No and Yes - the poem, revised

Each of us is unique, special,

one of a kind!

No, no, no-no-no!
God’s goodness does not come and go.
Yes, yes, yes-yes-yes.
Good is now and here to bless.

What God intends, He carries out,
It will not do to fret or doubt.
You are essential to God’s plan
Of perfect God and perfect man.

You are the proof that Love is here,
That good is real, that man is dear.
Wherever you go, you are God’s light,
Scattering fear and darkest night.

You’re cherished now, one of a kind,
Unique expression of one Mind.
He needs you and you love to be
His child – holy, pure and free.

Yes, yes, yes-yes-yes.
You better believe you’re here to bless.
Your job today? To make God known
Through our love, His love is shown.

No, no, no-no-no!
What comes from God won’t ebb and flow.
His love is focused, won’t digress.
You are His great delight, oh yes!

by Sandi Justad

From the mouth of a child

The Lord’s Prayer like you haven’t heard it in a long, long, time – unless you are the parents of a three-year old.

Just click here.

No more age limits!

Have you seen those cutesy emails about Baby Boomers reaching Social Social Security age –that detail in a humorous way the aches, vulnerabilities, and deterioration accepted as normal for seniors?

While it’s probably better to laugh than to cry, I must protest.

Might age be a state of mind? Musicians and politicians (very strange bedfellows) often stay physically active and mentally sharp decades after others have retired.

Grandma Moses stands as a worthy example of a woman who, unexpectedly, launched a new career in the arts in her 70s.

Another woman who defined “productivity” during her senior years was Mary Baker Eddy – author, editor, publisher, lecturer, teacher, and preacher. She wrote, “Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.”

In fact, when Eddy wrote those words, the average life expectancy was 45 – so that age 70 (threescore years and ten) is about 60% greater. Google reveals the life expectancy in 2007 in the United States at 78 years. So, an increase of 60% over that, using Eddy’s cheery estimate, would be 125 years. In other countries, today’s life expectancy is even greater – 82 in Japan, 81 in Singapore, 80 in Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Iceland, Canada, and France.

So why not anticipate vigor, freshness and promise -- right through 125 years of age? What if the antidote has more to do with attitude than we think? -- to not measure or limit anything good and beautiful in our lives.

This includes deciding whether to forward even those emails that, while eliciting chuckles and smiles, spread an accepted curtailment and inevitable decline of intelligence, health, and mobility for those past a certain number of years.

Yes, the lives of those in all generations can embrace “all that is good and beautiful.”

The ad below affirms the satisfying surprise of challenging assumed limits for age and gender too.

Lion hug

For you animal lovers, here’s a YouTube video.

The story says that a woman in Columbia found a lion cub, who was wounded and hungry. She took him home and raised him until he was too big. She then gave him to the local zoo, where she visits him every day.

The deep affection between them is clear.





American religious leader, Mary Baker Eddy, viewed animals from a spiritual perspective. She wrote, “Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless. All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible.”

Waterfall Glen and Principle

Controlled burn allows

sunlight to reach the forest floor --

even after the summer leaves appear.

As we walked the crushed limestone paths at Waterfall Glen, my sister made a startling announcement. “Look at all this!” her gesture took in the pond of very vocal spring peepers, the pylons carrying power lines next to a freight train track, and the forest we were about to enter. “God is so Principle.”

“Principle?”

“Umhmm,” she nodded.

Silence as I tried to figure out how this woman whom I love, admire, and respect, came up with Principle, of all things. “And what do you like about God as Principle?”

“Principle is like the big umbrella with everything else included under it. Principle is the structure that allows everything else to work harmoniously. It’s like the pylon that allows power to be delivered to where it’s needed.

It’s like the traffic lights. Everyone knows what the laws are – green you go, red you stop. When everyone obeys the laws, there is order. Not just for you, but for everybody. That's Principle. If somebody ignores the laws, whap! It isn’t that God is angry with you or is punishing you, you just have to obey the laws that are in place.”

We spotted a flicker working the top of a tall dead tree. With binoculars we marveled at his wonderful camouflage -- accented by his magnificent red head.

We marveled at the tidiness of the controlled burn areas. The tree trunks weren’t even scorched. The strangling buckthorn had been vanquished.

Is that what God as Principle does? Sets up a controlled framework that destroys whatever would thwart our spiritual progress – without harming us!

Another week of this weather, and spring wildflowers will dot the forest floors, responding to the warmth and sunlight.

Is that what God as Principle does? Arranges things so that we can thrive in the light of His love?

I’ll be thinking a lot more about God as Principle, and what that means.

Real humility knows no limits

Humility. It’s not what most people think -- that if you are meek, people will take advantage of you. Whatever else that is, that is not humility.

Genuine humility has been better described as knowing you really need to lean on God if you are going to get the job done.

Here’s the story of a man who sacrificed his schooling as a boy by working in the fields to help his family. As a result, he never learned to read.

Now, he has found the humility at age 70 to return to school where, as a beloved member of his first grade class, yes, he is learning to read.




Cllick Here to read the print story.

More than sledding

Wheee!

In January my grandson and I had a great one-on-one vacation. We drove to the Wisconsin north woods to visit relatives and engage in great snow activities. We sledded, snowshoed, baked cookies in a happy extended family setting.

One day my cousin was supervising some sledding behind their house. I stood nearby, camera in hand, to catch some of this fun. I wasn’t participating in the sledding activity, became of a hurting back. I was praying, however -- from the standpoint that this pain was trying to suggest I could be separated from God’s love – a relationship I hold very dear. Or that God was too busy to care for every detail of His universe.

