“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick”

(Ezek. 34:16).

Facing down the pull of suicide

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts Youth Risk Survey 2007).

LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are more than 8 times as likely to have attempted suicide than LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection (Ryan C, Huebner D, et al – Peds 2009;123(1):346-352)

Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt (Grossman AH, D’Augelli AR - Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 2007)

Titled “Suicide and Suicide Risk in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Populations: Review and Recommendations,” the report makes sweeping recommendations for closing knowledge gaps about suicidal behavior in LGBT people, and calls for making LGBT suicide prevention a national priority.

“With this report and recommendations, we hope to move LGBT suicide prevention squarely onto the national agenda and provide a framework for actions aimed at reducing suicidal behavior in these populations,” said Dr. Ann Haas, lead author and senior project specialist for AFSP. “It’s time for the federal government, suicide prevention agencies, mental health professionals, policy makers and LGBT organizations to join together to bring this problem out of the closet and work toward effective solutions.”

Facing down the pull of suicide

A Christian Science perspective.

By Rosalie E. Dunbar, News Editor for the Christian Science magazines / May 5, 2009

There was a time in my life when the desire to commit suicide was my daily companion. A situation at the university where I was a middle manager had erupted into disaster, and I felt my integrity was being deeply and unfairly questioned.

Looking back now, I can see that even in the midst of it, there was still a pinhole where light was getting through. It often showed up as a question when I thought actively about taking my life. It asked, “Are you sure? Would it work?” I think that was actually an angel, a message from God, reaching me in terms that I could hear. And I think my daily prayer – which during that time never seemed useful or inspired – was what kept that hole open. It was my lifeline to God’s goodness, even though I felt deeply burdened and totally cut off from anything even remotely good.

That lifeline is actually Christ. You can think of Christ as God’s spiritual message of love for humanity, and for each of us specifically. Each individual, including those who have taken their lives, and their families, and all of us, is spiritual, the idea of divine Life. As such we can never lose our lives, even when we mistakenly think we can take them. Nor can we ever lose God’s love, even when what Paul the apostle called “the carnal mind” – that which argues against God’s love – endeavors to darken our thoughts and even close out that pinhole of light.

Jesus once said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness…. I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:46, 47). Not to judge, but to save.

But what of those whose hands were not stayed and who did take their lives? No one can know for sure what their next step was in terms of how they perceived it. But there are some things that are certain. One is that God is infinite Life, and that none of His children can ever be cut off from that Life. No one can ever lose God’s love.

In my case, salvation came in the form of a spiritual inspiration breaking through with the message that I could save myself if I was willing to be grateful. And I was. At first I had to search for reasons, because the darkness was still there. But I was persistently grateful for tiny things and big things day after day. The pinhole of light became a small window, which grew from there. Eventually, all I thought I’d lost in life was restored – and more.

Our loved ones will see this true Life-light in their own way, and will realize the need to go forward toward that light. Even if this knowledge doesn’t come all at once, they will be kept safe in God’s care. Why can we be sure of this? The book of Ezekiel in the Bible has a wonderful passage that speaks of God’s active love. It records God as promising, “I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick” (Ezek. 34:16).

Biblical promises like these are also true for those of us who have been left behind with memories and questions. Jesus came not to judge – them, you, or anyone. He came to show the saving Christ. This power of God’s love is active right now in your life, as it was in mine on the morning my pinhole of light began its journey toward becoming a window. It’s active in the lives of our loved ones. Take warmth and comfort from this light. Be grateful for every evidence you see. And live.

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

Facing down the pull of suicide – CSMonitor.com

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths .

Proverbs 3:5-6

Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.

Mary Baker Eddy

Science and Health 494:10

If you’re facing a crisis

A Christian Science perspective

* Photo – Joseph cast into the pit  from www.allposters.com

No matter what the circumstances look like, I am learning that I can pause to pray with my whole heart and ask God to show me what choices to make regarding my harmony and stability. What looks like danger can become a turning point for something better. As we pray, crucial times in life can help us rise to new strength, fortitude, and vision. These qualities come from God, Love, who has created man – meaning men and women – in His image and likeness. The more I understand that divine Love is the victor in every situation, the more clearly I see that under His care, I also am victorious and not a victim, even if the market is in continual flux.

