Chapter 1
It Is Not Magic after All
Somewhere in my brain I have a little garden spot where I plant ideas. These ideas, like seeds, lie there for a while and then when things are just right they begin to sprout and grow. Sometimes they grow into worthless weeds and I throw them out. Sometimes they grow into jack-in-the-beanstalk plants, big as trees. They threaten to crowd everything else out of my mind. Sometimes they grow into beautiful concepts that seem to have no useful function. They simply make me feel good.
The seed of blessing was more like an acorn than a radish seed. When it was dropped into my think garden it became a giant tree. It would not be ignored.
When did I first hear the word blessing? I believe I first heard it when I was a small child in Kansas. My parents taught us to repeat a prayer that became our routine table grace.
Gode Gud,
Velsigne maten I
Jesus nam,
Amen.
The words Velsigne maten simply mean "Bless the food." I must have hurried through that prayer a thousand times as I waited impatiently to eat.
The idea of blessing had other roots.
Sometimes when people sneezed somebody else said, "Gezundheit. " At first I thought that word just sounded a lot like a sneeze and so it was a kind of fighting back. Later I learned the reason for it. Gezundheit is a German word meaning "good health." The origin of the custom is in the idea that sneezing is a way of expelling the bad spirits out of the body, so naturally it was proper to wish that person good health.
Then, of course, there was the shelfful of self-help books I had read. Each book in its own way seemed to say that there is a positive force in the world - a helping, healing power. If anyone could tune in to it, he or she could succeed. It wasn't really a matter of self-help but a matter of tuning in to a power outside one's self.
As these seeds - which I have named "the magic of blessing" - grew in the stubborn soil of my Swedish mind, they were fed by a thousand memories. I remembered the good-luck signs in China. I remembered the hexes and voodoo charms of primitive people. I remembered the mountains of blessing and cursing in Israel.
Could it be that blessing is one of the hidden forces of the universe? Like gravitation, is it a universal law? Of course, gravitation had been working a long time before Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple fall from a tree. He simply put into words what had always been true.
Could an apple fall for me? And could I be able to put the idea into words that would let people believe? It was a terrifying thought - tantalizing but terrifying.
What if I merely made people believe that there were either good or bad forces in the world that are beyond our control? Or even worse, what if these powerful forces were left to the whim of a moody creator? What if the magic of blessing was understood to be black magic, a sinister force?
If anything like these things were true, I should remain silent. Of course, the other possibility is that God doesn't intend for us to learn the secret of the universe. Could it be as Buckminster Fuller says, "The universe is a locked safe with the combination on the inside"?
That wouldn't explain Mother Perry and her thirteen children. It wouldn't explain the 330-pound lady who discovered the way to bless herself into a size-twelve dress. Or it wouldn't explain Don and Maxine McCall, who managed to change a cranky fellow teacher into an absolute charmer. And what about Nancy and her wonderful pumpkin and Ray and his poinsettia? If this is not a workable idea these people are going to have to find some kind of explanation. Their stories will follow later, but first let me tell you how the nagging scientific side of my brain was satisfied. I discovered the Parallel Principle.
Chapter 2
Sinai May Not Be So Far from DeLand, Florida
My time came for jury duty in DeLand, Florida. DeLand is the home of prestigious Stetson University where budding lawyers are trained. Maybe the law of blessing would find a home here. DeLand is not a mountain by any stretch of imagination; it is flat as bride's biscuits. But it might turn out to be my own personal mount of blessing. Here are the facts.
Jury duty is not all that exciting. Morning dragged wearily along and any new thought would have been as welcome as payday. A break for lunch was announced. At that point it sounded exciting.
One of the jurors and I drove to the edge of town to find a restaurant. Perhaps because the long morning with its tiring legalities had forced us to be silent, Jim, my new friend, seemed overly talkative.
"Do you see those power lines that run along the highway?" he asked.
This was scarcely a scientific discovery to compare with the law of gravity. But it was conversation. I joined in. "Yes, I see the wires. They look like all the other wires that stretch across the country."
My friend continued, "Everyone knows that these wires carry electricity. Right?" "Right," I responded.
"But do you know that you can get electricity from these wires without actually being connected to them?" he asked.
"No. How?" I said.
"Well it is like this," he explained. "If you pull a copper wire parallel to these overhead wires you get a transfer of power. Even though the second wire is not touching the overhead wires, even though it is not connected to anything like a generator or dynamo, power will come into it. Just as soon as it gets parallel, power will come."
"Really?" I responded skeptically.
Frankly it sounded impossible to me; but impossible or not, it was an intriguing idea.
A few moments later we parked our car in front of the most likely looking restaurant we could find. Inside we found a table, a menu, and the usual sarcophagus-shaped napkin holder. I do not remember what I ordered. It was in fact quite mediocre, and quite forgettable.
I do remember taking a napkin from its holder and drawing on it. I sketched the power lines and the supporting poles. The blaring jukebox added very little to my primitive art.
