We all want some portion of our lives to live beyond midnight. We gain palpable security from our possessions and there are serious drawbacks to the soul in the abstraction of experience. We can stop to compose ourselves at any time. Composure is the result, not the precondition, of assembling the events of our lives into a meaningful whole. The intellectual attempt to live in a known World deprives ordinary life of its unconscious elements, those things we encounter every day but know little about. If we are fortunate, we get to take a long pause before we pass into Heaven. When frailty or something else limits our external activities, we are given the opportunity to expand our reach into ourselves. The unconscious and the soul are similar, and so when we try to live fully consciously in an intellectually predictable World, protected from all mysteries and comfortable with conformity, we lose our everyday opportunities for the soulful life. The intellect wants to know; the soul likes to be surprised. Intellect, looking outward, wants enlightenment and the pleasure of burning enthusiasm. The soul is always drawn inward, and seeks contemplation and the more shadowy, mysterious experiences of the terrestrial. Our places and people are composite in space and time, constructed from various sources and from widely separate periods of life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
To varying degrees, we all accumulate things as appendages of ourselves. Our recollections are mosaics, composed of fragments of what we actually experience and arranged to suit our need for meaning. At each juncture, we decide what to reveal to others, what to keep for ourselves, and what to forget. When our spirituality is not sufficiently profound, it sometimes sneaks out a backdoor and takes on bizarre forms, all kinds of strange enthusiasm. Often, when spirituality loses its soul it takes on the shadow-form of fundamentalism. The long hours of lying in bed or being confined to home invite us to use the interlude to make order out of life’s disarray. We construct a World which is constantly within reach and which endures more reliably than anything human. Things literally stand by us. Their constancy becomes all the more valuable when we move from place to place, or when the rest of our lives seems to be in flux. The intellect wants a summary meaning—all well and good for the purposeful nature of the mind. However, the soul craves depth of reflection, many layers of meaning, nuances without end, references and allusions and prefigurations. All these enrich the texture of an image or story and please the soul by giving it much food for rumination. Ruminating is one of the chief delights of the soul. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Many people have their closest relationships with things. Ownership is the most intimate relation that one can have to objects. The longer we own our belongings, the more we belong to them. Time after time, when we are feeling low, something inside of us lets us know, it is alright. Love is on our side. When the World becomes a lonely place, we have a dream that will not leave a trace of the blues. We just think of our possessions and feel like we have a real thing here by our side. Something that needs us and these memories hold us tight. And these special feelings will never fade. These objects and possession put a move on our hearts. Our love is like a melody. The collector dreams our way not only into a remote or bygone World, but at the same time into a better one in which these things bring special feelings that time cannot erase, and we are liberated from the drudgery of uselessness. Collecting preserves the past while it elevates objects in value and cancels out their ordinary functions. They will love us to the end of time. Accumulating and remembering are parallel phenomena, one external and the other internal. The accumulated past makes the shrinking future more bearable. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
The infinite inner space of a story, whether from religion or from daily life, is its soul. Over time, our need to call up memories of someone wanes, but we resist the waning of this need as if it is a disloyalty and not a slow process of yielding. Saving a keepsake becomes a refusal to yield. If we deprive sacred stories of their mystery, we are left with the brittle shell of fact, the literalism of a single meaning. However, when we allow a story its soul, we can discover our own depths through it. Fundamentalism tends to idealize and romanticize story, winnowing the darker elements of doubt, hopelessness, and emptiness. It protects us from the hard work of finding our own participation in meaning and developing our own subtle moral values. The sacred object or teaching of a story, which has the potential of deepening the mystery of our own identity, instead is used defensively in fundamentalism, to spare us the anxiety of being an individual with choice, responsibility, and a continually changing sense of self. The tragedy of fundamentalism is any context is its capacity to freeze life into a solid cube of meaning. The capacity to become unencumbered by the past lies in the nature of our leave-taking, not in cutting ourselves off from sentiment. When we attain a flexible relationship with the past, we thrive. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Biologically, only the future matters; the aim of all creatures is to go on living. Unique to the human condition is the privilege and burden of the past. When our biological aims recede in prominence, what is most distinctive in us can finally gain ascendance. In this age of psychology, many people convince themselves that they have certain troubles in their lives because of what happened to them in childhood. They take developmental psychology literally and blame their parents for everything they have become. However, unless your parents are still somehow manipulating your life, working with a cult, and prying into your business to try to accomplish something they have been trying to do since you were a child, it is time to let that go. If one could see through those childhood stories, listen to them as myth, grasp their poetry, and hear the eternal mysteries singing through them, the situation might change. Soul provides a strong sense of individuality—personal destiny, special influences and background, and unique stories. When caring for one’s soul, a person must begin in the simple making sense of one’s story. Many people insist that they find little value in going back over the past, even as their future shrinks and their past becomes their most extensive possession. Sorrow, regret, and guilt accompany their passage into their memories. When they cannot sleep, such people ruminate, captured by the ceaseless reiteration of all that remains unsolved. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
When they can work, they can put other problems to the back of their mind, but the problems tend to grow out of al proportion, and they occupy the dark hours of the night. Closing oneself off from significant parts of the past is a common self-protection. For some people, it is not good to look back, it makes them more miserable than they have to be. Trying to discern a theme that makes sense or offers solace may seem fruitless. One difficulty is that our most important stories have to be lived before they can be spoken. We repeat painful parts of our past through our actions long before we are able to call them forth as actual memories. When one reproduces an earlier event not in one’s memory, but in one’s behavior, the individual repeats it without of course knowing he or she is repeating it. The soul’s complex means of self-expression is an aspect of its depth and subtlety. When we feel something soulfully, it is sometimes difficult to express that feeling clearly. Since soul is more concerned with relatedness than intellectual understanding, the knowledge that comes from the soul’s intimacy with experience is more difficult to articulate than the kind of analysis that can be done at a distance. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Our satisfaction is experiencing the incomplete becoming complete and the Universal law of symmetry fulfilled. Soul is also always in process, having, as its own principle of movement; so it is difficult to pin down with definition or a fixed meaning. When spirituality loses contact with soul and these values, it can become rigid, simplistic, moralistic, and authoritarian—qualities that betray a loss of soul. Recalling earlier versions of ourselves is initially quieting. The life review process is an ongoing one. Peace may be won, but it is usually something like a truce between renewed outbreaks of conflict. Yet, if we persist in the effort to sort through and to make order of our experiences, we may eventually come to peace with conflict itself. Once we are able to discern value in the whole, we may begin to reconcile ourselves to the contradictory pieces that comprise a life. In human life, we resolve the problem of meaning by joining the disparate parts of our lives together into coherent while. When feelings bound to the past are suddenly emancipated, we need someone to take the time to hear us out. This inclination to return to the beginning to make an ending arise in every form of human expression. We read novels for the resolution of the initial themes, and we listen to music with an ear toward the completion of what was set in motion with the first few notes. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
