Is It Time To Put Away My Childish Things

"Some of us treat God like the Claw?that tempting machine at supermarkets and video arcades that will dispense a stuffed animal to the lucky winner. You drop in a quarter and manipulate a lever that looks like a metal claw, trying to grab one of the enticing little puppies or bunnies jumbled together at the bottom of the glass case.We want our Creator to be a divine vending machine that dispenses the toys we desire." ~ Mary Manin Morrissey, NO LESS THAN GREATNESS.

I really had to chuckle when I first read Mary Manin Morrissey's statement above. I instantly flashed back to my own childhood when I spent many of my hard earned quarters doing exactly what she describes. And then, as a young adult I continued to do the same thing, however by that time the machine was God, and the quarters were my prayers.

The unspoken belief was; if I just put enough quarters in the machine?if I prayed hard enough, beseeched longingly enough, and even threw in a little whining, God's Claw might just drop my desired "thing" down the chute and right onto my lap. Can you relate at all with that?.I can't help but reflect on Paul's admonishment in 1st Corinthians: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." My understanding of what Paul was saying is that if we are to grow and evolve spiritually, our relationship with God must also mature. Today, nearly thirty years after first learning about New Thought and the principles upon which we rely, I can truly see how my relationship with God has evolved.

I no longer look to God to "fill my needs" and yet I do know that God is the source from which my needs are met. Perhaps my idea of my needs has changed. This is the nature of spiritual evolution.

As we grow, our spiritual reality naturally shifts as well. It puts a whole new spin on the vending machine in the sky mentality.The question I invite you to ponder with me today is this: How has your relationship with God evolved? This is the point where our spiritual maturity comes in. Just as it may have required a good bit of maturity to strike a new relationship with our parents when we became adults, the same thing is required of a mature relationship with God.

As spiritually evolving individuals we realize we are at choice as to the relationship we shall have with the Beloved. Rather than thinking of ourselves as a "child of God" whom may throw us a "toy" if our prayers are convincing enough, we can begin to see ourselves as partners with God, as co-creators with God. The question has to be, how do we manifest that sort of Divine Partnership? Dr. Ernest Holmes say's it so beautifully in his classic book, the Science of Mind: "No good can come to us unless it make its advent through the center of God Consciousness which we are.we must awaken to the realization that a Divine Partnership has already been formed between the seen and the invisible.

" POINT: We are already in partnership with the Divine?we simply need to awaken to it.Ultimately what we discover as we continue to awaken and deepen our relationship with God is that with enough faith, and as we bridge the perceived invisible gap between the seen and the unseen, the "with" God evolves into "as" God and all sense of separation is healed. The awareness becomes, there is no God to pray to but only to pray from?there is no more big vending machine in the sky, there is only God, knowing, loving and caring for Itself as you and I. That's when our every need is fulfilled, not because we asked, but because the gift was given even before the request was made.

By the way, when we arrive at this level of knowing, we shouldn't be surprised in the least if what we believed our needs to be, change dramatically. At this level of relationship the only thing we are seeking is an ongoing awareness of our Oneness in God. Oddly enough, the primary result of that depth of awareness is a peace that passes all understanding, and it transcends anything the Claw could ever conceivably deliver. So put your quarters away and be still and know?well, you know the rest.Indeed. Perhaps it is time to put away our childish things.

com. You can find out more about Dr. Dennis and his book "The Art of Being" at DennisMerrittJones.com. And, if you're in the Los Angeles area, you can visit him this Sunday at the OneSpirit Center for Conscious Living.

By: Dennis Merritt Jones