Self-Confidence
April 22, 1999
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
"What do I trust and why?" became the focus of our work on the topic "Self-Confidence". Even last week as we came up with it, some felt the topic unworthy of consideration by students of Christian Science since it seems a kind of humanistic goal based on self-generated optimism. Deeper reflection, however, showed us that Science does not devalue confidence, even self-confidence, any more than it does health, wealth and happiness. Our work in Science is to make sure we are seeing all good as proceeding from God alone. Human concepts when grounded in Truth are the day-to-day re-creations of the Christ Jesus noumenon-phenomenon.
We discussed how one who has a scientific apprehension of self-confidence would then live it. One member sees it as a matter of living his whole universe — himself, all people, places and things — as one I or Us. Another sees it as being so fully at one with Deity that he is unconcerned with what the people, places and things are doing. One member wondered whether they weren't actually saying the same thing in different words. The question to ask might be: who is in control — a personal sense of I or the I That I Am? We may not be able to avoid entirely the personal I but we can work to keep it in alignment with God.
A couple of interesting additional points emerged:
- The mind seeking Truth is a belief. Unless there is a surrender of this mental position to the facts of being — giving these full reign to bring out the appropriate concept — the tendency will be to outline a dualistic solution which is "sometimes beautiful, always erroneous" (see Science and Health, p. 277: 29-32). One needn't see this result as fearful if he can treat it with the same nonchalance he would going to a movie — a 3D movie — needing deconstruction into its truthful themes and thence into the underlying Divinity.
- A member recommended using specific Christian Science synonyms for God (Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love) which any problem someone might be experiencing is the counterfeit of. He uses them imperatively. Thus he would be Love as the antidote for a rocky love affair. He might be Life if an illness intruded. Or Soul if he felt a twinge of inferiority. This technique might require some study and reflection on the nature of these synonyms beforehand, but practice is not thinking about something but actually being it.
- Piggy-backing on a member's healing last week which came through with the words, "My needs are met," another member confronted a circumstance which had troubled him for over a year. His landlord was withholding his lease renewal and despite calls and even the help of a practitioner, nothing was forthcoming. The conviction expressed in the other member's testimony brought a burst of enthusiasm to his work on the problem. He saw that he lives in Heaven (see Science and Health, p. 589:15, where Home and Heaven are equated) and also that the Lord is his landlord. Two days later, the signed lease came through.
- A member demonstrated how she "processes" emotional material before trying to get to the Science of a situation. When a dear friend was unable to keep an appointment, she felt it was somehow her fault. She recognized this as irrational childish thinking, pointing to early traumas. With this information in tow she called a member of the group and they were able to see her divine selfhood unaffected by any human traumas. She was and is the effect of Love alone. She reported feeling peaceful enough to phone the friend and keep the bonding alive in spite of the unexpected cancellation of their date.
- Another member while talking to friends misspoke embarrassingly but was able to evaluate this parapraxis as an indication of unhealed pain associated with a love affair twenty years ago. This in turn referred to very early incest memories. He has worked on this problem before but likes the information he got from this meeting regarding living the synonyms. Rather than being a diagnostic mind he likes the idea of living Love.
- The member who is planning a one man show in May suddenly found his venue space pulled away. He had already sent out flyers. He held to the facts of being — that he in his right place as the reflection of God — and was able to speak peacefully with the owners of the restaurant. They agreed to let the show go forward as planned.
- Another member discovered during the week as he prayed over the topic that he is missing business and perhaps romantic possibilities as he lets fear cut him off before he tries. It's like an overwhelming background noise that he was just unaware of until a bit of Science broke through and turned it off to some extent. There is nothing to fear when God is the only Mind thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting.
- Another member realized how difficult it had been for him in his career to be adulated as a kind of icon. He just wanted to do his job but always seemed to be the object of others' unrealistic expectations. He found Science helpful in keeping both ego inflation and folks with romantic obsessions at bay. This favorable result was apparently based on a correct understanding of self-confidence in Science; it was this week's reflection on our topic which showed him what he'd been doing instinctively through the years.
- We worked on the Littleton rampage by getting off the mortal basis of belief to understand the infinity of Love and the continuousness of Life. The horrendous events depict what matter is "capable" of rendering within its suppositional system. We did not feel we would ourselves avoid such things if we drift along on a belief level and we would be in no position to give help to those suffering. We decided not to get sucked into the picture but to oppose its allurements to the extent possible without being thought strange. Instead we would stick to the facts of Science as the investigation proceeds and the community deals with its sad emotions.
- The member who got the book If the Buddha Dated last week read a list of core problems that are said to block intimacy. He was supposed to pick one and work on it but found he suffered from all nine! Was he so specially damaged? No, he saw, he was just evaluating himself on the mortal basis and fortunately saw the bankruptcy of such an approach. He'll go with some of the techniques that were discussed at our meeting — for instance, what could be more intimate than living the God being of himself and others?
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Our theories are based on finite premises, which cannot penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God and of man's capabilities necessarily limits faith and hinders spiritual understanding.
The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must be universally done.
Perfection is gained only by perfection.
The law of God is the law of Spirit, a moral and spiritual force of immortal and divine Mind. The so-called law of matter is an immoral force of erring mortal mind, alias the minds of mortals. This so-called force, or law, at work in nature as a power, prohibition, or license, is cruel and merciless. It punishes the innocent, and repays our best deeds with sacrifice and suffering. It is a code whose modes trifle with joy, and lead to immediate or ultimate death. It fosters suspicion where confidence is due, fear where courage is requisite, reliance where there should be avoidance, a belief in safety where there is most danger.
True idealism is a divine Science, which combines in logical sequence, nature, reason, and revelation. An effect without a cause is inconceivable; neither philosophy nor reason attempts to find one; but all should conceive and understand that Spirit cannot become less than Spirit; hence that the universe of God is spiritual,—even the ideal world whose cause is the self-created Principle, with which its ideal or phenomenon must correspond in quality and quantity.
Nature declares, throughout the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, that the specific nature of all things is unchanged, and that nature is constituted of and by Spirit.
To the material sense, everything is matter; but spiritualize human thought, and our convictions change: for spiritual sense takes in new views, in which nature becomes Spirit; and Spirit is God, and God is good.