Too much rain in Australia

Back to Sydney I flew last Saturday for a noon-time lecture at the downtown Reading Room in that city.

Rain, rain, rain…in voluminous amounts this part of the country was receiving that week.

Reports were that the size of the flooding was the territorial size of France, the most rain received in decades…torrential.

Years ago the weather scourge was drought. In recent times, it’s been too much water. Australia needs our prayers for a happy balance in the middle.

In the Kingdom of Heaven there is never too much or too little, but always the right amount. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” My prayer is that God’s weather-will is done in Australia.

The rain didn’t stop people from coming to the lecture, though. The room was packed with a few standing in the back.

Downtown Sydney Reading Room

The lecture on finding the love that makes family and relationships work was well received and many hearts were touched in deep and meaningful ways.

Then off to Perth that evening for two more lectures, one each on Sunday and Monday.

And I soon discovered that Perth is a long way from Sydney. It’s like flying from the east coast of the USA to the west coast. And a three hour time difference too. Australia is big!

The dry bites of mortal mind

While taking a quick run through the Australian Museum of Natural Science, mostly because I wanted to see the display of dinosaur skeletons on the third level, I side-stepped into an exhibit on poisonous reptiles in Australia. 

The below panel on sea snakes momentarily captivated my attention. I had never heard of a dry bite before.

As you can read above, the sea snake is highly poisonous, but doesn’t necessarily inject poison when biting. 

A dry bite…hmmm…

…a bite that might hurt a whole lot, or create a whole lot of fear initially to the one bitten, but is absolutely no danger at all.

My metaphysical mind started a-whirling…

“Bites” come in many different forms, I decided. 

A snake bite is one thing, and typically easy to avoid. Mortal mind “bites” are another type, and seem hard to avoid at times.

For instance, if you receive severe criticism from another; that bites! Or if you think you have money in your checking account, and discover you don’t have enough to pay your bills; that bites. Or, if a friend turns harshly against you without warning; that can bite. 

An unpleasant surprise may be so shocking to an unsuspecting victim, like a snake attacking from undercover, that they’re not sure they are going to survive. Hatred, fear, and rejection felt might start acting like poison in the system, crippling perspective, destroying hope and causing one to give up trying to rise above it.

But what if we understood, through Science, that every “bite” of mortal mind was a dry bite, a bite that could not hurt or harm us because there was no poison in it?

The “bite” might hurt at first because of the surprise aspect, but if we quickly remember that there is no poison in it, no lasting residual to continue creating harm to our thought and system, we would wake from the shock much quicker, neutralize the impending sense of evil, and prevent further harm.

In Truth, there is no mortal mind, and no mortal mind poison. Jesus Christ proved this when he walked out of the tomb alive. The poison of the world, hate and evil, that tried to destroy him was proven harmless. It had no lasting effect.  And it has no lasting effect on us, no matter in what form it seems to appear.

So, get clear now that no bite of mortal mind can ever poison you. There is no power in evil. Every “bite” is a dry bite, harmless and nothing to fear. Armed with an understanding of Science, you will readily and easily survive any “bite” of mortal mind, because there is nothing in the bite to get to you.

God is All. God is good, and good reigns supreme in your life. There is no room for any other so-called cause and effect. 

Dry bites are nothing to fear. From now on…pooh on them…

The cure for junk mail

In Canberra Friday evening, I took a walk down a long street to find a restaurant.

On my jaunt, I passed a collection of mail boxes that immediately caught my eye. On several post boxes were little plaques that read, “No Junk Mail Thank You.”

“Are you serious!”  I laughed out loud.

Does that really work? Can you engrave “No junk mail,” on your mailbox and expect to receive no unsolicited, unwanted mail? I wanted to know.

I had no idea…but they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work, would they?

What have the Aussie’s figured out about mail delivery that we Americans haven’t?

I would love to place “No junk mail thank you,” on my box and unburden the load every day. But I think the post man would laugh at me….

The Nation’s Capital

Canberra is Australia’s capital city. Did you know that? Its role was planned ahead of time.

I was told that years ago, citizens of Sydney and Melbourne were arguing over which should be the capital of the country, until the nation’s leaders decided to settle the dispute by building a city half-way between the two metropolises. They hired an urban architect and had him design a city fit for the job, which explains why the landscape and cityscape come across as orderly and put together. My schedule was tight that day, and I don’t have any pictures to show you. Sorry about that.

I had to chuckle when I entered the lecture hall, which was located in a Legislative Building, because at the front entrance was a security system one had to walk through to enter.

In a humorous mood, I sought a metaphysical angle to it all, “Aw, security alert! No unspiritual thoughts allowed! Check them at the door.”

The lecture that evening was quite fun because there were so many newcomers in attendance. It was a younger audience overall than I had seen that week, which perhaps speaks for a certain vitality of the community. I’m not sure.

One woman asked me if I was associated with a church in her community she was familiar with called, “Jesus the Master Scientist.” I thought not. She said the pastor preached on Jesus’ mastery of the physical sciences.

My highlight of the evening was afterward when a newcomer told me how the lecture had helped her and that she was going to pursue an avid study of Christian Science and start attending church services. She seemed quite committed to her new discovery.

It was a very fruitful evening,

Canberra auditorium before lecture

The naturopath who got it

Last Wednesday, I drove 80 kilometers from Gosford into the heart of Sydney, dropped off my rental car, walked up to my hotel in the drizzly rain, luggage in tow, and got ready for a 1 p.m. lecture at The Mint.

The lecture venue was super—modern, well-located, and equipped with an excellent sound system.

But the audience was even better! There was a healthy mix of ardent students of Science, plenty of newcomers, and seekers of all degrees in between.

After the talk, one woman said she was a practitioner of naturopathy and other similar healing arts. She told me she agreed with everything she heard, and was going to start putting the points in the lecture into practice. 

Her comments reminded me of the universality of Christian Science. When it is presented as a universal Truth, and not as a religious institution, people of all belief systems who are open-minded will pick something useful up from it. 

Another man who expressed heartfelt appreciation for the lecture asked me afterward to delineate explicitly what the unique differences were between Christian Science and other world religions. In his words, “Everything you said is taught by all the other major religions.”

My inner reaction to his assertion was vehement objection. I did not agree with him at all, and was distressed that he came to that conclusion after listening to the talk, but then I recognized other influences at work on his thought that caused him to draw that conclusion, because I’ve heard it occasionally before in the past: “What you say is what other religions teach.”

Well, yes, maybe, somewhat, but not really…

I said to him that Christian Science explicitly explains the unreality of evil and matter in light of the allness and reality of God, good. Other religions, I pointed out, preach the powerlessness of evil in the face of God, but still teach, generally, that evil is a real power stalking the earth out to get people. He began to backtrack and see the unique aspects, but it was a lesson to me as a speaker on the subject. 

There is an aggressive confusing aspect of mortal mind toward Christian Science that clouds people’s perception of what makes it special and valuable. Crystal clear and authoritative explanations of its teaching are needed to counter this misleading influence.

The man was a dear one, thoroughly loving the lecture and thanking me for it. He just wanted to know answers to his questions. He was genuine and sincere and stayed long after collecting literature and asking questions at the table in the foyer.

Noontime lectures can be very successful, by the way…  This one was.

Lecture Venue at The Mint in Sydney

That pesky fly!

This past Tuesday, I flew from Gold Coast to Sydney, rented a car, and drove north 80 kms to Gosford for a lecture that evening. I was greeted by an earnest little band of Christian Science workers setting up for their evening event.

Preparing for the evening event in Gosford

I got prepared and was all ready to go, but people were arriving late, so I took a walk around the block to collect my thoughts and enjoy the outdoor air.

