Rev. Larry Barber, Senior Editor
Rod Carter, Assistant Editor

Think of habits or thoughts as time-release capsules. Good habits are our mental embodiment of the principles governing our success. Good habits don’t come without effort on our part. A good figure skater will rehearse a spin countless times until she can spin as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She could not do it if it were not, first, within the human potential to do. Though not every human has the same set of talents, the potential to be successful is one we share in common even if some never develop it as well as they might. Some people seem resigned to their unhappiness and failure as if they believe it to be their fate. Within us is both the power and potential to succeed through our talents and to love what we do. Nor should you be concerned with starting late. One of Albert Einstein’s teachers thought him as having no ability and that he would be a certain academic failure. The great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was not well regarded by his voice teacher. Some people are late bloomers, developing more slowly; they eventually surprise others by their excellence.

Don’t sell yourself short! You don’t have to be super-talented to be super-successful. Anyone can learn the art and science of success and change his life. Spiritually, success begins with the awareness that an infinite Power that resides in us responds to the level of our faith. Faith in your dreams will grow them into success greater than you may imagine.

Mastering new skills and knowledge to embellish your talents will make them into habits of success. It does take conscious awareness and constant work.

When we embody a new success-principle we are making our thoughts time-release capsules. They become habits, built-in reflexes, tempered by wisdom, love and faith. Such habits are the form consciousness takes and is ready for its appropriate response to life. The habit that is consciousness works even when we are not aware it is working. It is like exercise. Even when resting a person who exercises will continue to burn calories and make muscles. This is especially important as we get older to keep us trim and fit. It brings to mind the cobbler in the fairy tale who was visited by little elves at night who made the shoes to the patterns and sizes he left them. Aligning our consciousness with the universe by thinking positively about our dreams puts us into that same relationship with Universal law as the cobbler with the elves. Jesus expressed this as “The Father in me, he does the work.”

Jesus’ version of the time-release capsule of thought was “the mustard seed” representing the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is smaller than any other seed; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes the largest of shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky are able to make their nests in its shade.”

Contrasting the diminutive size of the mustard seed with the shrub it produces is like comparing your infinitesimally small idea with the monumental vision you can achieve. As the mustard seed does not seem capable of parenting a large shrub, so it may appear that ideas, dreams and intentions do not seem sufficiently substantial to start a new successful creative sequence. But they are. Over time consistent, positive beliefs will bring about great changes in our lives. The writer of Hebrews 11 understood this. He wrote: “. . . faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen . . . By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.”

The great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart also understood the nature of a seed-thought or habit. He said, “The seed of God is in us. If you are an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up into God, whose seed it is, and its fruits will be God-fruits. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds grow into nut trees, and God-seeds grow into God.”

Our success begins with right thoughts. As a farmer sows his seeds into the ground so do we sow our seed-thoughts into Universal Mind. Over time, these seed-thoughts will release great creative power into our lives. They become our time-release capsule of Eternal Power. Every seed-idea comes with a seed-energy. Each idea comes with the intelligence and power to manifest itself into what we desire to experience in our lives.

The pattern governing our lives comes from our ideas. The Buddha says, “All that you are is the result of all you have thought.” Consciously choose the life you wish to live. If you live by default, you will spend your time saying it is someone else’s fault that your life is less than you desire. One with God is a majority—this is a good reminder that your success begins within you.

In the creative world in which we live, everything is a manifestation of thought. Don’t discount the power of your thought to change your life for the better. That is what Jesus is alluding to when he said that faith can move a mountain; that is what Jesus’ life is demonstrating when the Gospels speak of miracles. Your miracle is to become who you really are, powerful, loving, successful and creative. This you must do despite the mountain of obstacles you are facing.

Positive thoughts are your time-capsules of success. They capture the greatest creative energy within you which exists at the level of the subconscious mind. It is the realm of your habitual thinking, your firm patterns that the creative law of the universe responds to. As Aristotle says, “You are what you habitually do.” If such patterns did not exist, you could not be consistently the person you are now. You wouldn’t know who you are from one day to the next.