The process of attaining completion may not be as orderly in life as it is in music and literature, but the striving for symmetry is the same. A recollection plays out the original experience and changes it, just as an octave both repeats the beginning note and alters it. An event gains meaning by its repetition, which is both the recall of an earlier moment and a variation of it. We construct endings by returning to familiar events and making more of them than we did before. In telling our most painful stories to someone else, we simultaneously repeat out suffering and allow it to evolve into something we can bear. We all desire a satisfying ending, to have our lives culminate in something that makes sense. Sense-making requires that the disparate parts of our lives fit together into one whole, comprehensive story. Such consonance is necessary for the attainment of meaning. For even the highest and strictest forms of spirituality can coexist with soulfulness. The problem is never spirituality in itself, which is absolutely necessary for human life, but the narrow fundamentalism that arises when spirituality and soul are split apart. There are many different kinds of spirituality. The kind with which we are most familiar is the spirituality of transcendence, the lofty quest for the highest vision, Universal moral principles, and liberation from many limitations of human life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
We know that most mental and emotional congestions, with their inner repressions and unconscious conflicts, are due to a lack of proper assimilation of emotional ideas. We widen our solitudes by esteeming our memories and making use of them, instead of hoarding them, disregarding them, or keeping them to ourselves. There cannot be proper circulation in the mental body unless the spiritual body, to which the mental is attached, circulates through the mental; we cannot even be physically whole until there is a circulation of the spirit through the mind, and the mind through the body. The divine spirit is already perfect, inwardly. Be therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. We believe that humans are rooted in pure spirit; we are a spiritual entity right now, here in this World, and it is impossible for a person to be completely well physically unless one is happy mentally. Equally, we believe that it is difficult for one to be happy mentally unless one’s mind has the assurance that it is rooted in something stable and permanent, something transcendent and altogether whole within itself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Humans are spirit, soul, and body. Try to live in the physical organism without the mind is impossible. Try to live on the intellectual thoughts without feeling is equally impossible. However, not to realize that even the mind, wonderful as it is, is dependent upon something greater than itself, is disastrous. For if many of our physical troubles are the result of an inward emotional conflict based on a sense of inadequacy or defeat, and an unconscious feeling of guilt and rejection, then nothing is more certain than that the mind and the feeling must have the assurance of a power greater than themselves, governing, guiding, and enveloping. In God we live, and move, and have our being. If we seek the truth, develop faith in God, and sincerely repent, we will receive a spiritual change of heart which only comes from our Savior. Our hearts will become new again. This is how we assist the healing process of the soul. Draw near unto God and he will draw near unto you; seek God diligently and you shall find God. God knows the heart of each of us. He knows the pains of our hearts. If we seek the truth, develop faith in God, and if necessary, sincerely repent, we will receive a spiritual change of heart which only comes from our Savior. Our hearts will become new again. Repentance brings about a spiritual healing of the soul. The demands of divine justice do awaken our immortal soul. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
The Lord’s mill of justice grinds slowly, but exceedingly well. In the Lord’s economy, no one will escape the consequences of unresolved violations of his laws. In his time, and in his way, God’s full payment will be required for unrepented evil acts. In the broadest sense, spirituality is an aspect of any attempt to approach or attend to the invisible factors of life and to transcend the personal, concrete, finite particulars of the World. Religion stretches its gaze beyond this life to the time of creation. It also concerns itself with afterlife and with the highest values in this life. This spiritual point of view is necessary for the soul, providing the breadth of vision, the inspiration, and the sense of meaning it needs. Spirituality is not always specifically religious. Mathematics is spiritual in the board sense, abstracting from the concrete details of life. A walk through the woods on a sunny winter day can be a spiritual acidity, if only because it is a way of getting away from home and routine and being inspired by tall, antiquated trees and the processes of nature, which are far beyond human scale. Spirit lifts us out of the confines of human dimensions, and in doing so nourishes the soul. The February afternoon grew dark. The ground was covered in feet of white sheets of snow. He grew more tired. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
After a while, he whispered, “Do something for me? Leave a little early. Walk a few blocks and look at the sky. Walk the World for me.” From his hospital bed, a seventeen-year-old cancer patient yearned to look at the whole sky. He could not move, but he looked at that bright blue sky with such love. The snow had stopped and in its place was a blazing, brilliant Sunshine. Not being isolated, not being in pain, and not being dead are privileges which we relish most after we endure loneliness, agony, and a glimpse of death. Under duress, the human capacity to make meaning out of the barest circumstances assets itself. We cannot shed our awareness that this fate could just as easily be ours. Sometimes people get caught up in playing at rituals that they have no essence. They play with the rubrics in too light a manner. The deep sense of how things can be accomplished, with style, to evoke a dimension that truly nourishes the soul is when you know it is genuine. When someone who has not yet been personally initiated into the World of illness visits someone in a hospital or nursing home, the rift between health and illness is most pronounced. People who are experience impairments often do not have much to day because their lives are so empty. If as an innocent victim have been seriously wronged, do not harbour feelings of hatred, anger at what appears to be unjust. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The soul needs an intense, full-bodies spiritual life as much as and in the same way that the body needs food. The layout of care facilities compels us to walk through a wrenching silence on our way to the person we are visiting. The lobby and hallways are full of people sitting in wheelchairs, staring into space and not speaking to one another. By the time we reach our friend or relative’s room, we may already feel strangled, wanting to flee the silence or to force the exuberance of the outside World into such a speechless place. The soul might be cared for better through our developing a deep life of ritual rather than through many years of counseling for personal behavior and relationships. If we had more ritual in our lives and less psychology adjustment, we might even have a better time of it in such soul matters as love and emotion. We confuse purely temporal, personal and immediate issues with deeper and enduring concerns of the soul. Medical civilization is planned and organized to eliminate pain, alleviate sickness, and to abolish the for an art of suffering and dying. When standing at someone’s bedside in a hospital or nursing home, we find ourselves at a loss for words and believe that we are failing. We rush to arrange flowers or report on the weather, trying to cover our awkwardness with falsely cheerful banter. The Savior has made it clear that to receive forgiveness we must forgive others their offenses against us. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Spirituality is powerful, and therefore has the potential for evil, as well as for good. The soul needs spirit, but our spirituality also needs soul—deep intelligence, a sensitivity to the symbolic and metaphoric life, genuine community, and attachment to the World. We who walk away from the bedside and resume the freedoms of the outside World must be careful not to judge the person suffering from an ailment on our own terms. Inflated by good health, our standards are likely to render our judgments too severe and cause us to miss nuances of pleasure and meaning. The very conditions which evoke our revulsion may be all that someone has left of satisfaction. In our spirituality, we reach for consciousness, awareness, and the highest values; in our soulfulness, we endure the most pleasurable and the most exhausting of human experience and emotions. These two directions make up the fundamental pulse of human life, and to an extent, they have an attraction to each other. This same merging of feelings lessens the loneliness of someone who is grieving the loss of health and independence. People do not need or want to feel like a lump of flesh, like we have to get them out of the way as fast as we can. Yet, try as you might, you will not find enduring happiness until, through repentance, you satisfy personally broken law to restore peace to a troubled conscience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
