As I sit in meditation and prayer this morning, I am called to consciously acknowledge Truth…that God is all that is and everywhere present…here and now and always. And so each one of us is wrapped in God’s Love and filled with God’s Peace. As I open my eyes, my mind, and my heart to the Presence of Spirit, I come to know that all is well.

I am drawn this morning to recognize how often we hear and say all is well, or it’s all good, in New Thought teachings. It can become cliché, and if those around us are not involved with a metaphysical teaching, there may be misunderstanding. I have read a number of authors who believe that it’s all good means that we are living with our heads buried in the sand…that we are in denial of all the difficult conditions going on in our world. There are some who believe that we are repressing our emotions and not dealing with what is. And I know that, especially when people first discover teachings like the Science of Mind and Spirit, there may be a period of time when this is true. As we begin to consciously change our negative thinking patterns to those that serve us in a higher way, we might use refocusing attention on what we want to see, and ignoring what we do not, as a tool to rewire our brain’s tendencies. And this can cause us to overlook parts of life that we will one day, after dedicated study, prayer, and practice, learn to reintegrate, as we become able to acknowledge and celebrate the fullness of what life has to offer. After spending 29 years with this teaching, I find that All is Well and It’s All Good have taken on a completely different meaning in my life, and in my day-to-day Practice.

“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31) This verse from the Hebrew Old Testament calls me to see in a new way. As I read the book of Genesis, the first 11 chapters of which are generally accepted by scholars as a mythology designed to teach Spiritual Truth, I see many characters and situations that do not seem good by our modern definition. The word good is vague at best, but it does connote that a thing is somehow pleasing. Here are some situations from these first 11 chapters that, in a literal sense, do not appear to be in any way pleasing: the deception of the serpent and Eve’s disregarding God’s warning not to eat the fruit; Adam and Eve’s exile from the Garden of Eden; Noah and the flood that wiped out the world’s population; and the building and crumbling of the tower of Babel. And yet throughout the stories of the Bible, no matter how awful human beings have been, and no matter how God has responded in his moment of frustration with humanity, he comes back to his covenant, or binding agreement. And what is that covenant? It is that God will forever have faith in humanity, and humanity will ultimately have faith in God. God demonstrates his side of the agreement by granting his children complete freedom of choice, even when they choose themselves into difficult situations. And through the Divine Impulse that comes from our being part of God, humanity will ultimately find its way back to its Source, to faith in God.

Of course, as students of New Thought, we have come to a new way of understanding these stories. We see every character as an aspect of ourselves, and every situation as an illustration of Spiritual Principle in action. We are familiar with the Law of Cause and Effect and have learned to recognize the many forms it can take. We know the Law of Expectancy…what we expect to find is what we are likely to find; the Law of Attention…what we give our attention to expands in our experience; and the Law of Faith…what we have faith in has a tendency to appear in our lives. The collection of stories that we call the Bible are sacred scripture, timeless tales of Truth, that demonstrate one culture’s version of the human journey, as we learn to consciously practice Spiritual Principle,  moving from fear to faith. It illustrates  that no matter what the appearance, God is always present and Good is always unfolding.

The ability to see the Good is an amazing gift. Rather than speaking the word good as a value judgment, I begin using it as a Spiritual Practice, as a statement of faith that all is unfolding in Divine Order, that perfect evolution of the Whole is occurring, that whatever is before me is on purpose and is serving a Higher Expression of what can be. And that I am willing to stand in my faith even when I don’t know what that Expression will be. Seeing the Good is about the willingness to be in the mystery, in the discomfort of not knowing, in full faith that All Is Well. It’s All Good becomes my statement of faith in God.

It’s All Good becomes my intentional, quick and easy  way of recognizing the Kingdom of Heaven that is all around me, in every moment. Rev. Wayne Muller, in his book Learning to Pray, offers this prayerful affirmation: “Thy Kingdom has come; open my eyes that I may see it…may our hearts be open, may our souls be awake, may we receive the healing that is already here, in this moment…the time is full. And the kingdom of heaven is here. Be awake, be changed, and taste the goodness of it.”

I trust that It’s All Good in your life, and All is Well with your soul, whatever today’s details may look like. I trust that you are a perfect expression of the Living God and that you have everything you need, already given, to know and experience that Good.

May we all be well…stay in touch…know our unity…and thrive!

And may we know the Absolute Beauty and Wonder of this Grace-filled, once-in-a lifetime day…