True Joy Does Not Come From Things

I am so grateful and would like to share an awakening that I recently experienced. The word “lust” is in the Bible lesson this week and an example of it with the story of King David was in last week’s Bible Lesson. In the Bible, it’s one of those words on the list of “what not to do.” But what is lust? I used to think it had only to do with sexuality. One of Webster’s definitions say, “longing desire; eagerness to possess or enjoy.” I certainly never thought I had a problem in this arena, but after a very loving Christian Science practitioner pointed it out to me, I wanted to look into it and have been pondering it for awhile. Well, this issue did run deep, actually there was a lot of attraction and desire for shopping, for material things, shoes, bags, clothing, and household goods. As I examined my thought more carefully, I realized there were some behaviors that needed adjustment. The worldly suggestion is that material things make us happy. Remember Jesus parable about the young man that wanted true joy and heaven, until he learned that he must give up his “things.” In Truth, he needed only to give up a false, material concept of them.

True joy does not come from things purchased or owned. Adam Dickey states in his article, “Possession,” “All this is based on the supposition that matter is substance and that man is the proprietor of it.” (This is a wonderful article on the Plainfield site.) I have definitely been led to think about things from a different perspective, and I am so grateful to know it for the whole world. I have been practicing seeing what looks like matter is indeed the representation of Spirit. I need to do more of that, always, and as has been pointed out on the Plainfield Roundtable, there is nothing wrong with beautiful things and the highest sense of having them. It must be in a spiritual sense of recognition that God made all and abundance of Good is from Him, not from a catalog or a store. Mrs Eddy says, “We must exchange the objects of sense for the ideas of soul.” This is the practice of translation. I’m so grateful for the tools to tackle this mental issue. Now, when a suggestion comes to me of want or desire for anything, I can catch it fast and knock it down because really the suggestion is that something is lacking that needs to be filled. In Truth, I am full and content, joyous and abundantly supplied with God’s ideas. In Psalm 23, “I shall not want” is something very powerful to hold onto. Thank you, God. Thank you, Christ Jesus. Thank you, Mary Baker Eddy, for the tools to break down any human-seeming situation in our thought and turn it around to the perfection that God made and called Good.