Day 73: One sentence, two lists

138:17-140:3

These two pages Christianity versus contemporary religious thought in Mary Baker Eddy's day. She focuses on what Jesus' theology was.

There are three sentences that I turned into lists, but I want to focus on just one of them. For most of my life here is how I read this sentence:

Our Master said to every follower: "[1] Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!...[2]Heal the sick!...[3] Love thy neighbor as thyself!"

When I read the first point, I focused on preach and totally ignored the first part. Then I took class instruction and here is how I heard someone else read the sentence:

Our Master said to every follower: "[1] Go ye into all the world, and [2] preach the gospel to every creature!...[3]Heal the sick!...[4] Love thy neighbor as thyself!"

The idea of the new first point is that you can't hide your head in the sand and still obey the command. It also means that to be a Christian isn't to be alone or solitary but to have relationships with people that include the other points.  I've been working on being in the world this last year but I would rather be alone - so at this point, the letter but not the spirit. Another thing to work on.

Unrelated - sort of
Two ideas that have come to me to work on are time and irritation.

Time: I am dominated by my belief in time in so many ways. As an example, I usually have at least two time pieces on my body at all times: watch and phone. And a third within visual range. Does that make any sense? No. I've been thinking about ideas to overcome this from a spiritual perspective.

Irritation: So, within the last two years, I've come to have the symptoms of spring-time allergies but the funny thing is I don't believe in allergies. So what's up with that? Well, I have been irritated a lot in the last few years and yes, the worst of it is in the spring. It's been a slow realization about how irritated I am emotionally with some of the people, events, and circumstances in my life. While sitting in church today, I started mapping out a C.S. treatment for myself. My teacher told me to do one a day so I would be in the habit but did I listen? Oh, no. So here I am, absolutely tired of blowing my nose, and wanting to not be irritated with myself and the people in my life. The words that came to me were patience, trust, perfection, harmony, balance.