I smiled at my effort. It would not take any prize, I am sure, but it did look like the power lines we had seen. The bird I sketched looked strangely like a high-flying turtle, but that did not seem too important.
Now comes the important part, I thought. It isn't news that in these copper wires flows the power to do the work of the world. Cities are lit, toast is made, television sets blare, washing machines go through their antics - all with the power of electricity. The important thing is to get connected in some firm, visible way with these power lines.
Now comes the incredible part, I thought as I reached for another napkin. Could a wire that was not connected to these power lines draw power from them? Simply by making the wire parallel, would I be able to receive power?
I drew another set of poles and wires. I had done it. Of course it was only an illustration hastily drawn on a restaurant napkin. The second drawing was just like the first with one exception, well actually two exceptions.
I abandoned the idea of the bird on the wire. Frivolity seemed out of place at that moment. More important, I had added a second line - the parallel line. It was charged with electricity. Maybe this was the elusive law of blessing I was looking for.
Thoughts of Benjamin Franklin floated in my mind. Naturally I didn't know Mr. Franklin personally, but I had seen pictures of him with his kite. He had the feeling that there was electrical power above him. Sending a kite up into the storm clouds connected him with this power. If I may be allowed a jest, what had simply been an idea to him became a shocking reality. He was in touch with a power he could not understand. Neither could he ignore it.
I thought of this as I sat in the humble restaurant in DeLand. I seemed to be in a holy place. The blaring jukebox might well have been a cathedral organ.
Could this simple illustration be the answer to my question: How do I make the power of the universe work for me? Could it explain why certain people always seem to be charged with energy and success?
The idea seemed so simple that it was almost unbelievable. On the other hand, it seemed so simple that it must be true. If indeed God is a God of blessing, the source of goodness for all people, would he not be the ultimate power?
By whatever name God is called, his power, silent as electricity in the overhead wires, spans the world. It can do anything.
The problem is that we cannot reach up with our bare hands and take hold of God. That does not mean that he cannot reach us.
People obviously reach out toward whatever god they believe controls the world. This experience is called prayer. Prayer in some form is found all over the earth.
In spite of people's fervent prayers, they are still needy. Is it because God doesn't care or that he is not able to help them? Obviously not. It is simply that they have not understood how to pray. Prayer is not overcoming the reluctance of an unwilling God. Instead, prayer is laying hold of the willingness of God.
Could prayer be the movement of the human mind that makes it parallel with God's nature, God's plan? Simply lining one's thoughts so that they flow in the direction of God's thoughts might be the answer.
Since God is a blesser, we must become blessers. The psalm instructs us, "Bless the Lord." This is a strange request. But since there is no doubt that God constantly blesses people, that is the direction in which his mind flows. We must make our minds flow the same way. When that happens and we parallel the thoughts of God, his power comes to us.
Why did the disciples of Jesus cry out, "Lord, teach us to pray"? Obviously they knew they were missing something.
What was Jesus' answer? What was - and is - the magic formula? Jesus said, "This is the way you should pray." Then he gave what is called the Lord's Prayer. Does it fit these new ideas of the magic of blessing? Let us look at it.
"Our Father which art in heaven." Can this relate to our overhead wires, evidence of another world?
"Hallowed be thy name." That fits. If we believe in any kind of God at all, we believe in his power. And we are awed by it. Trying to explain power like that would be like bringing a bottleful of water home from Niagara Falls to explain to the family what Niagara Falls really is.
Not long ago as I flew to Arizona I saw from the sky an electrical storm. Lightning flashed in majestic arcs through the darkened sky. Within those flashes was power enough to light an entire city. God was simply getting ready to water our radishes.
God has that kind of power. Lightning doesn't explain it, however. His is power with a purpose, power with a reason. He couldn't and wouldn't do anything inconsistent with his nature, with his name. No wonder there is a sense of awe. No wonder we say, "hallowed be thy name." Power and love like that deserve respect.
What comes next in the Lord's Prayer? Oh yes, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
The whole idea of God's kingdom has intrigued me for a long time. I have trouble with the idea of the King of the Universe parading down Main Street on a white horse. What kind of crown will we fashion for him who holds constellations of stars in his hand?
Does Jesus' prayer help us understand the Kingdom? Perhaps the Parallel Principle helps us. For God to get done what he wants to get done - and since he is a king with a kingdom, why not? - he needs people to line up with his will and his character. Where? On the earth, obviously.
While electricity certainly doesn't explain God, it may illustrate something of his nature. He has power. Impartiality is also his. He is invisible, too.
In the same way that the overhead power lines provide us with the ability to do all the things we need done, God's power is always there. Whether or not you receive the things you need, healing, for example, depends not so much upon what God chooses to do for you as it does upon you. Small wonder that we need to pray.
Since God cannot change, we must. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). The Apostle Paul must have known this principle well. He wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3, italic for emphasis).
What a revelation! Questions that had plagued me for years were suddenly finding answers. It always seemed a little foolish to believe in a God of love who would withhold good things from people just because they didn't cry loudly enough. Or maybe he would hang on to the blessings he had promised until the situation became desperate, or maybe until the person had learned how to say the right words in the right language.
That didn't make sense. But the problem remained. Any intelligent skeptic could ask it: "If God answers all prayers (as the Bible certainly promises), would God answer requests for things that would be bad for us?"
Certainly not. What human father would give his four-year-old child a sharp razor for a toy? Would the child's crying change the father's mind? Would the child get the razor simply by kneeling while he or she asked? Or by standing? Or by lifting his or her hands toward the ceiling? If the child cried long enough, would the father relent with a resounding and destructive yes?
What about God? Will he? Obviously God doesn't answer every whining request with a thundering yes.
Didn't Jesus say, "Whatsoever things you ask in my name believing, you will receive of my Father in heaven"? Of course he did. And that promise is like a vault full of treasures. It is not like Buckminster Fuller's locked safe with the combination on the inside. The combination is printed on the door. The key is not hidden. Ask in my name, he said.
If our mind is thinking like the mind of Jesus, it would seem natural that we would ask for the kinds of things that would not be an embarrassment to his name. In some sort of mystical way, would not the request and the answer be a part of the work of Jesus - just as though he were here in person?
I have no idea how a volcano feels just before it erupts, but I felt some kind of cosmic excitement as I began to let one idea light the fuse of another, like a string of firecrackers.
Two problems remained. First, is the illustration of the electrical wires actually true? Then, does the Bible in its total message support these explosive ideas? I began a long search to find out for myself.
Infinite Power
About the time I was searching for ways to make the Parallel Principle make sense to people, I was involved in helping to build a school and church complex. We were looking for helping hands and soon discovered that they were located at the end of our arms.
So we worked. Men of the church gave up most of their free time for a year to help build. Women worked, too. Sometimes they worked with pots and pans to feed the hungry crew. Sometimes they abandoned the traditionally sexist roles and took up hammers, saws, and brushes.
One day I worked with Frank Hogan. There are two things you need to know about Frank Hogan. First of all, Frank is a weight lifter. He is a muscular giant. He has muscles in all of the places that men usually have muscles; he also has muscles in places where I don't even have places to put them. He would be embarrassed to find himself described by a poet, but I can't resist comparing him with the blacksmith Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about:
The smith a mighty man is he With large and sinewy hands; The muscles in his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.
Frank is like that; he is gentle. Gentle or not, however, with a physique like that who is going to doubt his opinion?
To earn his living Frank works for the Florida Power and Light Company. He installs electrical lines. He is familiar with working around the thousands of volts that scurry along these copper highways. He is respectful of them as well. That is the reason he is still alive to flex his muscles.
As we worked I asked him, "Frank, I heard something the other day that is so amazing I can't forget it. I find it hard to believe. I heard that if you pull a copper wire parallel to the overhead wires that carry electricity, even though the second wire is not connected to anything, power will come to it. It will become charged with electricity. Is that true?"
"Certainly," he replied.
"Well, if it is true," I continued, "I want to be absolutely, I mean absolutely, sure. If it is true it is an illustration of how spiritual power works. It may be revolutionary. Since it is so exciting I am bound to talk about it.
"Now can you imagine me in front of a group of people. I am describing this phenomenon and making the spiritual application. When the lecture is over I discover that the people are electrical engineers. I would hate to be wrong."
Frank understood. So he patiently explained to me what really happens.
"This principle is one of the first things we are taught when we start to work installing power lines," he said. "If there are active power lines above the place where we are working we have to take special care. If we accidentally get a piece of wire in parallel with these lines it can pick up electricity from the overhead lines. Unless we ground that wire, it can develop enough of an electrical charge to kill a person.
What an exciting idea! It's a trifle frightening, but it is exciting, too.
If we assume that there is an infinite power above us, what would keep that power from working inside us? If there is power to heal, why are we ever sick? If there is a power to forgive, why do we feel guilty? If there is a power to renew our youth, why do we get old? The idea of an all-powerful God is certainly not new. But if all that power and willingness are somewhere above us, what keeps it from working in us? Nothing. Nothing can keep it from invading our lives (and revolutionizing them) except ourselves. We are not parallel to the purpose and plan of that infinite power. In other words, we are negative while God is positive.
With the electrical illustration it is that simple. When the two wires are running the same direction, power is transferred. When they are at right angles to each other, nothing happens.
Prayer, then, becomes the process by which we line our minds up with the mind of God. Even though we may not understand what is happening, something happens.
Could that be the reason Sally Erickson in Alabama was instantly healed? She simply repeated those words of blessing. Can words make that much difference?
They can. Later we will explain how words - simple words - become the pilot of your life, the guide of your destiny. If you can control your world, you can control your life.
Learn to bless.