It wasn’t a prayer to God as a super person to stop what He was doing and look after me, so much as an affirmation that an infinitely good God who is Spirit and Truth infinitely maintains harmony. If God is wholly good and fills all space, then this pain could not be a reality in His presence. A loving God doesn’t send evil. He sends harmony.

Now at that point in my prayers, it occurred to me that I had been indulging in some pretty self-righteous criticism that morning. Right now, I have no idea what it might have been. But at the time it seemed important and troublesome.

Big deal! Who doesn’t criticize? Well, yes. Except that I had lately been making a fairly successful effort to see beyond the human scene. To discern more of God’s goodness and His good creation. So criticism now stood out by way of contrast as a backward step in a forward spiritual journey. This kind of negative thinking was no longer comfortable.

So I began undoing that criticism, replacing the “wrongs” I had been anguishing over with what was clearly right about the person or situation (while I don’t recall the specifics, I do remember the process!) appreciating the good qualities – what God knew from His vantage point to be enduring and true.

This happy mental conversation took place even with great laughter and fun punctuating the snowy scene all around. About midway down the hill, the boys were packing snow into a little jump for the sleds in hopes of gaining some “air time.”

My cousin clowning on a tube

Then my cousin said, “Sandi, why don’t you go down the hill? I’ll hold your camera!”

Moment of truth. Do I really believe that God, Spirit, is my whole substance and my only substance? That matter cannot make laws to undermine God’s harmonious control?

The feeling in my back hadn’t changed. It still hurt. But thought was moving, so I trusted God, divine Mind, as the source of that movement and settled onto the sled behind my grandson. We sped down the hill landing with a bump on the other side of the jump. And that was the last time all day that I thought about my back. In fact, it’s been uncomplaining ever since.

I just love adventures in learning more about God’s great love.

Twenty-one days without complaining?

Who wants to listen to a complainer? Nobody.

Rev. Will Bowen in Kansas City, Missouri, and his congregation were reading a book that recommended trying to go twenty-one days without complaining – the length of time it is believed needed to change a habit. They were to focus on what they do want in their lives, rather than what they don’t want.

Bowen mentions Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who didn’t just complain about racial inequality, he had a dream, and he did something about it.

Rev. Bowen offered his congregation the challenge of achieving 21 consecutive days without complaining, gossiping, or criticizing; even sarcasm was out.

The hook was a little purple wristband. You put the band on your wrist and the first time you complained, you started over and moved the band to your other wrist. And so on. People loved the idea and many signed up.

The pastor found that breaking the complaint habit was harder than he had expected. After three and a half months, he succeeded in keeping the purple band on one wrist for twenty-one days.

Some in the congregation were able to make their three consecutive weeks within a few months. Others took a year or longer.

Word of the challenge spread. Individuals and churches in other states began contacting this church asking for wristbands. Now they have become a world-wide supplier of wristbands for people who are recognizing that complaining neither makes them happy nor solves their problems.

One teacher took the challenge to her classroom. A little girl said it was really hard because she had to keep starting over. A little boy said, it was really hard for him, because he "has two sisters, and they are really mean."

This is a clever concept. It is certainly better for the whole world when people quit complaining and become the change they want to see.

Simple blessings

Butterfly on a thistle

Someone sent this in an email, and I thought you might enjoy its worthwhile message.

A man deeply discouraged whispered,

“God speak to me.”
And a meadowlark sang.
But the man did not hear.

So the man shouted, “God, speak to me!”
And thunder rolled across the sky.
But the man did not hear.

He looked gloomily around and said, “God, show me a sign.”

Flowers bloomed all around him.
But the man did not see.

The man shouted, “God, show me a miracle.”

A grandchild was born.
But the man did not notice.

So the man cried in despair, “God, just touch me!”

Whereupon God reached out and touched the man.
But the man brushed the butterfly away.

The moral?
Don’t miss God’s blessings just because

they are not packaged as you expect them to be.

A finishing touch to our lives

The movie, “An unfinished life” reveals the unavoidability of forgiveness. There’s a sub-theme with a bear in it. The first time I saw this tough but sweet film, I couldn’t figure out how the bear related. The second time it was obvious.

Einer, a Wyoming rancher whose son had been killed a decade before in an auto accident, needs to forgive his daughter-in-law Jean – the driver during the fatal accident. Mitch, his best friend, has been badly mauled by a bear and requires some daily care.

Meanwhile Jean has been living with the terrible guilt of believing she was responsible for her husband's death. Suddenly she shows up, desperate after fleeing an abusive boyfriend.

Although he allows Jean to stay, Einer won’t or can’t forgive. And the bear becomes a metaphor for their lives – how they are all stuck regretting the past, unable to advance. As the story unfolds, Mitch forgives the bear and cajoles Einer into releasing him at night from a small tourist zoo.

The granddaughter Einer didn’t know he had, now nearly ten, becomes the catalyst that softens his heart, enables him to come to terms with life, and to ultimately forgive.

As the bear, set free by Mitch’s generous spirit, walks off into the wilderness, so forgiveness enables Einer and his small family to reverse the downward spirals of their lives and move forward together.

What can be added to this tender lesson?

If we are to live our lives to the full, we must forgive, plain and simple. That doesn’t mean we subject ourselves to further abuse. It means we drop the burden of hate, anger, or resentment from our own shoulders and rediscover the joy of sprinting ahead.

Jesus, who understood a lot about life and human nature had some choice words about forgiveness.

In today's language, he might have said, “If you want God to forgive your dumb and bad mistakes, then you need to be generous about forgiving others their dumb and bad mistakes as well.”

How long? However long we keep doing things we wish we hadn’t. That's a kind of love that adds a dimension of grace to our lives.

If you are interested, the official trailer follows: