TRAVEL without a wallet
“Don’t take any gold or silver or even coppers to put in your purse; nor a knapsack for the journey, nor even a change of clothes, or sandals or a staff…” (J.B. Phillips)
“Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign… You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment…” (The Message, emphasis added)
One of my first experiences going abroad really shaped the kind of traveler I want to be. I went to Thailand after my sophomore year of high school. It was unique because I had no agenda. I just wanted to live, learn, and grow.
In Thailand, my stepfather took my mom and me into a camp for Burmese refugees fleeing their country’s repressive military dictatorship. Embarrassingly, I had no idea what I was getting into. A well-taken-care-of southern California girl, I felt I had a good global perspective — but how wrong I was! Thousands of people were barb-wired in, and the place stretched on for miles. I was overcome with fear and didn’t want to enter. But I didn’t have an option.
After meeting many people we crashed for the night. In the morning I was awakened by a choir singing gospel praises in Thai. The music was beautiful…soothing…unforgettable! We participated in a church service, and after leaving I recognized that many of the musicians — blinded and handicapped by landmines in their flight across the border — were not well cared for.
I told my parents what I thought. Our openness to divine inspiration has now changed the lives of these musicians. My parents have raised funds to buy the men musical instruments and upgrade their living conditions. Their uplifting music is in demand throughout the camp. In their “darkness” the blind men are shedding light everywhere.
We didn’t bring lots of money to Thailand, or any particular agenda. Just hearts full of the desire to serve. We were the equipment, and God used us to make a big difference.
Melody Colliatie, June 2012
Related Bible citations
Matthew 10:5-10 Mark 6:7-8 Luke 9:1-4
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Topics: Right Place, Supply
I have really been enjoying considering this Radical Act and keeping it close to my heart recently. It’s gotten me thinking about those qualities back of a wallet. Although it certainly has great qualities, it also might symbolize a temptation to hedge your bets, or represent carrying around preconceived ways of accomplishing things.
A couple weeks ago, some missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to the door. I really enjoy chatting with the missionaries and the Jehovah’s Witnesses who come as well – I have sort of this recipe for how I can listen to them, and then assure them how much I already love God and Jesus and heaven, and then try to slip in an offer of a Christian Science Sentinel (weekly magazine published by the Christian Science church that includes articles and testimonies of healing). I do mean it all sincerely, but it’s also definitely not been flowing with the inspiration of the moment. A few months ago, though, my wife called me on it and asked if I was engaging in conversation with them to make myself feel good about engaging in ecumenical activity, or if I truly cared about them.
So, back to the Mormon missionaries. They start to share, I start to wind up my little recipe…and then I realized I wasn’t listening to what they were saying. I was so wrapped up in pulling my mental wallet out to show them what I had that I wasn’t listening to what they were sharing – and I’d therefore be unable to offer anything, myself. So I asked them to repeat what they’d just said, and threw away that heavy mental wallet which had all my conversation strategies in it. My highlight was when I really wanted to start sharing about Christian Science, which I dearly love and study, and instead realized that these young men were truly on a mission and I knew that I wasn’t going to be a part of the conversion aspect of their mission. I respectfully asked them if there might be another time we could get together, which wouldn’t interfere with their specific missionary time, and they said they really appreciated it and would love to. We said goodbye after exchanging numbers and they headed out.
So, according to that wallet of expectations I used to carry, this was a failure: I didn’t share anything about Christian Science, I didn’t get to hear a ton of what they believed, and I wasn’t even sure we’d get to hang out again. But I threw that wallet away, and I was so glad! In it’s place, I was so filled with a sense of joy at having gotten to finally hear the spirit behind these folks’ actions – love for their neighbors. I was grateful to be free from feeling rushed to get my story out and to simply let that unfold in a graceful way. Every time I’m able to break a habit of feeling rushed, I’m grateful!
We actually did get to hang out in the following week, and had a wonderful conversation. We each got a deeper sense of each other’s faiths and what we live and love about our faith. Most importantly, we all left with a greater sense of understanding and love for our community, and an awareness of how we can effectively work together to see healing in our community. Looking forward to getting together with them again soon!
It’s so neat how these Radical Acts are all about ideas and qualities, and not trying to shoehorn Jesus’ teachings into specific and pre-planned expressions. The improvisation of divine Love is a beautiful thing and I’m glad to have one less wallet to distract me.
John I love this story, and I love how you’ve modernized the “travel without a wallet” concept for modern disciples sharing Jesus’ teachings.
Once when I was newly divorced, strapped for cash, and needed help around the house, God graciously sent a team of young Mormon men in neat white shirts and dark ties. They humbly did all the stuff I needed. I repaid them with some fine dinners, and we had a wonderful time sharing ideas.
Mother Teresa once said: “I love all religions, but I am in love with my own.” I don’t think there’s anything more satisfying than experiencing everyone, everywhere, as children of Truth.
Thanks Nina! I’m glad you enjoyed that story – I loved yours as well! What a blessing for you and for them.
In regards to sharing confidently, lovingly, and appropriately, I saw this lovely quote from a recent live Q&A online chat. The speaker said, “Those who are most tolerant are those who are most secure in their faith.” I love this, because I know that a big foundation in ecumenical and interfaith conversation is the desire to support us all in being more familiar with other faiths, and thus more tolerant. But that tolerance can never bloom or blossom in my experience if I’m on a big rush to open up my wallet and show everyone else what I have, without listening to them.
