Frustration foiled
As my computer continued to crash, I realized my technical skills were no match at all for the chaos cascading across my screen. A document, or at least what once was one, glowed dimly. Was any data still salvageable? Frustration, like a heavy surf, overwhelmed me. So did complaint. But venting those frustrations and complaints brought me no comfort at all.
Time passed. The following morning, I noticed what may or may not have been there all along. An icon on the screen signaled that I had “new mail.” To my surprise, the e-mail came from an editor at this magazine. The e-mail began, “We were thinking that a Sentinel cover story on dealing effectively with ‘frustration’ would be so great to have.” Initially, I felt like the last guy on the planet who should write about conquering frustration. Then, I reconsidered. Was it as if God was giving me a second chance? Additionally, for reasons that humanly remained a mystery, my computer was now functioning flawlessly.
I gained spiritual conviction. I reasoned prayerfully. I knew that the one God is the Mind and Love of us all, and He is there for each of us. We are God’s likeness, His expression, His manifestation. What does that mean? For one of us to be truly frustrated, the Almighty would first have to be frustrated—a thing not about to happen. The God that is Mind knows each idea in all its eternal perfection. The God that is Love cherishes each idea in all its goodness. We remain obedient to the law of Mind. In truth, we express God’s assurance, quietude, and freedom from frustration or from feeling offended. Only what is in the original can show up in the expression of the original. In truth, Love is the lawful original. We are Love’s expression. Is divine Love ever frustrated? No. Could Love’s expression ever be? Double no.
Before long, I found myself answering the editor: “Sounds like an excellent topic. I would be delighted to write about it.”
Sometimes, it appears as if frustration overrides everything else. At times, what the Apostle Paul called the “carnal mind” (Romans 8:7 ), or the idea that there is a power that can obstruct or paralyze God’s goodness, parades through thought. This “mind” shows up in different masks. It is a pretender, a misleader that would try and drag us off course and into a boatload of frustration. What to do? It helps to make one’s prayer specific. Instead of smoldering in frustration, acknowledge that the peace of God and the calm of His Christ are already on the scene, already transforming the mental environment, and therefore already loosening the carnal mind’s seeming grip on individual consciousness. What began perhaps as a minor clash of egos does not have to escalate and grow more frustrating.
Maybe a politician you dislike appears on your TV screen. He or she promotes as positive what you consider negative. Or vice versa. Or perhaps what really irritates you is how this in-law or that co-worker forever rehearses the same tired judgments. Maybe it’s you who has a habit of complaining. Remember, it is the costume-wearing carnal mind—not a person who happens to be a politician or a family member—who is the “frustrator.”
Or are you frustrated—and possibly uneasy—due to a health concern? Perhaps you have proved time and again that spiritual healing happens. “So, why this?” you ask yourself. “Why now?” But looking deep, it will grow easier to remember the facts that Love never fails and its healing action never dims. Its transforming impact never fades and its renewing power forever multiplies. How does such renewal occur? It is a consequence of Mind’s knowing. The frustrator, that is, the carnal mind, is not born of God. It neither renews nor gets renewed. So, mentally deny the carnal mind and all its tactics in prayer and it begins to crumble.
Instead of smoldering in frustration, acknowledge that the peace of God and the calm of His Christ are already on the scene.
These spiritual assurances are based on rock-solid Truth, and mean so much more than learning to cope with chaos or just taking deep breaths and adopting a “chilled out” attitude. The Psalmist promises: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalms 119:165 ). We might replace “offend” with “frustrate.” And we might want to remind ourselves that “frustrate” can also mean to block or impede. But can the forward progress of divine law really be blocked? Not a chance.
The timeless message of great peace comes not to a randomly selected audience. It comes with clarity to those who—whether frustrated or offended—have a sincere love for God’s law and are committed to following this law.
Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy wrote a message to her church—a message that somehow still manages to be as transforming as it is tender. It’s easy to think of this message as buttressed by Jesus’ ministry of hope to all mankind. Eddy writes, “O glorious hope! there remaineth a rest for the righteous, a rest in Christ, a peace in Love. The thought of it stills complaint; the heaving surf of life’s troubled sea foams itself away, and underneath is a deep-settled calm” (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 19 ). Ponder this and the calm of the Christ-message expands more and more. The frustration of the carnal mind ebbs in retreat.
Think of Christ Jesus, especially when he is with his disciples, near the close of his ministry. He has taught them for three years. His instruction includes stunning examples of prayer-based healing. Yet, when key concerns are on the line, the disciples don’t just have a momentary lapse in focus. They fall asleep. Was the Master frustrated? It’s reasonable to conclude that he might have been when he said, “Couldest not thou watch one hour?” (Mark 14:37 ). But if he sank at all, Jesus did not allow temporary disappointments to degrade into permanent defeats.
The Christ-message, which comes from God to human consciousness, the message Jesus had for his disciples and the message the Master has for you and for me, is a frustration-buster. The promise of the redeeming Christ is filled with glorious hope, peace, and love, and does not include an element of darkness or anxiety. Does it sustain us now? Absolutely. The Christ-message reaches the remotest points on the planet and the most troubled, perhaps even least-noticed, places of one’s heart. It erases—completely and permanently—whatever has not been written by God’s hand. Jesus never embodied what His Father never endorsed. His students’ sleepy failings ultimately had no choice but to yield to spiritual growth and both small and big victories.
Even if you have paid only small attention to them, spiritual facts such as the clarity of Mind and the harmony of Love hint at Christly actions. As these actions flow throughout one’s thought, they fill one’s prayer. Such prayer can’t help but remain unblocked and unimpeded. One’s experience gains a more Christly orientation.
A few hundred feet from my back door, a small spring bubbles up and feeds into a nearby brook. Over the years it has smoothed the stones in the creek bed and polished off rough spots and jagged edges of pebble and stone. The action of the water in that brook sometimes reminds me of the action of the Christ in consciousness. Quietly, almost unnoticeably, the Christ action smooths off frustrations, polishes away irritations, and in its wake leaves “a deep-settled calm.”
