How meaningful it is “to be separate”!

It has been interesting to me to be working more closely with Section Four in the assignment. Since I started writing down more ideas from the work in a notebook, the work has felt easier and lighter and more inspired. I have so appreciated being closer with this section—I don’t tire of it. And I continue to feel the inspiration and direction from it.

And just on a practical note, the work has blessed me pretty significantly. My days have been fuller, more productive, and my energy has increased. That’s really the only way to describe it. Today was no exception. It’s not to say that I wasn’t expecting blessings from my own work for Association, but it has felt very significant to me. 

I think much of this is captured in the references about the baptism of the Holy Ghost in Mis. 204-205. So many of the phrases I was reading today really encompass what I have been feeling: “steadiness to resolve, and success to endeavor”; “The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; … and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself.”

It’s not to say I haven’t felt challenged or the inertia just to be idle sometimes, but the greater ease in seeing beyond this, and indeed, in beginning the steps to work, has been quite significant (and sweet) to me.

I have loved thinking about what it means to “be separate,” as Mrs. Eddy writes. The dictionary states “distinct” as a definition of separate. I love the sense of being distinct. There is intelligence and wisdom and genuineness backing it up. Today I was reading the section in Retrospection titled “A True Man.” It’s about Gilbert Eddy, of course. There is so much about being separate in that little paragraph: He “was the first student publicly to announce himself as a Christian Scientist… He forsook all to follow in this line of light. He was the first organizer of a Christian Science Sunday School…” and the list goes on (Ret. 42:3–8). I loved how meaningful it is “to be separate”! 

I have felt a rush of gratitude at certain times for Association and the sense of comfort and love and family that it has brought me. This means the world to me.