Success must become a good habit as failure is a bad habit. We can change our habits through prayer and mindfulness. As the conscious mind feeds the subjective mind with new, good positive thoughts, the subconscious mind, acting as Law will begin to respond to the new patterns of thinking and produce new and more desirable results of love, harmony, peace and plenty. Right Action will spontaneously arise by itself. We will see that life does become for us what we believe it to be.

The one creative Universal Law acts as your personal law. In this way you draw your desire from the Law of Good at the level of your faith. We must consciously choose what we desire that it produces for us. Although the Creative Law of Mind has all the power and intelligence to grow all seeds, it does not decide what seeds should grow. The farmer must choose his seeds according to what he wishes to produce. The Law does not decide what is going to happen to you and me. We do.

If you are to be the success you desire, be mindful of your thoughts because they will release in time what you sow in Eternity. You are determining destiny so don’t spend your time blaming. Spend it learning how you use the most powerful instrument for success there is-your mind. Life works by mirroring back our thoughts. We simply reap what we sow. If you don’t focus your mind on the Law of Good, you will not become effective and powerfully successful.

Eckhart reminds us that God-seed grows into God. If you want to create the habit of success, then you will have to realize that thought is your time-release capsule of the God-self that you can grow into your experience of here and now.

There is nothing more fundamental to the activity of the universe than creation. What does the universe do: It creates. The way the great medieval mystic Meister Eckhart underscored this was by asking the question: “What does God do all day? God lies on the maternity bed giving birth to the universe.” This is just a poetic, profound way of saying that creation is forever coming forth, emerging from the fountain of livingness.

Ernest Holmes put it this way. “What is creation? It is the Creator clothed in form.” And of course we are centers of activity of this infinite life of Spirit so we are forever directing this creative power to create something for ourselves. Whatever we think will contribute to make the picture of our life whole and complete, that is what we ought to be giving over to this Power to bring into fruition. Dr. Holmes says, “It takes every man’s wholeness to produce the great mosaic of life.”

So there is never going to be a time when we are not participating in the creation of life. Creation is not a finished product but an eternal emanation.

Now, how do we tap into this creativity? Initially, by doing just what we have done. Bringing those fundamental ideas into the forefront of our minds. Next, by doing everything we can to cultivate an aura and atmosphere of creativity.

We can cultivate an atmosphere of creativity by adopting a playful attitude. Did you ever stop to think about the nature of those beings fresh from being born. Whether it’s puppies, kittens, colts, or baby humans. As soon as they can move, they start doing totally fun, playful things. These are beings fresh from the creator so aren’t they close to the heart of Spirit’s nature? It would certainly seem so. There’s probably nothing quite so healing as watching puppies or kittens.

We can cultivate an atmosphere of creativity by discarding the notion of perfection. Spontaneity does not coexist easily with perfection. Writer Robert Fulghum talks about asking first graders if they could sing or dance; and they all hold up their hands. But when he asked some college students, only a percentage held up their hands.

Why do the college students have such a drop of people saying they can sing or dance? They are thrusting a sense of judgment, of some high standard, some perfection, upon themselves. And thus they disqualify themselves. Whereas, the first graders are just calling upon themselves to do something without imposing a standard of measurement. Sometimes, we are still doing this to ourselves with regard to the issue of creativity.

Julia Cameron talks a little about this subject and she says: “Here’s what I like about God. Trees are crooked, mountains are lumpy, a lot of his creatures are funny-looking, and he made it all anyway. He didn’t let the aardvark convince him he had no business designing creatures. He didn’t make a puffer fish and get discouraged. No, the maker made things—and still does.”

Finally, as you look ahead to see how you’re going to accomplish something, bear in mind this advice from author E. L. Doctorow: “It’s like driving a car at night. You never see farther than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

We’re here today to celebrate the Earth, this green planet on which we make our home. Each day we make a complete 360-degree turn so that the full benevolence of the life-giving energy of the Sun can be bestowed on the Earth’s leafy glory of flora and fauna. In so doing, our mountains and valleys, rivers and streams, our flowers and trees, acquire what is necessary for life. This great drama of life’s unfoldment and renewal is forever enveloping us too in its gift of creation and possibility.