No one needs to be told that we live in a time of materialism and consumerism, of lost values and a shift in ethical standards. We find ourselves tempted to call for a return to the old values and ways. It seems that in the past we were more religious as a people and that traditional values had more influence throughout the society. However, whether or not that is a blurry, nostalgic view of the past, we want to keep in mind that we have been warned about dealing with present difficulties by wishing for a return to former conditions. This maneuver is a regressive restoration of the persona. Mercy most affects us when we are in the hospital or care facility. We become primitive, hungry for a loving hug and comfort. Time slows down. It can seem that all we have been and done has come to nothing. In this situation, someone taking the time to heed our cravings and recognize our needs means more than we can say. Societies can fall into a defensive strategy, attempting to restore what is imagined to be a better condition from the past. The trouble is, memory is always part imagination, and tough times of another era are later unconsciously gilded into the good old days. If we can resist this temptation to improve the present by restoring the past, we can start to face our current challenges. We can regain peace of conscience by repenting of personal transgressions that cause us internal turmoil. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
In the science of the mind we do not say everything is all right when it is all wrong. We do not say peace when there is no peace, but rather we try to discover what is wrong and why we do not have peace. We do not say that people are not poor, sick, or unhappy. We ask why these things should be if the original cause of all things is harmonious, perfect, radiant, and happy. We have no one to denounce and nothing to antagonize. The key to lost spirituality and numbing materialism is not merely to intensify our quest for spirituality, but to reimagine it. For healing a split between spirituality and Worldliness we must establish soul in the middle, between spirit and body, as a way to prevent the two from becoming extreme caricatures of themselves. We must find concrete ways of getting soul back into our spiritual practices, our intellectual life, and our emotional and physical engagements with the World. Seeking cooperation with all, we should endeavor to relieve the mind of the burden of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. All of these attitudes could be wrapped in one package and labeled a lack of faith in ourselves, in each other, and in life. Let us not fool ourselves by thinking that a few idle statements will do this. Challenges can often bring blessings to others when their needs have caused the disturbed feelings in our mind. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
A true resolution calls for a calm, insistent determination to reorganize the whole body of our thinking, until at last the little irritations and vexations of life, the too harsh differences of belief, and the disagreements with everything and everyone are redeemed. This redemption can only through a conscious sense of our union with something greater than we are. In doing this, we shall discover love is the lodestone of life. There is nothing cold or unfeeling about the philosophy of religious science and the practice of the science of the mind. As it reaches back to the original source, it must bring some knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven into the consciousness of humanity. Coldness, criticism, unkindness have no place in this philosophy or in this science. We must be willing to place ourselves in the other person’s position and, with true compassion, enter into the thoughts and feelings of others, not as one caught in them or distraught by them, but as one who comes as a redeemer, a savior, to bring light of truth to those who have lost the way. However, we must have a deep desire and willingness to sympathize with the person who suffers. Our efforts will be stepping-stones to greater personal growth as Spirit-guided solutions are found. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
There is no place in this practice for arrogance or the holier-than-thou attitude. The great have always been humble. The great have always been kind. The great have always been lovers of humanity. Peace of mind is restored by resolving the external forces that disturb it. Not so with a troubled conscience, for it is unrelenting, ever present, a constant reminder of the need to correct one’s past mistakes, to resolve an offense to other, or to repent of transgression. The ability to have an unsettled conscience is a gift of God to help us succeed in this moral life. The divine power or influence emanates from God, and it gives light and life to all things. It prompts all rational individuals throughout the Earth to distinguish truth from error, right from it. It activates your conscience. The divine power’s influence can be weakened through transgressions and addiction and restored through proper repentance. The light of God is a power and influence that comes when followed and can lead a person to quality for the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It is well to remember that even with peace of conscience we can have temporary periods when our peace of mind is interrupted by external concerns. However, our understanding of the causes can relive much of the pressure they generate. As our personal lives conform to the teachings of the Lord, we can seek his help in resolving the troubling issues. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
While legends are a way of telling stories about felt experience of faith and culture, rituals are actions that speak to the mind and the heart. We should return, then, to our central theme with renewed hope and increased vigor, and most certainly with an exuberant enthusiasm; with something of the spirit of an adventurer or explorer who goes out to discover new countries. The untold good which the creative spirit has placed at our disposal awaits the magic touch of our consciousness to spring into expression for us, filling the cup of our desire with its manifold of gifts. Who does not wish to be well, happy, and prosperous? Is there any normal person who desires to be inactive, impoverished, and in pain? Of course not! And there is not a voice within each of us forever proclaiming and insisting upon this divine potentiality? This urge to express is natural. Feeling unexpressed is frustration, but energy converted into action is accomplished, and we can be certain that the eternal is with us and never against us when we are never against anyone else. Moreover, we can be certain that the prayer of faith will lift up the chalice of expectancy for the outpouring of the spirit, that one may receiver from it all that one’s soul can contain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Vulnerability evokes powerful feelings in both the susceptible and the strong. We do not have to understand these feelings as much as we need to respond to them. Through our responses, we learn about the aspects of ourselves and our relationships that may have been concealed for years. We return to the yearnings of our youth. Ritual maintains the World’s holiness. Knowing that everything we do, no matter how simple, has a halo of imagination around it and can serve the soul enriches life and makes the things around us more precious, more worthy of our protection, and care. In a life that is animated with ritual, there are no insignificant things. When traditional cultures carve elaborate faces and figures on their structures, they are acknowledging the soul in ordinary things, as well as the fact that simple work is also ritual. Tradition is an important part of ritual because the soul is so much greater in scope than an individual’s consciousness. The body must be properly care for, and we should come to understand that body-mind relationships. We must also never forget that people are primarily spiritual beings with a mind and body. It is only wen these three are brought together that we can hope to have health, happiness, and success. Exercise in faith in true principles builds character; fortified character expands our capacity to exercise more faith. As a result, our capacity and confidence to conquer the trials of life is enhanced. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Intellectual acknowledgment of one’s ultimate fragility is no match for the yield of lived experience. We are always aware that we are vulnerable to illness, but we do not quite believe in its likelihood until it actually happens to us. If many of our physical troubles come from an inward sense of uncertainty and insecurity, it follows that we must find a security greater than that insecurity which comes from a sense of being isolated from the Universe, separated from the cause of our being, or apart from God. A consistent, righteous life produces an inner power and strength that can be permanently resistant to the eroding influence of sin and transgression. When faith is properly understood and used, it has dramatically far-reaching effects. Such faith can transform an individual’s life from maudlin, common everyday activities to a symphony of joy and happiness. The exercise of faith is vital to Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness. We must have faith in the capacity to discover hidden characteristics and traits that can transform life. Truly, faith in the Savior is a principle of action and power. Faith is a foundation building block of creation. God created the most remote galaxies as well as composed quarks, and the smallest elements of matter we know today. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
