By Cristie Gardner
In his book, “The Science Of Getting Rich”, author Wallace D. Wattles refers to the Law of Perpetual Transmutation. Simply put, energy from the formless realm is constantly flowing into the material world and taking form. This energy is limitless, and it is inexhaustible. Physical manifestation changes. As old forms are exhausted, they give way for new forms to emerge from the invisible hidden energy of the universe.
In my experience, the most significant illustration of this law is the incredible power of praying in faith. I want to share with you some experiences that, had I not actually experienced them, I would not believe.
My husband Stan and I spent four years in the Philippines, where he initially attended medical school. His educational experience there was outstanding. The professors were trained in U.S. medical schools, and classes were in English. Stan was able to see rare diseases, such as tetanus, typhoid, and diphtheria, firsthand. Medical students In the United States often have to listen as their professors describe what the symptoms of rare diseases are, because the diseases are, for the most part, eradicated here. But the Philippines offered him total immersion into medical care. On his obstetrics rotation, for example, he delivered 17 babies in one night. He was engaged in the practice of medicine, not just the theory.
Stan was selected to participate in an externship at Loma Linda University in California, which meant we would leave the Philippines a few months before his scheduled graduation, and the credits from Loma Linda would provide him with stateside training and complete his M.D. degree.
I made arrangements for my father to find a house or an apartment where we could live with our family of four boys during that three-month externship. It needed to be close to the University and affordable. Although communication between the Philippines and the U.S. was complicated, I had received word from my dad that it was all taken care of.
Only it wasn’t.
We arrived just before dusk on Friday night. The externship began on Monday. In Loma Linda, of which a large percentage of the population is Seventh-Day Adventists. Their Sabbath begins on Friday night, and goes through sundown on Saturday. On Friday night, all business stops. We anticipated that my dad would meet us, take us to our new place, and help us get settled in.
Dad wasn’t there. When I called him, he seemed to be completely unaware of the arrangements we had made. It was clear there was no place arranged for us.
Feeling somewhat frantic, we drove our borrowed station wagon full of kids (one a newborn baby) and trailer full of all we owned to a realty office. We walked inside, asked if anyone knew of a place we could rent (no one did), and began searching the ads for a rental place. By this time it was about 4:30 p.m., and the Sabbath would begin around 7:00 p.m. The realty office would close at 5:00.
I found the University newspaper, and located ONE housing ad. It was for a furnished house within five minutes’ walking distance to the hospital. I used the office phone and spoke with the owner, telling him our situation.
The owner was downright mean! He had no intention of renting to a family with FOUR boys, for only three months! What was I thinking? he yelled gruffly. I was embarrassed and in tears.
We retreated to our station wagon with the four little boys and we prayed in great faith. We had exhausted all our options and were in a strange new place, with no idea what to do next. We had $35 dollars, so there was not enough for a hotel. And in a very short time, all of the businesses and options around us would close for the Sabbath.
As we lifted our heads from prayer, we noticed a lady from the realty office coming to our car. She said the man I had just talked to had called and wanted to talk to me. I put the phone to my ear and the man said, “I don’t know why I have changed my mind, but I’m going to rent you the house. It needs a refrigerator, and you’re going to have to keep it clean. But I think you’ll like it. It has a fenced in yard so the boys will have lots of room to play and have fun.”
I was dumbfounded. His tone of voice had completely reversed from hostile to accommodating! He turned out to be very nice.
Megan Whalen Turner said, “Sometimes, if you want to change a man’s mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.”
Our next challenge was to find a refrigerator. We needed it immediately. The realty office had kindly stayed open a few minutes longer for us, and I noted an ad in the newspaper. “I am moving and have a refrigerator for sale for just $30.” I called the number. The guy hadn’t sold it, and was leaving for home that night. He would deliver it to the rental house, just before sundown.
That left us with $5 to get groceries, which we did quickly. We settled into our home, got the boys’ beds made, and knelt in gratitude for answered prayers.
I believe this is why God tells us to pray without ceasing. He is telling us that what we think about, and what our prayers request, are heard and answered. Since God is in ALL the details, He knew, even before we did, that we would come to Loma Linda and have no place to stay. He certainly COULD have worked out all of the details and saved us the angst and panic (and my fearful encounter with the landlord yelling at me over the phone). So why didn’t He?