We’re here today to reflect for a moment on the extent to which we are fulfilling our personal responsibility to be wise and worthy stewards of the Earth’s bounty and support. We’re here today not to accuse ourselves of neglect—though perhaps neglect may be taking place—but instead we’re here to inquire what forms of respect we’re offering to the natural world that nourishes us in every passing hour. We’re here to discover what corrections we might be willing to make in our knowledge, our attitudes, and our behavior that will permit us to soften any destructive blows to the green world.

We’re here today to deepen our appreciation of the tremendous interconnectedness of life; to realize that when we speak of the Oneness of God, the Unity of Spirit, that this Truth has profound implications, not only for our spiritual life but for our very existence. Our allegiance to Spirit’s Oneness carries a corresponding moral imperative to be active and faithful in upholding the sacredness of life and nature’s never-ending revelation.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, speaks eloquently about this Unity when he coins the word Inter-Being. He says a flower is made up of mostly non-flower elements: the sky, air, clouds, water, the soil, the sun. The same is true for us. To simply say we are human beings, is to miss the truth that we are clouds, water, the sun and the sky. And all of these elements are the bedrock of our identity.

So, all actions that we can promote and advance in preserving and maintaining the integrity and viability of the Earth’s health and vitality, deserve the highest priority we can muster.

Poem
by Eveline Beumkes

Clouds are flowing in the river,
waves are flying in the sky.

Life is laughing in a pebble.

Does a pebble ever die?

Flowers grow out of the garbage,
such a miracle to see.

What seems dead and what seems
dying makes for butterflies to be.

Life is laughing in a pebble,
flowers bathe in morning dew.

Dust is dancing in my footsteps,
and I wonder who is who.

Clouds are flowing in the river,
clouds are drifting in my tea.

On a never-ending journey,
what a miracle to be!

It was the end of February, 2008, when Rev. Larry Barber officially retired from his post of associate minister of Founder’s Center for Positive Spirituality. He had completed a distinguished service period of fourteen years and one month and left a record of enduring excellence in love, principle and service. Founder’s celebrated him with a luncheon, dance, gifts and much love.

To know Rev. Larry is to experience the blessing of a good relationship. It is rightly said of people like Rev. Larry, that they make the world a better place. Rev. Larry makes us proud to be Religious Scientists, for his excellence as student and practitioner of the Science of Mind philosophy stand with quiet dignity at the heart of our spiritual community. His life is a living testimony to “Change your thinking; change your life” and would make Dr. Holmes happy to cook up his special stew for him. Furthermore, like “Little David,” happily playing upon his harp, Dr. Hornaday would joyously play upon his marimba for Rev. Larry. As for me, I would happily play my harmonica for him.

Like the spiritually enlightened soul he is, Rev. Larry is a blessing to everyone he meets. He served on the editorial staff of the Science of Mind magazine, and then headed up the Ministry of Prayer at Headquarters. Later he assumed the senior minister position at La Crescenta Church of Religious Science, leaving to take care of his dying father. Founder’s was his next and final career stop.

Rev. Larry’s love, intelligence and inner quietude have served Founder’s well. Even in retirement, he now generously volunteers a couple of days each week, and a couple of Sundays each month, to Founder’s. With his new free time, he enjoys traveling with his wife, Carolyn. Rev. Larry has served us loyally since January 1994.

I recall the day he phoned expressing interest in Founder’s assistant minister’s opening. Years before, I remember seeing Rev. Larry while I was still a practitioner at Guidance. He and Carolyn joined Guidance and attended Sunday services there. The wonderfully thoughtful aura Rev. Larry exuded at Guidance was evident when we met to see if we were good fits for each other. We were perfect. In addition to our appreciation of Science of Mind, we shared many interests, which included poetry, writing, an eclectic musical taste, and a love of people and sports.

Our Board wholeheartedly endorsed my selection and a great relationship was formed. Rev. Larry’s love and support for our members and me has never wavered. He has stood beside me through the hardest of times, and I am eternally grateful for that. I was once asked by Rev. Dr. Arlene Bump, then president of Religious Science International (RSI), how a minister finds an assistant minister like Larry Barber. I don’t think anyone can. Founder’s and I have simply been blessed by a very special gift from God.