It was evident that Joseph’s love for God was unchanging in the midst of adversity. It was a love that identified God as the supreme power. When asked to interpret one of Pharaoh’s dreams, he acknowledged, “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Gen. 41:16).

 “the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it”

(St. John 1:5, Amplified Bible),

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Monitor, wrote, “The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power”

(“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 131).

The Bible: an escape to freedom

A Christian Science perspective.

* photo (Forgiven) by Russ Docken from www.allposters.com

For Zhang Boli, one of China’s most wanted student dissidents, the months of hiding and running from the relentless police manhunt had been grueling. He was sick and exhausted, but still grateful for the shelter and care he was receiving, especially from the selfless woman he described as “Elder Cousin.” When he was well enough, she asked him to read something for her, because it was hard for her to read. He was surprised when the manuscript wrapped in red cloth which she brought out was the Gospel of John, copied by hand.

In his book, “Escape from China: The Long Journey from Tiananmen to Freedom,” Zhang explains that he had no interest in Jesus, but was glad to be able to do something for the person who had nursed him through his illness. And then something happened that he hadn’t expected: He could not stop reading the Gospel. He was moved by the story of Jesus’ crucifixion; he was shocked that Jesus taught his disciples to forgive; he could not forget any of it.

It was not until some time later, when he was lost in a subzero snowstorm on the northern border of China, numb with cold and facing almost certain death, that he turned wholeheartedly to Elder Cousin’s God for comfort, and found a new framework for his life.

As he explained in an interview with National Public Radio, he discovered that freedom doesn’t come through a governmental decision, but that “it lies in your own heart.” From that time on, prayer and a new kind of comfort were with him on his remarkable journey and final escape to the West. Now an ordained minister, he is able to share the good news of the Gospel with other Chinese speakers. He has learned to forgive the Chinese government, which had been hunting him down, he told the NPR interviewer. He added, “Forgiveness starts from the weak, not the strong.” Reading the Bible changed his life, as it has changed the lives of so many others over the years, with the idea that the spiritual is more important, more powerful, and more real than the physical.

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

The Bible: an escape to freedom – CSMonitor.com

With your whole heart

A Christian Science perspective: In this age of multitasking, what needs our whole heart?

By The editors of the Christian Science Sentinel

* photo from www.allposters.com

To be devoted, to be wholehearted, is a means of understanding right here and now our oneness with God. This isn’t something we can track by assessing our bank accounts, our work performance, the numbers of friends and contacts we may have, or even our health. It is something we feel. It is perceived through spiritual sense, a kind of knowing. Spiritual sense, as described by Mary Baker Eddy in the textbook of Christian Science, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God” (p. 209). It is to understand that God is not just here and ever-presently so, but the very center of all, and is All. It is to accept our place as the offspring of God – as God’s being, expressed.

I just want to say: I thank you, my dear students, who are at work conscientiously and assiduously,  for the good you are doing.  I am grateful to you,  for giving the sick relief from pain,  for giving joy to the suffering and hope to the disconsolate,  for lifting the fallen and strengthening the weak, and encouraging the heart grown faint with hope deferred.  We are made glad by divine Love which looseth the chains of sickness and sin, opening the prison doors to such as bound; and we should be more grateful than words can express, even through this white-winged messenger, our JOURNAL.

MARY BAKER EDDY

(June 1887 Volume 5 Issue 3 - The Christian Science Journal)

Anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking knows how uncomfortable it is—the withdrawal symptoms are intense and persistent. They make it very hard to quit. But I learned through Christian Science that God’s power is far greater than any addiction, no matter how persistent.

Finally, though I was very new to Christian Science, I got up the courage to call a Christian Science practitioner for the first time. She was willing to give me prayerful support, and asked me to call her
every day. She had me purchase a copy of Science and Health, and I dug out my old King James Bible—and we began to go through them together. We started with the definition of man that Mary Baker Eddy gives—that man is a spiritual idea—perfect, the image of Love. And how Jesus demonstrated for all mankind this divine idea in its fullness. Each time we talked, she reminded me that God is Love, and that I could not be a slave to tobacco. She pointed me to this biblical passage: “If we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light . . . Jesus Christ his [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” ( I John 1:7).

For the first time, I realized that I had not been dealing with a physical need at all, and as the practitioner had prayed to see me as God’s perfect child, I was experiencing what she’d told me from the start—that God is Love. What had seemed a physical addiction showed itself to be only an illusion—a terrible nightmare.

