One thing does seem to lead to another, and just after my most recent posting, began thinking of something along the same lines, namely, that doing what Jesus lays out for us will cost us plenty. If someone says following the Master is easy, then he or she just isn't doing it. It is a hard way, but the only way to go.
Couldn't help recalling an experience I had when we lived in the Boston area. I was working at the Church Center at the time, and was having a difficult time with a supervisor who I felt sure, had it in for me. Made my life not happy. About this time, while reading the Sermon on the Mount came to something that stopped me cold and it is where Jesus talks about forgiveness. I felt the time had come for me to get serious about this. I needed to forgive this person. But I just couldn't. While waiting for the train out to Wellesley, remember walking up and down that platform in actual tears, telling God, ask me to do anything else. But not this! Needless to say, over time I did make the grade, rose to the level I needed to be at spiritually, forgave from my heart. And we ended up friends, and I felt her absence when she retired.
In her article titled "Fidelity" Miscellaneous Writings, page 342, that follower of Christ Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy points out: "Seek Truth, and pursue it. It should cost you something: you are willing to pay for error and receive nothing in return; but if you pay the price of Truth, you shall receive all."
Do I think of myself as having reached land on doing what God required of us through Christ? Not even has land been sighted, in a way. But what a glorious adventure it is with self. And it can bring about healings of physical difficulties.
A case in point: a friend of mine, a former Marine, told me recently that for some time he had a troublesome problem with one arm. Nothing he could do metaphysically through his understanding of Christian Science alleviated the problem totally. Just nagged at him. Then one day he saw in some military publication the name of someone he had served with, who he felt had wronged him terribly. They had quite a blow-up on the ship one day and he had carried hard feelings toward this man. Well, he wrote him a nice letter, asked him for forgiveness for the things he said about him. The man wrote back a nice letter, and the whole thing was erased. The upshot: the impaired arm was made right and he has had no more trouble with it! This shows what conformity to Christ can do for us. There is a cost in putting self aside for obedience to Jesus' commands, but the reward is sure.