People who are kind, generous, and compassionate give others a striking affirmation of the intrinsic worth and importance of human beings. After being reduced to bodily terms, we are never the same. For the rest of our lives, we are unable to forget how much it is possible t be in need of others. We approach our relationships differently from then on, emphasizing those bonds which seem likely to withstand the tests of time and strain, and putting less effort into bonds of convenience. The nature of our aspirations changes along with the style of our relationships. We start asking different things of life. Considering how common impairments are, how tremendous the spiritual change it brings, it becomes clear that each has our own special demons and divine figures, our own other-World landscapes and struggles. As a result of these changes, people suffering from detriment or restriction can often tell in a glance whether someone they meet has every had the experience of being helpless. They notice that a gap separates them from those who continue to be beguiled by good health. They watch as friends and relatives go on living from day to day as if they are invincible, dwelling inside a privileged deception. People suffering from ailments are not star athlete’s, who can take a hit and keep on ticking, and sometimes unnecessary psychological stress can make their condition worse, as it can amplify the pain they are experiencing or cause other conditions to flare up. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Healthy people often find themselves distracted by the crude exterior of affliction, bypassing much of the complexity going on beneath the surface. Knowing what to say and do in the presence of a person who is incapacitated requires an awareness of what it is like to have time on one’s hands and to be at the mercy of others, but also knowledge of the range of emotions that arise in reaction to helplessness itself. A man spent several weeks confined to his bed. He was seriously ill and was unable to get out of bed, or move at all, even if it was only to go from laying on one side to laying on the other side. It was in that state of extreme helplessness that he saw how much a person can be in need of others. He was in need not only of his doctors, nurses, and medical staff, but also of God and spiritual help. Not only for medical care, but for comforting words or gestures. The problem of impairment raises two fundamental questions…Why me? (the questions of bafflement), and What can be done? (The question of order and control). We oppose the lessons of helplessness, hardening ourselves against the indignities and rejecting the forced revisions of our priorities. We hope only for recovery and for a return to self-sufficiency. Anything less invokes bitterness. We want to see more clearly and hear more sharply the themes that are special to us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The important thing is to realize that, although life seems to be a matter of literal causes and effects, in fact we are living our deep stories, often unconsciously. We are condemned to live out what we cannot imagine. People suffering from an aliment or disability first blame the condition. One says, “If only I was not elderly or disabled or pregnant, life for be better for me.” Then they blame other people, saying, “Life would be better if people did not treat me like I football player.” Then, we finally realize it is what we put out there is what determines how our life is and how people treat us. We make our life good—it does not just happen. There are countless pitfalls on the way our of misery. Focusing relentlessly on what has been lost, comparing oneself to others, aspiring for things that are out of reach, and placing blame on others are only some of the most common snares. Each personal variation is uniquely painful. Soul work involves an effort toward increasing awareness of these situations that form the foundations of our lives, for if we become familiar with the characters and themes that are central to our conditions, we can be free from their compulsions and the blindness that comes upon us when we are caught up in them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
When culture and language fail to acknowledge the difficulty of receiving, the dependent person is left doubly burdened, in disliking the help that cannot be repaid and in feeling guilty about the dislike. People know that when someone visits them, that they are simply being visited. They know that one is in receipt of a charitable act and that there is no true relationship. One knows they have nothing in common with the individuals coming to see them, they know all too well. We have often heard people who are elderly or disabled say, “Look at my life—all I do is eat and sleep. What kind of life is this?” They equate their lack of productivity activity with worthlessness. Some people take their mind off of their pain by thinking about what does work right. The most important thing to do is to keep the spirit supple. When we return to our central thought that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and God shall rise the individual up, we must remember that the prayer of faith is definite—it is faith in something and about something. This type of prayer is not generalized, but specific. It is conscious and definite. The prayer of faith is a prayer which expresses faith about some particular thing. What is included is a specific want, or definite need. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
If one was praying for a home, one would not be asking for an automobile. If one were praying that his or her neighbor be healed, one would not be asking for money with which to take a trip. In order to enjoy the soulfulness of mythic life, we need a deep inner faith that allows us to know and visit our own deep strata where meaning and values truly are formed. Ritual is an action that speaks to the mind and heart, but it may not make sense in a literal context. In church, people do not eat bread in order to feed their bodies, but to nourish their souls. It is a higher symbolic act. If we could grasp this simple idea, that some actions may not have an effect on actual life, but speak instead to the soul, and if we could let go of the dominant role of function in so many things we do, then we might give more to the soul every day. Frail people try to conceal their needs as much as they can and they like to keep their conditions private. Social workers have been admitted to many apartments where it is more like people are living in private cells, concealing the evidence of their incapacities and averting their eyes from each others’ problems. Usually their presence is only accepted because something had necessitated their help. It was discovered in one such instance that a client had been sitting in the dark for weeks. The light bulbs had burned out in the ceiling fixtures, and he had no floor or table lamps. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Rather than ask one of his neighbors to help, he had been reading by daylight and going to bed when it became too dark to see. His back was hurting and he could barely move without experiencing a great deal of pain, as if his spine was going to snap. Therefore, keep in mind, the one who gives help is more powerful than the one who receives it. Knowing what to do for a person suffering from an impairment and what to cease doing begins with understanding what life is like from that person’s perspective. Without this comprehension, there is a tendency to worry about the wrong things and to give assistance in the wrong ways. Learning all that we can about being dependent allows us to fall short of the ideal to the right extent. Sometimes fear can strike a disabled or elderly person like a malignancy, sapping every and power and attention from their daily lives. They are afraid of the process of their ailment, they are afraid of increasing loss of control, they are afraid of the outcome, and they are afraid of dying. They fear how their families and friends see them, how they feel about them and how their condition affects their lives. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