That healing made me begin questioning everything I had been brought up to believe about the nature of reality and life. In the days that followed, I longed to know more about Christian Science. Shortly after, I made contact with a Christian Science teacher and was accepted into her class, even though at the time I was still the president of the board of another church. I went through class, and a few months later I left my former church to become a member of both The Mother Church and my local Christian Science branch church.

It can be difficult to accept this. I know, because I never conceived that such healing was possible until I experienced it for myself. Now when I read of Jesus’ healings in the Bible, I understand that what seems so miraculous to us is the normal activity of Love. “The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love” (Science and Health, p. 494).

Far more than doctrine or belief, Christian Science is the demonstration of God’s love for us all, and this truth heals today—just as it did in Jesus’ lifetime. “Divine metaphysics is not to be scoffed at; it is Truth with us, God ‘manifest in the flesh,’ not alone by miracle and parable, but by proof; it is the divine nature of God, which belongs not to a dispensation now ended, but is ever present, casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead—resurrecting individuals buried above-ground in material sense” (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 109–110).

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

Addiction to smoking: no part of God’s allness

Pride Parade to put faith at the forefront

Religious groups given higher priority in this year’s marching order

Coming

July 2012

Embrace

Chicago’s LGBT Christian Science Group

*

Embrace the journey

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

There were many times when it all seemed overwhelming. But as a student of Christian Science, I’ve spent nearly half my life leaning on God for comfort and solutions. And He has never let me down. The first sentence of the Preface of the Christian Science textbook by Mary Baker Eddy gave me the encouragement I needed. That book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” opens with this promise: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.”

The key word for me has been “to-day.” With all that I felt I needed to accomplish, I could stay safely grounded if I opened my eyes to each day’s blessings, no matter how small they seemed to be. Although there were some difficult and frightening times, each day I could be grateful for much good. No matter where I was, I always had food, clothing, shelter, and people who loved me. I’ve now accepted that all good comes from divine Love, the source of all intelligence. Because God is immeasurable, so is His love for His creation. Because God is indestructible, so is the visible, tangible proof of His love for me.

These ideas helped quiet a lot of fear and enabled me to feel greater joy than I’d known for many years.

My greatest accomplishment this year has been learning to embrace the journey more than worry about where it will ultimately lead. As God takes care of today, I can trust He’ll take care of every day to come. This doesn’t make me careless or lazy. Instead, it gives me a sense of calm that energizes and inspires. With this peace of mind, I can hear more clearly the right choices to make. And I reach forward with greater confidence and courage. This is one of the ways I know God is with me, every step of the way.

 Think of what you were when called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before him.

I Corinthians 1:26-29

  * photo from www.allposters.com

Unconditional love – a mother’s privilege

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

Talk about an ideal! Unconditional love tops the chart of virtues to aspire toward. It’s not easy to love another without concern for self, desire for benefit, or even expectation of thanks. Aspiring to such an ideal is great; achieving it on occasion is even more impressive. Yet mothers are expected to love their children unconditionally all the time!

How realistic is that? It’s easy enough with newborns and sleeping babies. It’s imaginable with feisty toddlers, though it takes more patience. Eye-rolling, smart-mouthed teens raise the bar considerably. But what about mothers facing grown children whose lives are anything but productive? Is unconditional love still a reasonable expectation – or an appropriate one?

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded this newspaper, would likely answer “yes.” In her primary work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” she described the enduring nature of maternal love, regardless of circumstances. She wrote: “A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties” (p. 60).

Vintage photo  of  The Christian Science Monitor Newsroom

* Recently purchased on Ebay from Jay Parrino’s The Mint  -  www.jp-themint.com

We can meet members of that “universal family” again and again on our life journey. This ever-widening concept of family – with God at the head of the table, serving up only the best, expressing His-Her absolute joy and delight over each of us – can help, comfort, and carry us through tough situations. You may find how this loving God always manages to send just the right individual – “brother” or “sister” – at just the right time.

One family

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

A God who can do that is the perfect Parent, and we are the children in His one big loving family. God, who is both Father and Mother, loves every child distinctly, completely. This “head of the household” has all the resources to provide each of us with anything we could ever need, including the help or friendship of the right person at the right time.

The woman who founded this newspaper said this about a wider understanding of God’s family: “This human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea, – as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” pp. 576-577).

To learn more click on the link below: