The pool of possibility

by Miranda Miller

I have grown quite fond of this big town they call Boston. Every aspect of my experience here-this internship, new friendships, city life, spiritual growth-has become very rich over these couple of months. I have to admit, when I first arrived after having spent a year living near the charming city of Chicago, I was a little skeptical. But the more I looked around me, the more I began to notice how much Boston has to offer.

It’s as if there’s this giant reflecting pool, full of opportunities to get outside of myself and grow into a new realm of understanding, but it’s up to me to decide if I want to just walk on by, dip my toe in, or jump right in. Fortunately, unlike the reflecting pool outside my office window on The Mother Church plaza, there aren’t any “No Swimming” signs or security guards at my pool-it’s fair game!

I’ve been learning more about Mary Baker Eddy through some research and while participating in lecture podcasts for TMC Youth. She was a person who definitely dove right into the pool of possibility. And just look at the rewards to humanity! Other historical figures have also been brought to my attention, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Florence Nightingale, because of the courage they possessed to look beyond the accepted sense of things and delve deeper into reality. I’ve found some of these same qualities in many of the employees I’ve met during my internship. And I deeply appreciate the valuable conversations I’ve had with these spiritually progressive thinkers.

I’ve become particularly grateful for the opportunity to attend church services at The Mother Church up to four times a week. A little over a year ago, you would not have heard me expressing much excitement about attending church. I had loved my Sunday School experience, but conversely, did not feel that church services met my needs.

I would often spend much of the service doing silly things like counting the number of parallelograms I could locate within the church’s décor. I think what lay at the bottom of my disenchantment with the church experience was the notion that I didn’t fit into the mold already in place. Somewhere along the line, I realized I knew better than that!

And then my focus began to change. Instead of forming my own opinion of what church should be, or contemplating the opinions of others, I started wondering what would happen if I let God guide me through the experience.

The first result was that I was able to listen to more of the readings without getting distracted-because it is the Word of God, which I love to hear! Following God’s lead also awakened in me a purpose of church that is higher than simply going to get personal inspiration. It’s an hour of my life that I can dedicate to thinking about and caring for others in the church and in the community. I can honestly say that I now look forward to and enjoy every service I get to attend.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 9:42 am and is filed under New Perspective, Career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.