And then I had a most inopportune experience…

A kamikaze fly started attacking my face. He was an ornery determined pest. I swatted it away, but it wouldn’t give up. Bzzz, bam, bang into my nose and cheek it went. I don’t know what its problem was, but it was starting to get me a little upset. I swatted it away again, but no use. Bzzzz…back it came again stronger than ever snapping into my nostrils and buzzing all around my face. 

What’s the deal with you? I exclaimed out loud. 

This time I was quite perturbed and I gave it another big swat. But I hit my nose and it started to bleed. A lot! 

“Oh great! Just what I need 15 minutes before the lecture starts,” I protested.

I tilted my head up because I had no Kleenex and I didn’t want to get blood all over my lecture clothes. That might have caused quite a scene when I returned.

“Okay,” I said to myself. “This needs to be healed fast. No, really fast!”

Fear started to well up within, but I caught it quickly and rebuked it with a strong, “There is nothing to be afraid of. God governs every activity of my being and keeps it all under control. There is no out-of-control bleeding. There is no injury, no hurt, no harm, no mistake, no accident. I’m okay. I’m alright. I am not in trouble. I am an oasis of peace and harmony, and there is no reason to doubt that I will not be perfectly ready to give this lecture on time without hindrance of any kind.”

I calmed down quickly. The fly disappeared. It took two or three minutes, but the bleeding stopped. I headed back to the auditorium, collected myself a bit inside, then went in to greet people and start the talk. 

Once I entered the auditorium and focused on the audience, I forgot all about the incident until the next day when I recounted my blessings from the evening before.

There is always a spiritual lesson to be learned with every experience we have. When my nose started to bleed, I quickly searched for that lesson, and all I could think of was, “This is a reminder to you to never get mad about anything, no matter how irritating it is, because anger is out of control thinking which leads to out of control actions which leads to injury and suffering.” And the relevance I found at the moment was my topic for the evening: “Families and relationships; finding the love that makes them work.”

This healing I had 15 minutes before the lecture put my consciousness into a very peaceful place. I had successfully overcome some evil belief that was trying to upset my thought in what appeared to be a totally unconnected way—through that darn fly! But I learned the lesson quickly and let love take me over. 

I’m guessing that this healing modified my perspective and allowed my thinking to be a clear transparency for some specific message of love someone in the audience that night needed to hear.

By the profound and sincere responses many shared afterward, I know many people were touched in deep and significant ways by the lecture message.

I particularly enjoyed chatting with one man who admitted that he is not a Christian Scientist, and had been quite critical of it in the past, but had thoroughly enjoyed the lecture, greatly benefited from it and was going to start practicing many of the points made. He was deeply grateful.

Another newcomer, clutching his new copy of Science and Health, told me how the lecture helped him figure out how to assist his sister through a traumatic trial.

I was told the manager of the theatre, not a Christian Scientist, by her own admission, sat outside the door and soaked in every word.

And I could go on…but the evening was a success.  Lives were touched, hearts were reached, new inspiration gained, and I made it through gloriously without giving another thought to that errant fly!

The pain went away

Two-thirds of the way through a lecture I was giving Thursday evening, a woman in the audience was quite restless. I wasn’t sure what all the commotion was about, as I was concentrating on delivering my message, but after a few minutes, she settled down and all appeared well.

At the end of my talk, she rushed up to speak with me, grabbed my hands and poured out her story in a gush of words that would not stop.

She was a new student of Christian Science and was seeking healing for an illness that often caused severe pain. At one point during the lecture, the pain ratcheted up severely. She became overwhelmed with fear that she couldn’t manage the pain and didn’t know what to do about it. But she didn’t want to leave. 

Just then I started talking about animal magnetism and how to stop it from controlling our lives. She said that she listened intently to the explanation that evil is a lie and then how to counter its suggestions. As I talked, she treated herself with the truths that were outlined. To her grand surprise, the pain instantly diminished, the storm calmed, peace took over and she felt fine.

She was glowing as she recounted the healing and so thrilled to see tangible proof in her own experience of how Christian Science worked. I told her she had everything she needed to be completely healed.

We exchanged big heartfelt hugs and wished each other well.