A big part of my journey to discover how my thoughts, my prayers, and my attention affect my environment came about because of that growth experience. Difficult as it seemed at the time the landlord was yelling at me, I now can look back upon that experience with deep gratitude for the faith it instilled in me.
Nothing goes away. But things change form constantly. In an instant, we can go from sorrow to joy. In an instant, experiences we need or items we want can be brought into our lives or go out of our lives. The journey, and what we learn from it, is significant. Unseen efforts and energy and prayers swirl around us, bringing into physical form that which we desire.
Our son began a nonprofit in Africa. A few years ago, they needed tents for their volunteers to stay in. New tents wouldn’t make it through customs without stiff taxes or even confiscation. So we went to yard sales and searched for used tents. Within a couple of weeks, he had all of the tents he could take to Africa. The cost was a fraction of what the tents would have been new. And they were all in great condition.
Our daughter borrowed a trendy vest from me (back when vests were trendy). While she was wearing it, a button popped off and disappeared. It was a large, custom-made wooden button, impossible to replace. She searched and searched, and then knelt in prayer. As she opened her eyes, she felt to look again under her bed, where she had looked before. There was the button in plain sight.
When my husband Stan’s grandmother was a little girl, she had been entrusted with the only key to the house, tied to a looped string. She went outside to play while her parents ran some errands, and got caught up in the fun of jumping into the foot-deep piles of fallen leaves in front of their house. When her parents walked up to the house, little Almeda realized she had lost the key. And with leaves deep on their whole yard, it wasn’t going to be easy to locate.
That night, her family prayed to find the key. In the morning, Almeda’s father woke her up. “Come with me, Almeda,” he said. “I have dreamed where the key is.” Holding her hand, he walked into the yard, stopped, reached down through the foot-deep pile, and came up with the string holding the key.
While living in Montana, we envisioned a home built on a large lot, with natural springs and water sources, wildlife, privacy, and designed to exactly suit our family’s needs. I even wanted a vintage clothesline where I could hang newly washed clothes to dry in the warm fragrant sunshine. And incredibly, we acquired 23 1/2 acres for a very low price. The land had two natural springs. Deer, pheasant, and even fireflies made living there magical! We combined the years and years we had spent deciding what was important to us, and we designed our dream home. We watched as the blueprint showed the contractor how to make what was on paper a reality. Every tiny detail was designed with love and vision and excitement and faith. We even found a clothesline at a yard sale for a dollar! It was exhilarating to watch that home be built, and to check its progress daily.
Our family of ten lived in a basement for the several months that it took for our dream home to be built. Our oldest son David lost a paycheck that was critical for him in paying expenses. He searched everywhere in the crowded room that he shared with several other brothers, but to no avail. We had a prayer, and David’s younger brother Matthew got up, walked into the room, and reappeared less than a minute later, holding the envelope with the paycheck. Matt has been like that his whole life. He is sensitive to the energy that surrounds him, and he is equally sensitive about influencing that energy.
Whatever we choose to focus on expands. When our minds focus on light, truth, law, love, and gratitude, we attract that to ourselves. When we see ourselves as helpless victims, engaging in anger, retribution, defiance, or judgment, those energies will surround us.
What made our landlord switch from hostility to kindness?
What put the refrigerator in our path, for exactly what we had to spend?
What created a scenario when the main items at yard sales were used tents in good condition?
How did a button that wasn’t there, suddenly show up where Emilie had looked before?
How could Almeda’s father dream EXACTLY where to find the key?
How did Matt know EXACTLY where to go to find the paycheck?
In each case, the truth was surrounding the circumstances, and energy was swirling about, bringing into physical expression the desired results.
Had we focused on “nothing ever works out for me,” or “there’s no way in the world this is ever going to be fixed,” or in Almeda’s case, “that key is lost for good,” well—it would have been just as we focused.
What we think about, we bring about. What we don’t know is how soon what we envision and work toward will take place. But that’s a law for another time, the Law of Gestation. What we do know is that the law is just that…a LAW. The laws are constant, just as God is constant. His laws are immutable and we can trust them.
We are constantly changing, either growing or dying. We are becoming or deteriorating. Our minds can shape this magnificent energy. Our prayers and faith can affect it to our good.
Our higher vibrations, our dominant thoughts, affect the energy around us.
David O. McKay said, “There is a responsibility that no man can evade. That is the responsibility of personal influence…Every man [and woman] has an atmosphere or a radiation that is affecting every person in the world. You cannot escape it…It is simply the constant radiation of what a man really is. Every man, by his mere living, is radiating positive or negative qualities. Life is a state of radiation. To exist is to be the radiation of our feelings, natures, doubts, schemes, or to be the recipient of those things from somebody else. You cannot escape it. Man cannot escape for one moment the radiation of his character. You will select the qualities that you will permit to be radiated.
That reminds me of the following poem, the author of which is unknown:
You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime
You tell what you are by the things you wear,
And even by the way you wear your hair;
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.
You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the thing of which you delight to talk;
By the manner in which you bury deceit.
By so simple a thing as how you eat.
By the books you choose from the well-fitted shelf.
In these ways and more you tell on yourself.
If I had lived in the 17th century, and seen someone walk into a room and switch on an electric light, I would have thought it a miracle. But I simply would not have been aware of the Laws of Electricity. There are other aspects of the Law of Perpetual Transmutation that we can focus on as well; for example, are we creating or are we destroying? This applies to relationships as well as physical surroundings. Are we aging and deteriorating or are we revitalizing? We can affect that by choices we make regarding our health and actions. Are we honoring Nature’s wonderful seasons of life and of dormancy? Are we recognizing how all of the Laws intersect and reinforce each other?
All of God’s laws are part of one great wholeness.
Miracles are accomplished through applying the laws that create them.
If you understand the laws and apply the laws, miracles will happen.
Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
A key, core element with ALL of the laws, is that we have the power within us to choose. A popular hymn affirms this:
“Know this, that every soul is free
to choose his life and what he’ll be.
For this eternal truth is given… that God will force no man to heaven.
He’ll call, persuade, direct aright, and bless with wisdom, love and light.
In nameless ways be good and kind, but NEVER force the human mind.”
In a website entitled Laws of the Universe, this apt description clarifies the Law of Perpetual Transmutation: The energy of the Universe is always moving and transmuting into and out of form. This law of nature further tells us that energy is always in a state of motion. It will take one form, move to another form, but it’s always in motion and never standing still. This law relates to the universe and our consciousness through the realization that everything seen and unseen is constantly changing. We can harness this energy and transform it into whatever form we desire, we should then realize that the energy that is with us at the moment can be focused toward good and then the things around us and within us will change for the better. The energy is flowing into our consciousness constantly; we transform this energy into whatever we choose through our focus of attention at the moment. The formless energy is amenable to being shaped by our minds.
In Ratatouille, this conversation takes place, “You can’t change nature, son!”
“Change IS nature, dad, the part we can influence. And it all starts when we decide.”
As we currently face a global challenge with the COVID-19 virus, I leave you with these encouraging lyrics to a hymn written by Naomi Randall:
I will not doubt, I will not fear;
God’s love and strength are always near.
His promised gift helps me to find
An inner strength and peace of mind.
I give the Father willingly
My trust, my prayers, humility.
His Spirit guides; his love assures
That fear departs when faith endures.”
Reflections, by Cristie Gardner
One drop falls in a lakeside pool,
A single drop, and then,
Around that drop a circle forms,
Then round that, one again.
And further out, continuing,
The ripples echo on—
Beyond what we can see, long past
The time the drop is gone.
One person serves another,
In one small, simple deed.
That person’s influence expands
To meet another’s need.
Then further out, continuing,
Another’s vision grows
Extending influence beyond
The people that she knows.
And on and on the circle grows,
Enlarging ever on
Beyond what we can see—long past the time
Our effort’s gone.
You cannot see the lives you change
With small and simple things
When love and service ripple on
And give our kindness wings.
As you go about your day today, be aware of your thoughts. Be aware of how you are affecting the experiences you have, the people you speak to, and even nature itself. Your mind is a powerhouse. It is crucial to understand the laws and apply them in finding your purpose, and in finding Joy, on Purpose.
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For more about the seven laws that govern prosperity, click here to read Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help With Your Money Matters FREE.
Together, Cristie and her husband have raised their eight fantastic children and they combine their talents to help the world get healthier from the inside.
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