However, what can be even more difficult is when people do not know or cannot see that you are disabled or have a diminished capacity and they force you to work, harass you, physically attack you, use you for money, and threaten you because they know they can get away with it. For young people who are physically disabled, it is like experiencing one’s old age prematurely. They are locked into a parallel isolation, shamed by feelings they do not dare confess. These individuals are frightened because they are young and still have a lot of life to live and are deteriorating much sooner than they are supposed to. They do not have a professor of whatever to understand them and how they feel, and their economy of friends tends to shrink. People do not know how to behave toward them, and it is easy to lose heart for coping. Sometimes they have no spirit for anything, like their heart finally dropped out of them. Theses youngster even get bullied and attacked by people who are much older than them, but have not yet experienced what it is like to have fractured vertebrae in their spine, or whatever. However, they have courage. Courage that comes for their belief in God. The Word courage comes from the Latin cor for heart. We give ourselves fresh heart by pulling our attention away from what has been lost. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
It is not that fear and disheartenment can be willed away, but we have to turn our focus in a direction most favorable to their alleviation. The consciousness that heals is definite and deliberate; it is a specializing of the Universal Law. In this law we may have absolute and implicit confidence, but we must also remember that the law can do for us only what it does through us. Its energy and creativeness must be interpreted through our belief and imagination. This is but another way of saying that if we want the principle of electricity to light our living room we must provide a fixture which makes it possible for the electricity to become a light. When we pray in faith we receive what things we pray for. If we believe that we shall receive them, we shall receive them. There is a specific, definite thing we are to receive, but we are to receive it as we believe. For many, relief and happiness can come by understanding the relationship between peace of conscience and peace of mind and by living the principles upon which both of these blessings are founded. God wants each of his children to enjoy the transcendent blessing of peace of conscience. A tranquil conscience invites freedom from anguish, sorrow, guilt, shame, and self-condemnation. It provides a foundation for happiness. It is a condition of immense worth, yet there are few on Earth that enjoy it most often because the principles upon which peace of conscience is founded are either not adequately understood or followed. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8 
We have lost a certain depth in the way we understand our experiences, using language that is often doubletalk and shallow in order to describe complex and profound aspects of life. Resentment is a reliable gauge of when assistants are doing more than they should. The problem with heeding this measure is that there are ongoing pressures to deny its validity. Dedicated assistants insist that they are doing fine. At all costs, they want to avoid evoking in the person that they are assisting fear of abandonment and to keep from revealing that the care has become taxing. They conceal their feelings and strive to maintain a contented exterior. Eventually, their pretense isolates them from the person who needs their assistance, and any previous intimacy become veiled by this effort to hide the truth. A myth is a sacred story set in a time and place outside history, describing in fictional form the fundamental truths of nature and human life. Mythology gives to the invisible and eternal factors that are always part of life but do not appear in a literal, factual story. Most of the time, when we tell a story about our lives, we couch it in purely human terms. When was the last time you talked about monsters, angels, or demons when you were describing some strongly felt experience? Myth reaches beyond the personal to express an imagery reflective of archetypal issues that shape every human life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
When we are trying to understand our problems and our suffering, we look for a story that will be revealing. Our surface explanations usually show their shortcomings; they do not satisfy. And so we turn to family themes. Unacknowledged weariness puts a barrier between the ill people and those who assist them. However, the feelings leak through in subtle ways. My son says he likes fixing me dinner every night, but he looks so tense when he is here. He comes right over from work, and his wife holds dinner at their house until he gets home. He smiles, makes chitchat, but I know he is racing against times. Sometimes he looks like he is going to explode, his face is so tight, but he keeps on smiling. I wish he could just say it is too much for him. I would be disappointed, do not get me wrong, but TV dinners would not kill me. People can see beneath cheerful demeanor that their child is suffering, but do not want to initiate their release from the obligation. Many are afraid, not of TV dinners, but of the loneliness that would await them on a nightly basis if they spoke up and urged their child to only visit them on weekends. The worst consequence of silence, however, is the gap it leaves between them. When you notice your child can no longer speak to you beyond chitchat, it is clear that one has become an unmentionable problem in their life. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
Our memories of the family are a significant part of the mythology by which we live. We can learn things like the notion of exchange. For example, trading frequency for quality, guilty silence for relieving honesty. Dependent people and their helpers can release each other from guilt, but gestures must be mutual if they are to be effective. The reward for recognizing resentment as a limit is enjoying the elderly or disabled person’s company again. To feel that one can give pleasure and to receive small acts of sweetness is a fair exchange for new hours’ wait. A spiral of good feeling is set in motion between parent and child, which will replace the negative snowball that has been evolving between family members as the child becomes more and more weary of the care. If given the chance, few people would choose being waited on over being enjoyed. When we analyze what the prayer of faith means we discover that it is a statement of belief in some power which is able, ready, and willing to do the healing. At first, this may seem like a rather cold-blooded analysis, for to pick a prayer of faith apart seems to rob it of its sentimentality. Nevertheless, if we would arrive at a state of consciousness that heals we must be willing to analyze some of those things which seem so intimate and so holy that we that we dislike even to mention them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Some of those who are calling out for help are the honest in heart who are earnestly seeking the truth, but they do not know where to find it. The prayer of faith may be thought of as a petition, as a beseeching, or as an agonizing cry of the soul for deliverance, but whatever we term it and from whatever viewpoint we look at it, we discover that it still is an attitude of thought, a way of thinking, a movement in consciousness. If the prayer is one of faith, then this mental movement is one of acceptance, for faith is an acceptance unqualified by denial. Complete faith is absolute and beneficial. Faith is the attitude of one who makes a complete mental surrender. It can arise only through a consciousness of complete abandonment. To the consciousness of faith there are no longer any arguments against its conviction. Faith has no opposites; it is an uncompromising mental attitude, and this is exactly what the prayer of faith is. It is a prayer, a petition, or a beseeching stated in come form of mental acceptance, unqualified belief, unquestioned trust. While the burden of petition and the necessity of faith rests on the one making the petition or having the faith, the response to this petition and this faith is made by some creative agency which has the power and the willingness to perform the act. It is God who raises us up. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
