A PEP Talk on how “ALL things work together for good…”— even when it doesn’t look it.
How Joe’s Answered Prayer History (cit. B5/Gen 50:15+S7/589) proved to be Warren’s too
[A Warren Huff application idea:] Have you ever been bullied or treated unfairly?
Joseph (and I) sure were treated unfairly in mean ways that looked very bad, but which resulted in great good. (You can read in Genesis 37-50 how Joseph’s mistreatment by his brothers and Potiphar’s wife, all turned out to bless him and his family— and even saved him, them and many others from starvation.)
No matter what bad things happened TO Joseph – and no matter what bad things happen TO you and TO me, we can, like Joseph, declare that they are happening FOR us. With God bring good and totally FOR us as well as in charge of our lives and of those around us, we, like Joseph, can refuse to be discouraged and can keep living to give, seeking to bless those around us, even those who seem to be our enemies.
I was able to overcome inharmony and unjust bullying in my first workplace (other than CedarS) by using Joseph’s example and Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual definition for Joseph as found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It reads in part: “JOSEPH. … pure affection blessing its enemies.”— page 589:20/citation S7) My situation was that the owner of TEAM One Architects in Kansas City who hired me for my first job after graduating from Princeton University, made a big deal of that – which caused a good bit of jealousy and hostility from my immediate job supervisor. Not only did he assign me all the least meaningful and most tedious jobs to do, but he also took aggressive actions to make my work look bad before our mutual employer. (In days before CAD (Computer Assisted Drafting) this took form in his smeared my pencil lettering and poking holes with a drafting triangle in what I’d worked on all day.)
I tried not to react, but rather respond with love and prayer. On my drive home after his most aggressive attack, I started to really pray the “Daily Prayer” — line by line, idea by idea. (Church Manual 41) When I got to the part which reads “rule out of ME all sin,” I realized that although the healing seemed to be needed in another, the solution to this and to every problem really needed to take place in me, in my consciousness and in my loving response.
I naturally looked to Jesus as my supreme role model, more than to Joseph. After all, Jesus had overcome hatred, injustice and persecution in their harshest forms. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when he’d been captured and was being led away to be unjustly tried, whipped, tortured and crucified, I recalled his example of healing the cut-off ear of one who was leading him away to this awful experience. When I got home I looked up the spiritual definition of Gethsemane in the Glossary chapter of “… the Key to the Scriptures.” The application idea in this definition that stood out to me to use in my situation was “love meeting no response, but still remaining love.” (SH 586:23-25)
I determined to follow Jesus’ example and be loving no matter the response. The next day started out no differently, except that during a work break, my persecutor realized and said out loud that it was his wedding anniversary and that he not only had no card or gift, but that he’d left his car at the repair shop with his wallet inside it by mistake and so he had no way to shop for anything during the upcoming lunch hour. Because of my prayers and desire to remain loving and to bless even my so-called my enemies, I quickly said, “Here are the keys to my Opel GT and money to borrow to buy whatever is needed.” From then on, we became best of friends both in and out of the office. We waterskied often behind his boat and played Frisbee or racquetball almost daily in the park, went together to Christian Science lectures… What cannot love do, for “Love never fails!” (1st Corinthians 13:8)
Take a minute to pray about how you intend to use love to heal any and all inharmony in your workplace your home and/or our country and world. Don’t hesitate to give past challenges your best “retroactive treatments” to release all involved from a past, present or future of wrongdoing. Instead, see them and yourself as always loving and by nature eager to bless. Try pledging to have as your own that mind of Christ that keeps the following Beatitudes daily.
Pledge to be:
Free from pride (poor in spirit):
Quick to forgive (merciful): and to
Win without a fight (a peace maker) …
**You can find this and other new GEMs in Blue Lettering added to my earlier online posting and email sharing.