Much good to keep exploring and sharing together :-)
Oh – and because this particular thread of the conversation is going this way, I just wanted to make sure folks knew about this specific section of the site, Spiritual Interface. It’s all about making connections, and sharing what we all believe effectively and lovingly. There’s blogs, live audio chats, book and movie reviews, and spaces to get to know what others believe. I think it’s a beautiful complement to Radical Acts, actually – the more you live what Jesus taught, the more you’ll probably find yourself engaging with folks who either also are devoted to what he taught, but express their devotion differently than you, or you’ll meet folks who follow very different paths. But we can still walk this radical walk as a community and global family.
I wanted to share how this RA popped up in an unexpected–but extremely helpful–way last week.
I received a call from a friend who was frantic because her wallet had vanished. She’d just taken some cash out of the ATM to pay another friend back for something–cash she didn’t feel she could replace. On top of that, there were also several receipts in her wallet that she needed for bookkeeping purposes.
She was upset about the loss, but more than that, she was angry at herself for being irresponsible.
As I listened to her tale of woe, the thought that came to me had everything to do with this Radical Act. I thought, “But Jesus promised that we *could* travel without a wallet!” This isn’t to say that I was in any way writing off the loss of the wallet, or consenting to its disappearance. But I was rejoicing in the power inherent in Jesus’ example. In other words, if Jesus told us (and proved to us) that we could travel without a wallet, then that must mean that our substance, our supply, everything that a wallet stands for, must not be in matter. We can travel without a wallet because our supply rests in God–the source of everything, the abundance of good itself.
Almost without thinking, I found myself saying to my friend, “The only thing standing between you and that wallet is anger and self-recrimination.”
Her rant stopped. She agreed that she could calm down and turn to God, and that she could thank God for always being in control.
Mentally, I was trying to fill my own “wallet”–my spiritual sense of God’s supply, and His constant care for each of us–with an active trust in God’s power and ever-presence. And I realized that both my friend and I had what we needed to be calm and to hear God’s voice. Really, God was all we needed right then. And no storm of self-doubt and criticism could stand in the way of hearing God’s reassurance and direction.
20 minutes later, my friend called me back. Even though she’d been so sure that she’d had her wallet with her when she’d been out on her errands (which is when she discovered the wallet was missing), when she walked in the door to her house, there was her wallet. On the table–with everything in it.
I liked what Hayley was saying up near the top of the comment section about finding kindness in unexpected places.
It reminded me of a trip a few years ago to Mongolia. A good friend is Mongolian and lives in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. This is a relevant story because I had a wallet on this trip but I didn’t bring enough money on this several day side trip to the countryside so it was like traveling without a wallet. I left most of my tugrik (Mongolian money) in Ulaanbaatar. As it was my job to pay for the gas, meals, and the housing for my friend’s dad, her cousin, and me I was pretty worried as the funds started to dwindle.
I remember the first morning waking up in my ger, a rounded-movable tent-like structure, in the Mongolian desert. I was in awe of the landscape, the warm welcome to a new culture, and the serenity but all I could think about was my wallet and the fact that there really weren’t any ATM’s in the countryside! I was paralyzed by fear- I didn’t want to get out of bed and face the day. I also felt bad about disappointing my very hospitable guides.
I could see that things weren’t going to be resolved through human means so I prayed. Prior to leaving on this trip, I prayed about the purpose for going. I filled my spiritual reservoirs as I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy trip- going by myself to four different countries in Asia where I didn’t speak any of the local languages. There was this great quote that was on the first page of my journal, “Fear never stopped being and its action.” Science and Health 151:18. There were lots of things at that moment that were trying to stop or alarm me and keep me from going forward. Remembering my original motives for this trip, good-will and learning, helped me to feel less afraid. I asked myself what is money? Is it power? Can paper with numbers make me afraid? I thought instead that my currency is kindness. I didn’t need an ATM for that- there wasn’t a shortage of my real love and affection as it was spiritually sourced.
I got up, dressed, and though I didn’t know how the money things were going to play out I knew that I could enjoy the trip- leaving the rest to the big “G.” When we were settling up with the owner of the camp-site, where we had stayed in our gers, the owner said that he wanted to give me the “local” rate which made for a less expensive stay. On many levels I was glad for the hospitality and feeling of belonging. We had enough to pay for everything else and I appreciated the lesson not to worship my wallet but to draw on the unlimited resources that are always accessible.
Traveling without a wallet is not an easy RA for me to take up. When I was a child, my family experienced a bout of extreme poverty. My parents had both been hospitalized within the year of their 6th child’s birth. I was 10, and the oldest.
I remember my first “paid” babysitting job about that time. Two shiny silver dollars. I couldn’t wait to put them in my wallet. I would look at them every day. They made me feel safe. They gave me a feeling of security. If everything else failed, I had two silver dollars.
I’d also learned that I could earn security. For a long time this drove my sense of peace. If I wanted to feel secure, all I needed to do was work long hours, work hard, and I could feel in control…I would feel peace.
Letting go of this version of security is a long story…one that I will not go into here. But it began with a day when a statement by Mary Baker Eddy seemed to float off of the page and settle in my heart:
“Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science.”
Boiled down to its essentials…it read: “Security…is found only in divine Science.”
In that moment I glimpsed that all the security I seemed to feel whenever I had money in my wallet, was never going to be the real deal. It was never going to satisfy my hunger for the kind of security that is only found in something greater than my ability to work, save, invest wisely. Real security was found ONLY in divine Science….in, as Eddy state, “God’s government of the universe, inclusive of man.”
It was time to stop looking in my wallet for security, and start seeking it in an understanding of God.
I really relate to these stories about moving from a steady job to the freelance world. I started on a similar journey about six years ago. For me, the issue has been financial in part-learning to trust that the money will be there when I need it-but the bigger thing for me has been a slightly different aspect of traveling without a wallet.
When I launched into my freelance career, the one thing I didn’t have a lot of was contacts. The business I’m in (perhaps like many other businesses) was more about who you know than I initially realized. I was naive. So when things didn’t work out in the beginning, I was confused. I was doing the work, so why wasn’t my career going somewhere?
Then I realized: no contacts.
I was tempted to be disheartened. It can take years to build up the right kind of network, especially in my field. And I didn’t even know where to begin.
That’s where this radical act really saved me. I realized that “traveling without a wallet” could have another meaning in my case. After all, it isn’t just money that people keep in their wallets; sometimes, they keep contacts’ business cards in there, too. (OK, pre-smartphone days, perhaps. But you get the idea. :) )
I felt like God was telling me that as the Principle that orders the universe, I could trust Him to order my career in a similar manner. I didn’t have to run around frantically trying to make the right connections. I didn’t have to buy into the idea that networking with the right people was a matter of chance, or luck. Instead, I could trust Principle to bring the right ideas together to help me be a blessing. This trust was my version of “traveling without a wallet.”
Well, six years later, I’ve been amazed by the people who have come into my life. Each one has served an important purpose-not always the purpose I thought at first. But I can see now how each helped me take the next step, provided mentoring and guidance when I needed it, or opened doors at just the right moment.
I still work every day to trust that I *can* travel without a wallet. But so far, God hasn’t let me down.
This is fantastic, and so helpful and timely. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this!
I love seeing these examples of how each of these Radical Acts is so much bigger and broader than we might have originally thought.
I will be keeping the depth of this story close in thought. What am I trusting to and keeping in my ‘wallet’ aside from money?
Thanks!
Traveling without a wallet, for me means not looking to the material evidence, like money, to meet your daily needs. Instead looking to God first. This Bible quote says it perfectly.”But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:” II Cor. 6:14.
If we look to God for our “super-abundance”, we will have everything we ever need, even if our bank accounts are empty, or our wallets are stolen or we have a run in with identity theft.
One time many years ago my family was quite behind on our electricity bill, and it was scheduled to be cut off that day. We already had all the extensions we could get, and the outcome looked dark, just like the house was soon to be. Well my mom, and I turned our thought to God being the source of supply, as we tried to spiritualize our thinking, and then my mom thought she would try to talk to someone at the company, and give it one more try. The person on the other end paused, and then said we had a past due amount of less than 50 dollars. We owed a lot more than that! Apparently the deposit on the account had been used to pay the bill. My mom said I didn’t know you guys did that, there was a pause, the lady on the other end exclaimed, “we don’t”! This is just one tiny example of how God has met my and my family’s every need, even when the material picture looked quite overwhelming and hopeless. More recently I had a lot of things to pay for, including a trip to the recent College Summit, and no money left after paying my rent. The Fall term at my college was coming up and I knew I needed to purchase textbooks, and then I had to get a flight to St. Louis, and the list went on. I know my abundance is from God, and is never dwindling, and doesn’t come from a job, student loans, the government, or handouts from my family, but is always from God. I love the idea that Soul, God, is an infinite resource, and there are numerous other cherished ideas that I cling to found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary baker Eddy.
Well to make a long story shorter, I was able to use my financial aid from my student loans, before the money was actually disbursed to my account, and my brother was able to get me a much discounted flight to St. Louis. And my family has had enough to help me a bit until I get my student loan for the Fall. The source of all these wasn’t people, it was God, and I am grateful to know it is always abundant.
It’s hard to believe that this summer is coming to a close…it’s been one of the most amazing summers…EVER…and I attribute so much of how I feel about the last three months to Radical Acts.
The demand to step forward out of our comfort zones and act more radically as scientific spiritual actors on the human stage…to be behavioral Christians: kind, compassionate, non-judmental, honesty, meek, humble, graceful, trusting, trusting, trusting…and to do so “without a wallet” — without a padding, without a comfortable sense of security, without something to “fall back on” has been AMAZING!!
I’ve never felt so alive to the kindness and grace of others. I’ve never felt so eager to wake up and see what I’ll discover in this laboratory of greater spiritual trust. I’ve never felt so “on point” as each day unfolded new opportunities for being a better Christian, a more scientifically loving follower of Christ.
Whether it had to do with “not knowing” how my housing would fall into place, getting lost in the middle of nowhere and finding direction with the help of “strangers,” leaning into an opportunity that was offered our daughters without fear of “how” we’d afford it, lovely headings in our family…all these moments (and so many more)…unfolded a landscape of simple trust that I will never forget…and refuse to leave behind….
This is Radical Act of “traveling without a wallet” has been, for me, a journey of radical trust…and it’s a journey I never want to end…i feel alive to all the good that is percolating everywhere around us…in everyone…always
Travel without a wallet has been a difficult journey for me to take this year. I find that I depend heavily on making sure that I can take care of myself and not need to feel the need to ask to be taken cared of by others. I sought ideas and interpretations for what it meant to travel without a wallet and as I began to look more insightfully into the meaning of what it ment to travel without a wallet, I found that I actually physically began travelling without a wallet more often.
We live in a time that consumerism is practically a hobby. I would find myself buying things frequently that I didnt need, make-up, nailpolish, lip gloss that makes lips that much glossier, and so much more. But as I travelled around with friends, family, co-workers, ect I didnt feel the need to buy those things. Then one day I found this quote and it solidified not needing material things…not needing to travel with a wallet because I already had everything I needed, and inspiration for what to gain.
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;
for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;
for a slim figure, share your food with those who need it;
and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
-Audrey Hepburn
What a powerful quote. Love that.
I love the simple instruction, that’s a lovely quote. Thanks. Being less of a consumer of extraneous things, and in general. God’s abundance is very present and it’s spiritual. It’s a nice thought to think we don’t need to spend because we already have all that is essential. Awesome thought, thanks for that.
I’ve read this before…nice to see it again.
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others;
for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness;
for a slim figure, share your food with those who need it;
and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”
-Audrey Hepburn
Melody thank you for this perfect GEM!
i luv ur quote from miss hepburn. thanx and may the force be with u;]
Thank you all for your wonderful examples! I have some experiences to share. One is about loosing my iPhone and living without that for 3 weeks and what I learned about communication and solutions to problems not happening only when you have phones. We always have what we need to solve every problem. Letting go of dependency on my phone was an important lesson.
This next lesson is living without a “map”, another sense of material security. This hot-off-the press recent experience (I’m finishing the trip tomorrow). I was headed out to camp in a remote area of the coast. With some trepidation as a woman alone, I had researched the campground, gotten advice from friends, and done a great deal of praying. I partly had felt lonely going alone. The prayers brought me to the point of realizing that this is a huge gift from God, this trip. I would not be alone, as I would be with God. As someone shared in a Wed. testimony meeting, he witnessed a beautiful sunset and instead of longing for someone special to share it, got the message that God was sharing it with him. I felt that this trip was what I needed and God had a great deal of good in store to share with me. So I was without a map, and without a cell phone signal. I had put a map on my phone before it went out of range, but it simply was not a detailed enough map. I essentially took a wrong turn at a “T” and the sun went down. I had misjudged the distances by a couple hours due to slow speeds and windy and woodsy-dark roads. The scariest part was that I only had a quarter tank of gas and had gone 35 miles in the wrong direction! I didn’t want to travel through that maze arriving at the camp ground in the dark. so I pulled over at a junction on a gravel driveway with no one around. There was a small wood shack and two gas pumps. I felt no fear, just curiosity how it would work out. The first answer was to check the gas pumps. The gas pumps woked 24 hours self-serve.
Then a family pulled up in a couple cars. They were from the area and definitely told me not to drive to camp site in the dark. Then a woman said that her children and their cousins were all camping out on their farm and they had plenty of room if I’d like to camp there. I felt this was God’s answer to me. Turns out that she and her husband leave pack trips for NOLS kids. She let me use their bathroom, helped me set up my tent, was very motherly and caring. We had some wonderful heart to heart talks.
Gratefully, the same thing happened at the camp ground. I was adopted by a group of artists who had lived in places I lived and we shared many common interests. They invited me to dinner and join their campfire, and breakfast the next day. The blessing continued for another 5 days of traveling, camping again at the end. Everything I did I met people and it seemed to inspire them that I could camp and travel (and even fish) alone. Being alone allowed me to focus on the friendships that God provided for that day. Sometimes it was quiet time with God and my thoughts, but many times it was enjoying pure strangers and making many wonderful connections.
Over this summer I traveled to Germany and stayed with a good friends family. I did travel with a wallet for the majority of the trip, almost always having it gripped to my side. But the wallet was somewhat symbolic for comfort and protection. I felt that as long as I had the wallet I would be able to show my ID or not get stranded where ever I ended up. But while in Germany this family took such good care of my friend and I that we completely lost our wallets and the fear of not having it with us. We were so surrounded by love that we felt protected and complete everywhere we went. Their joy for having us there was reflected through us and it ended up being one of our favorite countries in all of Europe. We found that with leaving our wallets behind (and that sense of fear) we enabled ourselves to make so many friends and found places that with fear we wouldnt have come across.
I came to the conclusion that travelling without a wallet can also mean to travel without the unwanted baggage of error.
Melody, I love this! The concept of thinking of a wallet as a symbol for comfort and protection speaks to how I’ve felt in travels, but translating that to true qualities of comfort and protection is a great way to rethink that. Also, it’s so easy to see how “clutching a wallet” would be like gripping onto fear. Thanks for your thoughts!
While in Europe, my friend and I didnt want to travel around in Barcelona with anything on us. We were warned over and over and over that they had a huge amount of pick pockets that were quite talented. Because of this, my friend and I decided to keep all of our things in the hotel safe and travel without a wallet.
It was actually very fun to not have a worry in the world. We called each day an adventure. We were there for 3 days and were able to participate in every activity that we wanted. Many times things didnt work out as expected but that was half the adventure. For example. The second night we were in Barcelona we returned from the hotel from a long day at the beach. We had a couple of new friends with us and they wanted to go dancing. We thought that was great and decided to go to. We changed and brought enough coins to get us to the city. Once in the city we met some other people who took us to their favorite local restruant and had an awesome meal. We invited them to go dancing with us and they happily came, making our group about ten which was even better while travelling…in my opinion. When we got to the club we were able to walk right in and had an absolute blast. When we were ready to leave we walked out and saw a taxi cab driver who we had earlier hung out with on the beach and she was excited to know someone and be able to help us get home.
It was such a simple night but in perspective it would have cost us a bundle but to be able to let the “adventure” unfold it was so much fun!
Amanda – Awesome! I just sent you a message via Facebook to ask how/when we could create flyers … that would be fantastic!!!!
I love this. So great to hear, Carol.
Ta indeed. :)
Hey, hey fellow travelers without a wallet! Thanks to everyone for sharing your comments and a special shout out to Kate for reminding me of our shared Sunday School experience some years back.
Here’s a little update on what’s been happening at our Sunday School since I last posted.
Not so surprising to many of you, we’ve been having an active time with students attending just about every Sunday this summer. Among the highlights, we’ve welcomed a new regular student and have reconnected with a student we haven’t seen in months. So awesome!
We also made a bulletin board about all the Radical Acts to display and encourage everyone in our church community - including the AA group that meets in our Sunday School room every week - to participate in the Radical Acts project. We are having a blast with them, hard as they are … that forgive 70×7 practice is t-o-u-g-h!
Ta.
I think the main thing to handle with this Radical Act is trust: trust that God will provide the things that you need. There is a great quote from Mrs. Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings telling us to not ask for tomorrow but be grateful for what we have today. This is pretty hard sometimes, especially if the things that we are relying on God to provide are employment and housing. It seems reasonable to ask for these things on a more permanent basis. But what I have come to realize is that the seeming security of long term material opportunities is in fact less secure than relying on God. And that’s not just because He is an ever present, endless source of good for everyone. Material things are inherently temporal, not eternal, and what can seem like a long term material guarantee can end up not meeting one’s needs. Although I know this, it’s definitely still a challenge to rely entirely, to trust entirely, that God is the unfailing source of everything I need. Thanks for all the great examples of living without a wallet, they are really inspiring as I try to get better at putting my whole trust in God!
Hi Carol (and all)
I love thinking of you my dear friend as Sunday School Superintendent….I’ve served with you in Sunday School a number of times and it’s always been inspiring.
I don’t know if you remember one particular SS when you asked me to take a class with one student who was having a difficult time being peaceful in a traditional class setting. We spent our first Sunday together under the table. He was disturbed about something right from the beginning and although I couldn’t get him to sit in a chair, I proceeded undeterred from our little nest under the round class table.
The lesson included the story of Moses and the burning bush and God’s identification of Himself as “I AM”…I had always loved thinking of the import of this “naming”…that God is not “I WAS” or “I WILL BE” but “I AM” (it was the cash in my spiritual wallet and I was so happy that I was coming to SS with something to fall back on…a security inspiration of sorts)
I was eager to get to that part of the story, but my young friend would have none of it. He was unwilling to read the story, and seemed to not be paying any attention as I began to read, muttering to himself about the evils of carbon waste, the hole in the ozone layer, and the emissions from his parents car as they drove to church that morning.
That was, until I got to the part about the “burning bush that was not consumed” suddenly he sat up straight and repeated a number of times, “bush burned, not consumed…bush burned, not consumed…bush burned, not consumed.”
Then he said (more to himself than to me) “bush burned, produced energy, but no consumption. No consumption, no waste. No waste, no emissions. No emissions, no negative impact.” My young friend had found the Biblical precedence for energy production without a carbon footprint. I was stunned, thrilled, shaken, moved. This was a young man that seemed to be a difficult student. I’d come with a wallet I thought had a great inspiration in it. But he’d come up with something I could never have imagined.
From that point on I traveled through Sunday School without a wallet. Yes, I read the lesson, and I try to apply the Ten Commandments, and the Beatitudes in fresh new ways to my life each week, but when it comes time to take that adventure into Sunday School, I began to leave my wallet in the car. I knew I could trust that we are each (and all…teachers and students) showing up with an abundance of questions, a plethora of insights, a deep well of inspiration to draw upon…from within. My wallet could never hold as much “cash” as our desire to share with one another required. I would have to rely on the fact that: “Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough!” It would always be enough…and it would always be better than what I could carry in my inspirational wallet.
love, k.
Carol, that’s really inspiring. Such courage in “traveling” that way. Thank you.
Our Christian Science Sunday School has been traveling ‘without a wallet’ – or to be more specific, ‘without students’ for the past couple weeks.
As the Sunday School coordinator/superintendent I had been getting discouraged because our Sunday School had recently been coming back to life and had been making progress with regular teacher and student attendance. Over the winter and spring we had been growing and having fun with various group projects and we had even committed to doing this Radical Acts project over the summer. And, then … BAM – summer vacations hit and suddenly no students!
I gathered the teachers together on the second Sunday when no students showed up and asked everyone double-down on their prayers about Sunday School.
One teacher looked over at our Radical Act bulletin board and with a smile on her face said, “it’s like we’re traveling without a wallet.” Everyone cracked up!!! Our conversation then shifted from a sense of lack to one of gratitude and we began to think about why we loved to be in Sunday School and what the idea of Sunday School represented for the whole city.
Last Sunday we didn’t have any students show up either. But, instead of being discouraged we wrote letters to all the regular students. In our letters we shared inspiration about our own practice of Jesus’ Radical Acts and our new insight about “no wallet.” I came away with a “wallet-full” of letters to send to all the students!!!!
We’ll see what next Sunday brings, but we are no longer afraid of ‘traveling without a wallet.”
Oh Carol, your post is awakening something big in me! I’m a Sunday School superintendent too and our SS basically consists of my daughter. It’s easy to get discouraged or maybe worse yet, apathetic.
I’m taking up this act with you and your Sunday School and I’ll invite my branch church members to join in too. Please continue to post.
You’re doing wonderful work Carol. I wanted to send gratitude your way. Your prayers are far reaching. I have been a witness to a greater attendance of all ages at church in recent months. What blesses one truly blesses all. Beginning with gratitude is the perfect foundation for progress-that law of God.
Fantastic inspiration for all of us “wallet-free” travelers!
Hey Carol!!! It would be great if we had more kids in Sunday School. I’d still like to help make flyers or something to put up at my college to get more older teens in. I’m glad that your wallet was filled by a few young people besides me this past Sunday.
I love, love, love this Michelle! Thank you for sharing your story here.
Today’s blog post was inspired by this radical act. Once when I had to live this radical act out of necessity, it taught me a life lesson that has saved me many times since. I haven’t figured out yet if it is best to post a link to a blog post, or just put the whole thing on here. So here is the link, and the full text follows. http://www.michellenanouchecsb.com/4/post/2012/07/radical-act-travel-without-a-wallet.html (The blog post has pictures. But here goes…)
When I was 18 I moved to London to pursue some specialized on job training. It was very low-paying. I was drawing down my small savings to meet expenses. After a few months it became necessary to prepare to return to the US to pursue other opportunities.
During the last two weeks before I left England, I was invited to travel around the UK with a friend. She was a more experienced student of Christian Science. Realizing that I had very little money to travel with, she encouraged me to pray and study the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson each morning during the trip to get a better understanding of God and of my spiritual substance.
The first Sunday, one week into our holiday, we attended a church service in Edinburgh, Scotland. I had been studying the Bible Lesson and praying so much during the week. This made me especially eager and happy to be in that church on Sunday morning. In fact, I was so eager, that I sat in the front row so I wouldn’t be distracted by anything and could hear to every word.
I had forgotten, though, that there would be a collection taken during the service and I hadn’t prepared in advance what I would place in the basket. Since I was in the front row, the collection basket came to me first! I didn’t have a lot of time to dig around in my purse.
I knew I had four bills left in there – a fifty, a twenty, a ten and a five. This needed to last me a week. I reached in and pulled out the first bill I touched. The fifty. I put it in the basket. What else could I do?
As I watched it go, I prayed: “Dear God, as your reflection, I give back in your service all that you give me.” It was a very spontaneous prayer.
Actually, that is exactly what a reflection does. From the Latin root reflectare, reflection is literally “bending back”, or giving back to the original or source.
I still had 35 pounds (the equivalent of about $50 USD at the time) in my purse to live on for one week on the road. But I had never felt so free of fear about my finances. When I saw myself as divine reflection in that moment of prayer, I saw what my eyes couldn’t yet see – my permanent, unbreakable link to unfolding good. I felt richer than I ever had before.
Every place we stayed in that final week included an ample breakfast. Each evening we received a large rich cup of hot chocolate and a slice of shortbread. I never had a moment of hunger. I slept on the floor of my friend’s room in a sleeping bag, and gave her 30 of my remaining pounds toward the expenses.
When we arrived back in London on the day of my flight, I had five pounds left to cover exactly the expense of the taxi to the airport.
At the last moment at the airport I realized that my bags were even more overweight than they had been when I arrived in England. On the first voyage I had to pay 100 dollars for the extra cargo.
Then I remembered my prayer in that church and realized I would always be OK as long as I never forgot that I reflect the infinite Mind that is God, and was willing to give my all in service to God. So I decided that, if I had to, I was willing to leave all my personal possessions behind in England and let God supply my needs.
I told the agent my bags were overweight. He was so cute. He gave me a wink and said, “Overweight? What is overweight?” And he threw everything on the conveyer belt to go to the plane.
In the many years since, I have had a few brief moments of being quite low on money. The lowest was 37 cents. But I wasn’t afraid. In fact, this lesson on reflecting all good from God has never failed to arrest the fear in each case. Giving back in service to God what I reflect from Him has been the saving grace that has brought employment, opportunity, housing, time, and even cash – whatever has supplied my needs.
Once, when Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to preach the Word, Mark’s gospel says he “commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.” (8:9)
I don’t think Jesus was setting a policy of perpetual poverty or dependance on charity for his most devoted followers. He simply let them learn a powerful lesson on spiritual dependance and Love reflected in love as the supply for human needs. Once that lesson was learned, it became a supportive platform for later proofs of supply that enabled the same disciples to build up the Christian community.
Luke’s gospel recounts that later “he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip…” (22:35,36)
I don’t believe Jesus expected us to accept limitation in any form. A lack of, or block on, the perpetual flow of divine good, is simply a lie about God – our true Source. As God’s image and likeness, we reflect infinite Good and expressing divine good places us squarely in line with a supply flow that simply can’t run out.
And if we’re going to be traveling (living) without them, what will we instead be paying attention too? What are the wonders that will fill our in-between minutes and seconds if it isn’t that habitual motion to check the phone? It can be to watch, to listen, to pray, to reach out, to notice the birds, the air, a person nearby.
Rather than living without a wallet unintentionally, I’ve been on vacation and trying to do it intentionally. I’ve been noticing how hard it is to shed the attachment to this things we rely on, even when they’re not needed.
What’s been harder to shed, though, is my attachment to my phone. Even when we’re having fun in the lake, I think about checking messages or emails sporadically. Are these our new wallets? What do you all think?
I want to say I’m going to try traveling without a phone, but that scares me a little bit :-). After all, I’m typing this message on it!
This radical act seems like a wonderful opportunity to take a look at what has become a “wallet” in our lives…
Hey Brother,
Wow – great thought here. Phones are big, big, biggies these days. I was talking with someone last night about how much intention and consent is required to use a phone today. Take an iPhone for example.
You have to consent to swipe and “open the portal.” think of how many people during a conversation or while engaged in some other activity subconsciously choose to swipe and start to multitask and divide their time and attention. It happens all the time!!!
Then think of choosing an app. Again, intention and choice. Opening a web browser. Going to Facebook. That is a lot of mental work! But we do it without even thinking about it!
Let’s get back to awareness, watchfulness, and intention. That’s what traveling without a wallet (or phone) means to me. Let’s show up. Let’s be where we are and nowhere else. Let’s focus all thought and mental energy on the present moment, on the people we’re with, and the activity we’re a part of.
Who is in?!
These people at an event called Burning Man outside of Reno have built a whole city and experience around living without a wallet. Watch this video to see how they use it as an opportunity to connect with a higher state of consciousness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGj1lR25gi4&feature=youtu.be
On a side note, I was at the store the other day after waiting in a long-line to checkout and when I got to the counter found I didn’t have my wallet! I had been living this radical act accidentally!
So I went back to the last place I was at – a Christian Science Reading Room – and asked the attendants to pray with me about a lost wallet. Before I could finish my request they whipped it out from under the counter. A little girl had found it on the ground after I had left.
Ask and ye shall receive! I was happy I didn’t just flat out tell them I had lost it. By asking them to pray with me I was acknowledging it had never been lost – but that I could trust in God to know where it was the whole time.
We all hugged and celebrated and I ran back to the store and paid for my groceries. Radical acts are sometimes best when done unintentionally – haha.
:)
This is toooo funny. Hope it starts a chain of confessions about accidental Radical Acts. I once lost my life to find it accidentally. But that’s a story for another section…..
What a very dear, dear story. Thank you.
These stories are AWESOME! I’ve been doing a little bit of “traveling without a wallet” these past three years – since leaving the salaried-work scene and going into business on my own.
I didn’t start as most would suggest: with savings in the bank, a book of clients, or as a part-time endeavor. I only had enough in the bank for the first month, one client in the horizon which quickly disappeared, and no other job to fall back on.
In these three years I have not accumulated wealth for ease of mind. In fact, I’ve been living month-to-month, much like I did when I had a salary, except I never know from one month to another where the money is coming from or how much is coming. But regardless of the need, each month the provision has been perfect: the bills have been paid! Little by little, I can see how I’ve been blessed in the way I could understand at the time, and I’ve come to a better view of my provision and substance being entirely spiritual, from God.
I’m not saying this is what everyone should do. This is what I was supposed to do. But had I kept a salaried job, I would have three more years of reliance on material means, and I would not have had the flexibility to take on certain projects in which I’ve really had the opportunity to help others. How little, limited, and insignificant is a wallet in one’s pocket? And how big is God’s wallet! Mary Baker Eddy says He has “infinite resources with which to bless mankind,” and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I’ve been giving to start understanding that statement.
Thanks Carlos, this is really inspiring :)
I have found that life often seems to be governed by the coin in one’s pocket and the tick of the clock. I had a humbling experience of great trust in supply that, to me, touches on this wallet-less concept. I was working on a ranch one summer–a long ways out of town. I had earned the day off and had a desire to go into town to pick up some flowers for someone who had been kind to me. And without access to a vehicle or a phone, I decided to just begin walking–knowing town was perhaps twenty-five miles away. I reached the main road a few miles off the ranch and I had the thought that my travel would be much swifter if a passerby could pick me up in their vehicle. So, for the first time, I tried to hitch-hike. I hadn’t walked a mile on the main road before a BMW pulled out in front of me to check on my intentions for travel. He told me to hop in. The gentlemen was elderly. His name was Joe and Joe had stories. He told me a story of how, in his day, men in uniform used to hitch-hike everywhere. He was in the air force and it was as easy as calling a taxi to find a ride when you were decked out in army, air force or navy garb. Joe was headed to his granddaughter’s eighth birthday in the city right past the one I hoped to venture to. He drove me twenty-three miles towards my destination and with my sincere gratitude, we went our separate ways.
I was quite far from home with not much more than myself but I had set out to get flowers, so I walked the next few miles into town. When I reached the town, I looked for a while to try to find a florist or a grocery but was unsuccessful. I approached an individual and asked her if she knew where I might find a place to purchase flowers and she immediately pointed me in the right direction. Twenty minutes later I had a bouquet of roses and was quite jazzed that I had accomplished my goal with the generosity and kindness of others.
My next goal was to get twenty-five miles home. Before I set of on my journey, I took some time to do some protective prayerful work. I acknowledged that I couldn’t be punished for doing good and living humbly. So, off I went. I wasn’t having such grand success on the way home. Cars were flying by at seventy miles an hour and I did what I could to protect my cargo from gusts of wind. I had walked about eight miles and the sun was setting. I realized my chances were getting slimmer to be seen and picked up as the light faded from the sky. I was startled by a car horn and moved further away from the street, thinking I was in the way. But the horn repeated and the car slowed. A woman rolled down her window with her basset hound riding in shotgun–ears flopping like potato-tinted kites. She beckoned me over and I immediately noticed there wasn’t much room for another passenger. But, before I knew it, I was in the scrunched in the back seat with a large watermelon in my lap and my two new traveling companions, Lisa and Jasper. Their destination was only halfway to the ranch but I was more than grateful to trim eight or nine more miles off my trip. Lisa and Jasper were off to a dinner party–hence the large watermelon.
We reached the fork in the road where our paths split and once again, I thanked my escort and carried on. Not more than a minute later, I heard a familiar horn. It was Lisa and Jasper back again to take me further up the road to a more convenient route to be seen by passing cars. Such kindness and thoughtfulness. We parted ways once more and I soon found a family of four in large blue pick-up to carry me back to the ranch, flowers intact. When I arrived back at the ranch, 12 hours and fifty miles later, I couldn’t help but notice that by abandoning the parameters of time and urgency, practicality and perhaps common sense, I had put full trust in the idea that people are inherently good and are governed by a loving God. I left my “wallet” behind–an object that dictates what one can and cannot do when relating to others. I let go. And what a story I had to tell. Fifty miles for flowers. It was a story that was shared all the way back into town. (The other ranch workers had a car ready to go into town for dinner when I got home)
This is a testimony to the glory of God.
Amen!!!!
I had a really nice experience this spring which in a way expresses traveling without a wallet. I was heading out on a musical tour for a couple of months, and had worked out a lot of the concerts, but had not been able to work out places to stay for all of the times in between concerts. But, I had to leave home having faith that all those things would be figured out.
about 500 miles from home I mentioned to a friend that I would be needing a place to stay for a few days, another 500 miles down the road. A few days later I got an email from her saying that she had made some calls and found a friend of a friend in the area where my need was, and that she would put me up.
During this time of traveling, staying with folks, and meeting so many people, the question that I was often asking God was, “Why I am HERE? why am i with THESE people instead of someone else?” It was really soulful to me to listen and see how I could be useful, be a blessing, or be blessed in each case – even in the places that I hadnt planned beforehand.
I love the image of taking the steps in our lives not seeing the ground that will hold up our feet, but just feeling it there, under us, with each step. It’s like improvising in music, but it’s improvising in all of life!
For me I think of “traveling without a wallet” as letting myself proceed through the day without material or mental things I think I need. Or even something like, going to meet a friend and not worrying if I’m wearing my nicest clothes, just knowing that my smile and generosity and personality; all things from God are perfectly enough to get me through my day!
What a great idea about throwing away your wallet. I had my wallet stolen and it was a great experience to trust that God would help me get that ticket for the train or petrol for my car through the love and genersity of others. Another time when my phone was stolen I experienced great freedom and attentiveness where I didn’t need to be 100% contactable and I could stand in a line without looking at Facebook. I was able to be more presence to the people aroudn me and the gifts of the day. :)
To me, traveling without a wallet is about traveling – our walk on our daily spiritual journeys – without a reliance on material things as our source of provision. I have a story about traveling without this kind of wallet – or reliance on material things. For my whole life, I had wanted to be in control. I’ve learned since that this is only because I didn’t feel nor believe that God’s goodness was really all. However, I’ve recently let go of a personal “self” that has a separate mind from divine Mind (a synonym for God) that can have any worry or thought of bad being able to possibly happen. Though, being a junior in college where my life would be rapidly changing during the next several years, and being in a relationship that could go south or stay for life, and my life feeling like it could any moment come crashing down with regards to family members, I wanted SOMETHING that would remain a constant in my life – I wanted to be able to be in control of at least one thing.
So I was looking into getting a pet. I wanted an animal of my own to care for every day (I work at a wildlife rehab center). “Yes, it WOULD be every day for the next 5-8 years” echoes my mom as we talk in the car. And then I started really thinking about having an animal to care for EVERY day for that long.
Then I came to decide that I might actually be keeping myself from good in terms of traveling and where I could go if I made myself connected to something that would depend on me every day for about 8 years. And that’s when I realized I wanted an animal not so much because I wanted a pet, but because I wanted to be able to control at least one thing in my life for the next several years. But I gave that up for something even better, what I really want to invest in: The good that is already in my life – and for right now, that’s my art, my dreams, and mainly my incredibly good-filled relationship with my boyfriend.
So I threw away my wallet, my feeling that I needed to have control over something, that I needed to rely on a material thing as my source of comfort and good, and now, I’ve opened my life for unimaginable good to occur to me spontaneously – (not meaning good by chance, but constant good for good is naturally always occurring and therefore not mapped out in terms of what kind of good occurs.)