Praying about the swine flu

[A.m.y]

Here's what I've been thinking about from Isaiah in the Bible (the Message):

A living knowledge of God

The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
their calves and cubs grow up together,
and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.

"Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill on my holy mountain."

We're all on God's holy mountain. She's protecting every single one of Her children, her spiritual ideas. We are not at the mercy of illness of any kind. We've got dominion, just like the nursing child who's crawling over rattlesnake dens. What strength and calm trust that image invokes!

We can know God-Alive...and that's powerful. Our protection is built into who we are. We don't have to get it. We don't have to think spiritual thoughts to make spiritual laws work. They are there and they work, just like the laws of gravity work whether we know what they are or how they work. But knowing a little about God's laws gives us peace. We feel more comfortable and trusting and that makes life easier. Here's the one spiritual law I'm thinking about today that Wommack posted in the Spiritual tweets thread: Since God is here, so is health, harmony, and happiness.

Let's join together and support our world community with prayer!

[Inge]

Amen!! I was thinking earlier this morning about the story in the Bible where Jesus heals Legion. To paraphrase, the man has a whole bunch of problems and seems to be consumed by them. Jesus asks him what his name is, to which the man replies "Legion" because of the great number of problems he has. The man is healed by Jesus, but the demons take over a herd of swine, and the swine throw themselves off a cliff. The swine herders rush off to tell people not about how the man had been healed and was "sitting, clothed and in his right mind", but about how the pigs were running themselves off the cliff.

What strikes me about the story is that the swine are a distraction to the beautiful Christ healing that went on in that man's life. They have this hypnotic hold on the swine herders so that they aren't able to see the healing that is taking place right in front of their eyes. It's the familiar suggestion that once you heal one problem, you're only going to be faced with another-- leaving no room to revel in and give thanks for the healing that is going on.

Certainly, in our global society there has seemed to be a Legion of problems-- the economy, natural disasters, human rights crises to name just a few. Lately though, we have been seeing evidences that our prayer is uplifting thought and there is healing going on. Recent reports that banks have reported better earnings than expected, and a lessening (albeit gradual) of the fear and panic mode over these different crises. That's the same Christ touch that is healing our sense of 'Legion'. So I've been praying today to know that there can't be a swine-influence to take our thought away from rejoicing in the evidence of God's Love going on right here and now in our experience. That the swine flu does not have the power to make us into swine herders, hypnotized by the symptoms and pull of impurity and mortal thought. Instead, we are all alert and rejoicing in the presence and healing touch of the Christ, sitting clothed [embraced in the consciousness of Love] and in our right mind [knowing only the goodness of God].

[Annette D]

You two are right on! I prepared my Wed lesson for this week on contagion. There are some really wonderful passages in S&H on the topic. It strikes me how MBE was encouraging us to watch our thought! I love that this passage is in my lesson for Wed and also in the Sun lesson: "Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence."

I find the 91st Psalm so comforting on this issue too. Man lives in God, therefore, no plague can come near our dwelling place. In the allness of God, there is no evil.

[JennyL]

The word "strain" in the last sentence in Science and Health in this week's Bible Lesson stands out to me. The end of the sentence reads "...Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain." I'm praying to hold to the fact that in spiritual reality man cannot be under the influence of any strain of flu, rather the only "strain" that can truly "influence" man is Love's "primal and everlasting strain".

[jazzrascal]

We can go for "radical reliance" in the face of the swine flu.

MBE writes in Miscellany, pg. 116: "At a time of contagious disease, Christian Scientists endeavor to rise in consciousness to the true sense of the omnipotence of Life, Truth, and Love, and this great fact in Christian Science realized will stop a contagion."

And in Miscellaneous Writing, pg. 229, she writes:
A calm, Christian state of mind is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or than any other possible sanative method; and the 'perfect Love' that 'casteth out fear' is a sure defense."

In Science and Health she writes: "There is no disease."

[David B]

I was thinking about how nothing can rob health and happiness. These are always whole and intact and held in Life, Truth, God. Not even fear, disease or fear of disease can interfere with my state of health or the health of anyone else.

I love some of these lines from Science and Health (p. 176-177):

"...disease can carry its ill-effects no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. ... Truth handles the most malignant contagion with perfect assurance."

[Annette D]

The CSMonitor religious article is on the swine flu today. It's very good. Here's the link:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0428/p18s01-hfcs.html

[progressa]

I was just thinking about Proverbs 26:2, which says:
[FONT=Times New Roman]As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000]curse [/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000]causeless[/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] shall not come.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Based on what we know about God calling creation entirely good and blessing it (in Genesis 1), it wouldn't follow that God would ever curse any aspect of creation with a disease. I like that the verse specifically mentions birds, and to me it suggests that birds could neither receive nor be the source of any evil or sickness.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]I also found a place where Mary Baker Eddy refers to this verse (from Christian Healing, p. 9 line 13): [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Contending for the reality of[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]what should disappear is like furnishing fuel for the flames. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]15[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] Is it a duty for any one to believe that "the [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000]curse[/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000]causeless[/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=#ff0000]
[/COLOR][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman]cannot come"? Then it is a higher duty to know that[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]God never cursed man, His own image and likeness. God[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]18[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] never made a wicked man; and man made by God had not[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]a faculty or power underived from his Maker wherewith to[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]make himself wicked. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]21[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] The only correct answer to the question, "Who is[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]the author of evil?" is the scientific statement that[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]evil is unreal; that God made all that was made, but[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]24[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] He never made sin or sickness, either an error of mind[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]or of body. Life in matter is a dream: sin, sickness,[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]and death are this dream. Life is Spirit; and when we[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]27[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] waken from the dream of life in matter, we shall learn this[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]grand truth of being. St. John saw the vision of life in[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1][FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=1]1[/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] matter; and he saw it pass away, — an illusion.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman]I'm going to make an effort not to "fuel the flames" by buying into the fear all over the airwaves. [/FONT]

[louannmitch]

Oh wow look at all these posts,
I logged on just now especially to talk about swine flu and there's already a thread going here. I need some help. I live in Costa Rica and everyone around me is in a wild panic here. I can't go anywhere without people talking about it in detail. If I change rooms I just end up joining a new group who are talking about the same thing. Also it's all my students want to talk about and I can't walk on my class.
The biggest problem is that my Institute is posting notices to keep an eye out for symptoms in our students and each other so it feels like I'm being forced to get caught up in it and acknowledge it as reality as part of my responsiblities at work, whether I want to or not.
I'm trying to enter into my closet and shut the door, but it is incredibly difficult in this environment.
All the previous suggestions are really helpful and I'll be dwelling on them. But I'd be grateful for any suggestions on how to block out the hubbub of panic.

[JennyL]

louannmitch,
Know that our prayers are embracing you all. I've been thinking of individuals in the Bible who in the midst of challenging situations were still able to feel and experience God's love and were protected and safe. For eg. Moses and the children of Israel guided through the Red Sea, Daniel in the lion's den, the three Hebrew men delivered from the burning furnace...
MBE writes:
"The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering." (S&H:387:27)

I know that the "supporting influence and protecting power" is bestowed on you and all, right where you are in the midst of that situation.

And, if there are symptoms that you are required to report, then God gives the strength to do that without getting entangled in the error. Again quoting MBE:
"Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself." (S&H 385:17-18 )

Much love to you.