. 16. TRAVEL without a wallet. 17. WASH someone’s feet. 18. WALK on water. Love it? Please share it. Let's work together to share the love.
Also, if you aren't yet a subscriber, a full-text version of the blog can be delivered to your email inbox. It's easy to sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT  Have you ever suffered from buried anger? Anger is often simply accepted – as if we have no choice in the matter. But that isn’t true. Anger is sin. No one is required to sin. By eliminating anger as an influence, we can expect our prayers for others to be stronger and more effective. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus introduces several different subjects with variations on the words, “You have heard…” He could well have been indicating, without judgment, that we all have heard and experienced the same things and, consequently, have similar lessons to learn. The Sermon on the Mount teaches how to address and eliminate different forms of evil - the stuff that everyone has dealt with at one time or another. One subject was anger. Jesus said, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5:21-22)  Jesus points out anger's range - from the subtle expression of annoyance, to the strongest of insults, to the full-out murder already condemned in the Ten Commandments. "Raca" was a light criticism, like a modern-day "Oh, dear", while "Thou fool" could easily result in punches being thrown and the cops being called. Notice how anger is linked with hell. We’ve all been angry, or have been the recipient of someone's anger, at one time or another. What does it feel like? Exactly. Hellfire. Once he had his listeners' attention, Jesus gave direction on when and how to cut off anger before it begins to complicate one's life. He said, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer..." (See ibid. 5:23-26) Trust me, it all goes downhill from there. To me, to “leave your offering at the altar” is to drop everything - every activity, interest, desire – until we have found love for our brother or sister or neighbor or enemy – until we have reconciled our brother with our understanding of divine Love. It’s totally in prayer that this can be accomplished. If not, unhealed anger would contaminate all our offerings, all our prayers, and it would strangle the joy out of life.  Once, while praying for a healing of chronic pain, I realized that I was suffering from buried anger. Whether the offense was great or small doesn’t matter. Because of the anger, I believed that I was not worthy of being healed. The part of me holding onto anger (a mortal sense) was the same part suggesting that I was a victim of someone's cruelty. This double-barreled shotgun of anger and victimization was pointed at my heart, with fear pressing down on the trigger. The suggestion was that I could just as easily succumb to disease. I knew that when anger is released, healings often come quicker. But how could I start? Jesus’ Sermon-message on healing anger, and Mary Baker Eddy’s inspired take on his meaning, pointed the way for me. Jesus continued in the Sermon, by saying, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou are in the way with him.” Mrs. Eddy explained, “Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 390) Try reading that passage by substituting the word anger for sin. Sin is anger. And vice versa.  The simple thought that God is no more the author of sickness than he is of anger, or even of the so-called sin that produced it, helped me see that neither anger, sin, nor sickness were personal faults. If God didn’t create them in me, I couldn’t generate or perpetuate them in myself. I followed Jesus' and Eddy’s instructions to a T. I dismissed the aggressive mental suggestion that anger was a power over which I had no control. I claimed, in prayer, my spiritual authority to stop it. And I could, you know. Letting go of anger never did depend on the behavior of anyone else. Anger and the accompanying sense of helplessness over it, was a sin that I had the right and ability to kick out of my experience at any point. I was healed of the chronic pain that very day. That was more than ten years ago. It never came back. Anger is not a built-in. It is not a part of anyone’s nature. I am not the angry type. Neither are you or anyone else. As God’s children we are the type of God, of universal, divine Love. Praying from that angle, anger cannot tie us down.  Want some prayer MOJO today? (MOJO is the confidence, clarity and feeling of momentum that indicates your prayers are moving you forward.)
(HEAD'S UP! Be sure to check back on Saturday to find Kay Olson's guest post on healing anger through love.) If you like what you see, please share the links with your friends, fans and followers!
A full-text version of this blog can be delivered to your email inbox. Please subscribe in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTINGS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT  I bet you remember this little ditty: “Sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you.”
My folks repeated that saying to me whenever I was called names. As catchy as it is, I didn’t find much comfort in it. Sometimes names and words can hit you like a shot in the heart. They can stick in one’s memory, too. I still remember the day my brother called me “bow-legged”, and that was in the first grade! Christ Jesus thought words were important. He firmly rejected calling people by names that, today, we might not consider so bad; but to him they were pretty offensive. One word was raca, an Aramaic term of mild contempt meaning good-for-nothing. He declared it even worse to call someone a fool. 1/18/2012 One, two, three - One parent's prayer My daughter, at 10 years old, was pushing boundaries. I resorted to a time- tested method to get her attention: I started counting to three. As I rounded two and was expecting a quick restoration of order, she piped up with, "You know, Mommy, my friends' parents count to ten."
Retorting quickly in all sincerity, I said, "Oh, Betsy, you don't realize what you are asking. Three is for your protection. If you made me count all the way to ten, I just don't know what I might do!" 11/8/2011 It only takes one better thought A woman stood at a scarf counter in an upscale department store waiting to get the attention of the sales clerk who was busy doing other things and completely ignoring her. Fuming, feeling invisible and neglected, she was about to react when the thought came to pause and pray.
Taking a deep breath, she thought, "I must be able to see at least one quality of God in this sales clerk before I speak." So she prayed. And she listened for something, anything good about this clerk. Lots came to mind, but they were more faults than positive qualities derived from God, universal Good. And then she thought, "Wait a minute. She breathes, therefore she expresses Life!" |
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I have practiced Christian Science professionally in some form since 1979. But my journey with Christian Science started in a Sunday school where as a young child I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics of Jesus' method of scientific Christian healing. A significant experience at the age of twelve opened my eyes to the great potential of this practice. After impaling my foot on a nail, I prayed the way I had learned in Sunday school. Within moments the pain stopped and healing began. By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely. Having experienced the great potential of Christian Science, there would be no turning back. |
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