We make some strong claims in faith. We do not apologize for that. We have that responsibility. We have the truth. We are proclaiming the truth. When we consider how we help others, give it careful, prayerful thought. Some of those who are calling out for help are confused and disturbed by this complex, somewhat contradictory World in which we live, a World that has many crosswinds and crosscurrents, and even some whirlpools that can entrap and destroy. Let us remember that. Many of these people are yearning for the inner peace and joy that really can come only through love of God and love of family and from keeping God’s commandments. If from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek hum with all they heart and with all thy soul, we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. That implies that there is a truth which, known, automatically becomes demonstrated. Civilizations may come and go, empires may flourish and decay, time may pass, and change may deface all previous experience, but law is eternal. Thus, the scientist learns to depend on law. As we are able to perfect our lives, the blessings we have become more meaningful, and we experience that inner joy and peace for which there is no substitute. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Not everyone can find the middle of a circle, but only a person who has the proper knowledge. Similarly, anyone can get angry—that is easy—or can give away money or spend it; but to do all this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, for the right reason, and in the right way is no longer something easy that anyone can do. It is for this reason that good conduct is rare, praiseworthy, and noble. This kind of spirituality, so ordinary and close to home, is especially nourishing to the soul. Without this caring incorporated of the sacred into life, the World can become so far removed from the human situation as to be irrelevant. An appreciation for vernacular spirituality is important because without it our idealization of the holy, making it precious and too far removed from life, can actually obstruct a genuine sensitivity to what is sacred. The word mercy has fallen out of common usage in our language. It derives from the antiquated French merci, which means compassion and forbearance toward someone in one’s power. In Latin, merces signifies pay or reward, and the root merc refers to aspects of commerce. The words merchant and mercenary at first seem antithetical to mercy, and one wonders at their common root, but when we have to give help or depend on others for help, we understand why the concept of exchange underlies both usages. Mercy is based entirely on exchange. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Giving help eventually embitters us, unless we are compensated at least by appreciation; accepting help degrades us, unless we are convinced that our helpers are getting something in return. As much as we might prefer to reject this stark accounting, we discover in living through situations of dependence that good will is not enough. There is a delicate balance at the heart of mercy, showing how reciprocation replenishes both the spirit if the helper and the person who is helped. Maturing in age is one of the ways the soul nudges itself into attention to the spiritual aspect of life. The body’s changes teach us about fate, time, nature, mortality, and character. Aging forces us to decide what is important in life. However, those who depend on others for daily survival often feel their very existence is an imposition. Some people engage in a relentless pressure to please—to prove themselves worth of the burdens they impose. Many people who suffer from ailments suppress complaints and avoid asserting themselves, believing that they owe every possible accommodation to those who help them survive. Taking care of a person does not have to entail having power over major aspects of his or her life, but frailty seems to invite invasion. My father used to tell me stories about how care givers would steal my great grandmother’s jewelry, money, wedding and engagement rings, pictures of her family and even her wedding pictures. “You cannot imagine how helpless I feel,” she would tell him.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
People who have had restriction places on their lives by ailments, injuries, or from aging often feel the need to do something to regain their independence as a means of reminding themselves that they are still able to exert influence over their own domain or their own body. Many people with physical limitations feel their social environment is gradually diminished until all that remains of their power resources is the humble capacity to comply. They feel that they may be required to give up their legal rights and are required to comply or approve in exchange for the room and board they can afford or for the retirement and medical benefits. The managers of their buildings often disrespect them and the analysis often harass them and no one seems to care. The seniors and disabled feel if they complain about the abusive treatment, they will lose their housing, be physically attacked, or their medical and financial benefits will be discontinued, which would mean they would not be able to afford their medication or living expenses and be left on the streets to die. Psychological symptoms, too, often manifest themselves in weight gain or loss, in allergies to various foods, or in idiosyncratic eating habits. And they become more and more isolated emotionally. When people who have disempowered relatives and they become depressed, they mistake this despondency for an accusation that they are not doing a good job. Hoping for appreciation, they instead get quietly hostile acquiescence. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Sure, an elderly person might not like how you just put water in the sink, swish it around with some suds and call it clean; he or she used to scrub it first with cleanser and then rinse it with disinfectant. Someone might not like how you haphazardly ruin their checkbook by just dashing off the bills, not bothering to mark down the dates, check numbers, who it was to, all that stuff. Especially sometimes when someone does not even mark down the amount of the check. Therefore, it is important to find small, but specific concessions to help meet the preferences of the elderly and disabled, which will yield large satisfactions. There is no formula for this process, but it helps to build an edifice of faith that the Lord will help make crooked paths straight. One must not only know that God is all there is, but one must know that God exists right where the need is—not in the form of the need but in the form of an answer to the need. And I can tell when, when all you have is pictures of your family, who you have never met, they mean the World to you, as well as gold and diamond trinkets. People like connections to their heritage. Grandparents get great joy of seeing pictures of their grandbabies. And child love to have pictures of their ancestors. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
If you believe, you can fulfill your God-given destiny. There is incredible power in what we believe. There can be misperceptions about personal pain and people can have problems conveying their feelings, as they try to find a balance point in the center of chaotic emotions and unpredictable circumstances. To a greater or lesser degree, we are always dependent on others but these contacts are usually voluntary. According to our inclinations, we can approach or avoid other people. However, we can no longer get our own groceries, prepare our own meals, or take care of other necessities on our own, we enter into a period of life that is distinct from all the others. The chief consequence of dependency is that we are forced to count on the kindness of others. The vulnerability aroused by this situation awakens the basic questions of our lives: Am I worthy of love and loyalty? Are people capable of true generosity, or do they live mostly for themselves? Accident or illness can, at any moment, remove anyone’s capacity to function independently. Illness and disability can be a wasteland of degradation. We see only the loss of the freedoms and satisfactions that make life bearable, and we expect disappointing answers to these questions, which is not only a threat to spirituality as such, but also deprives the soul of valuable symbolic and reflective experience. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Sometimes people feel angry and helpless in response to dependency, making the transition from an active life to confinement, handling thoughts and reflections about the past, noticing shifts in key relationships, realizing that time it sunning out and options are shrinking, and finding ways to live well in spite of all these changes. Often times, individuals may feel so degraded by the idea of being beholden to helpers that they conceal their disabilities and risk injuring themselves in order to avoid asking for help or appearing to be in need. Through surrender or concealment, they sacrifice much of what formerly made their lives worthwhile. Illness and disability alter our lives in basic ways. As soon as our mobility becomes impaired, changes occur in our we spend our times and conduct our relationships. Self-esteem often erodes along with one’s physical capacities, and we may be further hurt with degrading reactions that others have to our frailty. Regret for wasted time and unfulfilled dreams may nag at us, causing us to question the priorities around which we had previously organized our lives. To be starved for motion and exercise is yet another depletion. Some people’s bodies hurt, and they will just not go and even going to a doctor’s appointment on somedays might be extremely difficult. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When physical problems enclose us in daily life in which everything has been mastered and repeated, the pull to keep returning to bed becomes more and more compelling. Life starts to echo the stasis of the body. When we feel we have nothing to say, we tend to shun the company of others. With little going on in our lives beyond eating and sleeping, we fear that other people’s contrasting vitality would shame us even as it momentarily revived us. When company leaves, we expect to be left emptier for having been so briefly filled. The more dependent we are on the mercy of others, the more waiting we have to endure. Dependence and waiting eventually become synonymous. We cannot cancel arrangements to secure the necessities of life. Waiting emphasizes the inferior status of the person who is being helped. Each minute of waiting that accumulates speaks this inferiority more loudly. These disparate conditions can evoke bitterness in the most loving relationships. Anyone who has ever endured an incapacitating illness knows that the feelings evoked by days of waiting can be harder to bear than the aliment itself. We wish to be self-sustained. We somehow hate the meat which we eat, because there seems something of degrading dependence in living by it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The freedom to come and go as we please, the wish to be self-sustained, is as fundamental to most of us as breathing. When this part of our human endowment is frustrated, a subterranean anger is stirred. The longer an illness or incapacity lasts, the harder it becomes for us to maintain faith in our others. We begin to imagine the possibility of abandonment. Days of waiting can crack the confidence of the most secure people, given enough time and the wearing effects of doubt. In situations of dependence, we are asked to believe that we have accumulated vast stores of good will from our own acts of generosity in the past. In truth, most of us carry reservoirs of guilt from the many occasions when we failed to be as generous as we could have been. To then depend upon those whom we once disappointed opens up fears of retribution. We begin to wonder, “Is my life really worth all of this stress?” The answer lies in realms that are invisible to those who still retain control over their own progress in life. You go because you have to, because you want to be in charge of your own life. Walking can be viewed as a major metaphor, representing a continued ability to live independently, to control events, and to be active. “Otherwise, I would be sitting in the lobby straight ahead like all those other people in my building. They look like they died ten years ago. If I stayed in there, I would start looking like them.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present. We live too fast and coarsely, just as we eat too fast and do not know the true savor of our food. People who are able to live well in spite of illness are those who allow divine leisure to crowd their physical hardships out of center stage. Turning the nothing of empty time into the essence of good days is the alchemy of successful frailty. At first, having too much time on our hands can feel like a daily humiliation in our making so little of it. Waiting for help emphasizes all the dignities and freedoms that have been ripped away from us. Gradually, if we do not become hardened in out disappointment, we can turn the insults of illness into privileges of being. Care of the soul might include a recovery of formal religion in a way that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. One obvious potential source of spiritual renewal is the religious traditions in which we were brought up. Some people are fortunate in that their childhood tradition is still relevant and likely to them, but others have to search. We must be careful to avoid thinking that we are unimportant in the scheme of things. We are the most important persons living, as far as we are concerned. This is not a statement of conceit; it is a simple statement of the conviction that each one of us is rooted in the living spirit, that we have access to the mind of God and the love and the power and the peace of the spirit. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
It is a simple conviction that no matter how humble our walk in life may appear to be, it must of necessity influence its own environment. We may not be important to people, but we certainly are necessary to God. Placing our entire trust, our complete faith, our whole conviction in this simple thought, we should walk in confidence and speak our spiritual convictions with complete assurance, knowing that there is a presence and power with us and for us and operating through us—a presence and power that knows no defeat. Sometimes people prey on the sick, elderly, and vulnerable, and that can make them feel devalued. However, at the center of every person’s being there is an absolutely perfect life, a complete wholeness, and an eternal and immortal principle. Our work is to mentally uncover this ever-present reality, this changeless and eternal perfection. We must remove every obstruction of thought which denies God’s presence. Spiritual mind healing is a revelation even though we go through a process to arrive at it. Each person must work at our own method and pursue our own logic. If this method and logic lead us to the right conclusion, we will be rewarded by an affirmative answer. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
No one lives entirely by oneself. We are all individual part of humanity, and whether or not we realize it, each is influencing those around them, and each in one’s turn is being influenced by others. No doubt the thoughts and opinions and actions of the whole World finally are based on what everyone things and believes. According Sir Isaac Newton’s III law, every action creates a separate, but equal reaction. Science tells us that this same power, if properly used, can become an instrument for the most rapid advance in civilization the World has every known. The limitless energy that scientists now know how to use can clean up and irrigate most wastelands in the World. Nature has placed before us the possibility of the greatest blessings in the World. If the majority of people came to believe in spiritual power and the benefits that can be obtained from it, they would all have a great desire to try a new kind of experiment, one that would bless instead of curse humanity. Have you ever notices the contagion of a happy person; one who has an enthusiastic joy in living? That person’s spirit permeates those around them, and the radiance from their personality influences the environment to such an extent that it finally changes it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Most people notice the effect a calm and poised person has on others and how they feel safe in that individual’s presence. However, we have all also had the experience of finding ourselves more or less frustrated and confused and beginning to wonder what it is all about. Perhaps the greatest tragedies of all time have occurred when people have received the promised blessings of the Lord and then have forgotten the sources of their good life. We have to make sure to acknowledge the Lord and thank him for his blessings. As we succeed, we have the sure promise of the Lord that he will prosper us in every way necessary for our well-being. When we have the privilege of sitting down quietly with someone whose atmosphere is permeated with peace and confidence, and gradually we have felt the rough edges of our agitation disappear until finally our own atmosphere changes, and we are filled with hope and confidence. God is present everywhere and in all people. For just as there is an energy caught from the Universe and locked in the physical atom that can be released, so there is a spiritual energy caught in every person’s mind and locked up in the individual life waiting to be released. Faith and conviction are the instruments through which this energy is used. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Spiritual power is within us to heal, bless and prosper those whom we think of. It has brought us the abundant life. It has made us happy, healthy, and serene. We who enjoy the abundant life want to share this happiness. It is wonderful to realize that we can sit in the quiet of our own being and consciously direct a power greater than we are for the definite purpose of helping ourselves and someone else. This power should be used for both purposes. For we have to get back to this simple proposition—we must use the power to help ourselves first, in order that we may establish a realization of our ability to use it for others. If we would bring happiness to those around us, we must first become happy ourselves. However, before we can become happy something has to happen to us that causes us to know that God is right where we are, that God is the final power in the Universe, and that love is an all-conquering force. We are better physically because we keep the Word of Wisdom and avoid those things harmful to our bodies. We are better spiritually because our goals are clarified. We learn more about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We are more motivated to be a more understanding person, a more faithful individual. We must have confidence and self-assurance. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
And this kind of confidence and self-assurance comes only through having proved to ourselves completely that there is a power greater than we are, that it is a power for good, and that it is available, and that we actually know how to use it. And the only proof we will every have is what it does to us and to others. Anyone who uses the creative energy of faith will receive a direct answer or will see a sign following the use of this power. We must make our religion and spiritual conviction come alive and move through us into action. If we decide to, we can pray effectively. If we have the will, we can learn to live with a sense of confidence and security by getting over our fears. Love is the greatest healing power in the World. Everyone needs to be loved. Everyone needs to be needed. Everyone has some kind of talent and wants to use it. Somehow in the magic of this marvelous World, we can find our place and make our contribution. When we think about peace we become peaceful. It is from this peace that we affirm the presence of love and truth and goodness. Because our prayer of affirmation works exactly like any other law in nature, signs will follow our belief. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
The World is God (the only substance) under his attributes of thought and extension. Spirituality does not arrive fully formed without effort. Occasionally, there is a time gap between the sacrifice and the blessing. The sacrifice may come according to our time schedule, but the blessing may not come by our calendar, but by the Lord’s date book. Religions around the World demonstrate that spiritual life requires constant attention and a subtle, often beautiful technology by which spiritual principles and understanding are kept alive. The Lord comforts us by acknowledging us. He tells us to be not weary in well-doing, for we are laying the foundation of a great-work. For good reason we prayer, go to church, temple, or the cathedral regularly and at appointed times, as it is easy for consciousness to become lodged in the material World and to forget the spiritual. Sacred technology is largely aimed at helping us remain conscious of spiritual ideas and values. This great gift of life is to be accepted. All that God has is our, there is nothing in us that can deny his presence, his power, his wisdom, his guidance, and his protecting love. Today and every day we shall live life to the full and we shall be glad. Always within us there is the power and the presence and the life of God, and unto this presence be glory and honor, dominion and power, both now and forever. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
When we get in agreement with God and believe what he says about us, then what we believe can supersede any natural law! There is something called a spiritual bank account. There are great spiritual forces that we can draw on and deposit in our souls and minds, and which can be used in any emergency, in any stress or strain of life. Life has enough of everything to meet our needs. It contains love and faith and peace and joy. The blessings surely come to us. Please remember when we make sacrifices, it might be a blessing itself because we are show we have faith and making deposits into our spiritual bank accounts. Things could not have been produced by God in any other manner or order than that in which they were produced. All things must have followed of necessity from a given nature of God, and they were determined for existence or action. God or the Absolute, as in its essence a self-diversifying unity, gave us the ability to meet emergences—the times when we need more love and tolerance, more kindness and understanding, a deeper faith and a higher hope by allowing these blessings to be poured out on us. There are the real crises in our lives. And at such time, unless we have a vast amount of good stored up, we not only become impoverished, but we sometimes become destitute of hope. And then despair takes the place of hope, and fear takes the place of faith. This is what we want to avoid because it means our inner work is not being allowed to reach deep enough. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
If we put God in remembrance of his promises and do not put him in remembrance of our problems, then we will be faithful to his word. How would it be if we all opened a spiritual account with the Bank of Life and, realizing that we were drawing on the infinite, each day deposited enough hope and happiness and faith to more than meet any emergency that might possibly arise? It is just like our surprise and joy when we receive an unexpected gift. As we give, we find that sacrifice being forth the blessings of Heaven. Love is the base of everything. We feel the need of a more genuine means of bringing outer experience deep inside us. Just as the mind digests it, creating wisdom and character out of the fodder of experience. The outer World serves as a means of deep spirituality and the transformation of ordinary experience into the stuff of soul is all important. If the link between life experience and deep imagination is inadequate, then we are left with a division between life and soul, and such a division will always manifest itself in symptoms. This can make us become skeptical and cynical and sometimes wonder if love, after all, is the greatest reality in life. And yet, we know that we could not live without love, for life is absolutely meaningless unless its whole motivation is built on love and giving. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
What God promised, he will do. Often prayers are given for specific blessings which we, in our incomplete understanding, believe we need. While the Lord does answer prayers according to his will, he certainly must be pleased when we offer humble prayers of gratitude. God has already answered a huge prayer for everyone born into this World, because God has given himself to us. He has imparted his own life and, in a mysterious way which is beyond our comprehension, has endowed us with the capacity to love. If God is love—and no sane person can doubt this—and if each one of us has, as we must have, immediate access to the love of God, then we earn the ability to draw on the bank of life in such degree as we become loving. The spirit of gratitude is always pleasant and satisfying because it carries with it a sense of helpfulness to other; it begets love and friendship, and engenders divine influence. Gratitude is the memory of the heart. God is love and all the love there is is ours now. We shall endeavor to see something lovable in everyone we meet, in every situation in which we find ourselves, and as we do this we shall accumulate a great degree of love to be deposited in our bank. And then when some experience comes along which seems unkind or unlovable, we shall be able to write a check on our bank of life which will cover every liability of hate or unkindness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Let us adopt an attitude of gratitude in all we do, we must keep our hearts full of thanks and appreciation for what we have and not dwell on what is not ours. The greatest secrets of nature—the person who has taken the time to harmonize oneself with love will find that, when some incident that seems hateful or discordant arises in one’s experience, one can draw on a reserve force which one now has. One can actually apply this to the situation when it arises. The most satisfying experience we have is to see what God does for people. He gives them a new outlook on life. He gives them a perspective that they have never felt before. God raises their sights to things noble and divine. Something happens to them that is miraculous to behold. They look to God and come alive. He brings love to bear on our situations—a love which comprehends and includes everything, a love which has no hurt in it, a love which is not afraid, a love which is clam and confident and sure of itself. Our lives and the lives of our posterity are changed forever. Right here is where the law of mind in action comes into play. When we apply our thought of love directly to discordant situations, and there is nothing in us which is afraid, our thought of love it applied to that situation will heal it, and any situation that confronts us will be healed. We must have a firm faith that God is love, and an equally firm faith when we apply this principle of love to any human problem. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
We will gain a new measure of vitality and strength as we learn that perfect love can cast out all fear. Love is always greater than fear. Fear is not really an enemy of love. All that fear can do is cast a shadow across our pathway. However, this shadow is dissipated when we look at it with love. This vitality and strength is a mighty force, an instrument in God’s hands to cause the only one force, which is absolute and conclusive. However, we must spend much time with ourselves straightening out all the little animosities and resolving them into one great love which is God. God never fails and love never fails and we will never fail if we use the love that is God. The most important thing next to love is faith—faith in God, faith in ourselves, faith in what we are doing, and faith in those around us. A person without faith is so insecure, so shaken by circumstances, that one becomes unstable in everything. Faith is natural; fear is unnatural. Faith is beneficial; fear is negative. Faith is affirmative; fear is a denial of life. If we are going to meet all the fears and uncertainties that we are sure to encounter, we need a great deal of faith. It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his bare word. It will not be, says sense; it cannot be, says reason; it both can and will be, says faith, for I have a promise for it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
