Inspiration in the night

When worry and regret kept today’s contributor up one night, a more spiritual perspective brought her peace and welcome ideas for how to go forward.

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
Loading the player...

One night I awoke with myriad troubled thoughts. Some were related to things I wished I had done differently. Others were worries about the future.

I soon realized that it wasn’t going to work to take each individual concern and analyze it in the middle of the night. I knew a complete reorientation of thought was necessary and would be beneficial.

There’s a passage about God in the Bible that really resonates with me. It says: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Reasoning from this perspective, I saw that despite how complex or insoluble the challenges we sometimes face may seem, they are simply not the making of God, who is divine Love.

This reminded me of a phrase I knew by heart from a book I study closely together with the Bible – “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science: “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (p. 468). The spiritual “all” of the divine Mind, or God, includes harmony, peace, joy, purpose, and order. Therefore these qualities are naturally manifested, or expressed, in each of us as God’s creation.

As I thought deeply about the meaning of all this, a shift occurred in my thinking. First, the agitation disappeared. Then a complete sense of calm came over me. In a short time, I fell asleep and slept soundly. I awoke refreshed and ready for work.

When I awoke, I was grateful for that. But there was more. New ideas came to me that morning about improving my home. I also had the inspiration to form a new business partnership I hadn’t considered. And forgiveness dawned in my heart toward someone for whom I’d been bearing some resentment. My life felt filled with light.

Turning to the spiritual sense of things, even at small moments like that one, can transform trials into triumphs. It makes each day, and each night, an opportunity for good.

Adapted from the July 11, 2018, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Inspiration in the night
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2018/0724/Inspiration-in-the-night
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe