Doesn't Matter!

My husband and I love cartoons - The Far Side by Gary Larson, French cartoons, German cartoons, cartoons of the New Yorker, the cartoons by André Franquin entitled "Gaston". This cartoon is one of our collection. "Doesn't matter" is being discovered. And when I see it, I see in it a century of Christian Science discovery of the nothingness of matter, a century of theoretical physics condensed into a classroom moment, quantum physics, the theory of relativity, all there, while we still sit in a classroom, and despite all these mind blowing discoveries continue to wonder what this is all about. I giggle, when I see this --- and I learn, too.

Christ Jesus revealed the mental nature of all things to mankind, with so much love and patience with everybody. His life and work showed that everything we encounter is a mental image - he showed this in healing the sick, in stilling a storm, in feeding thousands with very little, in confronting creeds and social injustices, in overcoming hate and death. You could say that his entire portfolio of activities covered every possible aspect of the human condition like a scientist would do, one proof after the other, translating life back into the mental realm. That is the reason why prayer is powerful and why it is empowered by Love. Only Love is powerful enough to question the human ego and moved forward with grace. Man is not matter. Matter cannot limit man, says Love.

It is a life-long, wonderful project to grow out of the myriad limitations and discover the Allness and universal presence of divine law, which operates as unconditionally, reliably and impersonally as gravity. And aside from the life-long dedication to this spiritual path, anyone has access to Spirit right now. Often it takes only one moment of quiet attention to divine Principle to realize its healing power.

I was in my office, retrieving a file for an article I was writing. When the metal mechanism was set in motion to close the heavy filing cabinet drawer, I realized I needed another file, too, and quickly reached into the drawer to keep it from closing. But it was too late—the mechanism retreated without mercy and my finger got caught in the metal drawer. With my other hand I opened the drawer and freed the finger. The pain was terrible, the sight disturbing.

Happily, after a few seconds all my prayer and study took over and became a rich resource upon which I could draw. The Christ is always present, without my having to recall anything or make an effort to summon it. Spiritual strength was flooding my consciousness; I was not alone. And the thought came to me clearly: “Change the evidence. Here is one option: pain, a severely hurt finger, time in which to work out a healing. Here is the other option: perfect God, perfect man, right now (see Science and Health, p. 259). Choose!”

The Christ enabled me to make this choice, and the choice was easy. It was a holy moment—I was filled with the knowledge that we can indeed change false evidence, with which mortal thought tries to convince itself of its own imprisonment. It was a moment of pure grace and spiritual freedom. I tangibly felt the harmony, friendliness, and perfection of infinite being. The finger was fine that very moment, and after continuing to work for a few more hours, I didn’t even remember which hand had received a healing. You can read the full report here.

This experience is a tiny token of something big, powerful and real. It takes honest willingness to look at our experience consistently from the side of Spirit, God - something which the human ego consistently resists. Every day we have a fresh start. We do not need to believe everything we see. "Doesn't matter", I propose, is a humorous and modern way of rewording something, which already the Psalmist wrote: "Be still and know that I am God (...), I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46: 10) There is so much grace and space around, we can move freely in God's world.
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