As Jesus was going out of Jericho, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, cried out persistently to him. See Mark 10:46-52 . Jesus stopped and called him. "And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus."
Was that garment a cherished possession—not only his protection from weather but even, in a sense, his very home? Bartimaeus didn't fold up his garment, perhaps with the idea of coming back for it. He cast it away, and he did so before his healing! His healing was immediate, and he followed Jesus. The transforming power of Christ, Truth, confirmed the irrelevance of what Bartimaeus had left behind.
It's important to leave behind the mental elements that would hinder our progress. Discipleship is literally a discipline, requiring us to put off a false, material sense of self separate from God. This is essential if we want to feel peace and see our spiritual individuality in all its perfection. A false sense of identity includes whatever traits of character are unlike God. Most of us want to progress spiritually, even if we don't identify the desire as such. We really do want to see more of our real, spiritual identity. Yet the human mind, when faced with putting off "the old man," See Col. 3:9. seems profoundly resistant to change. Science and Health lays this reluctance bare: "At present mortals progress slowly for fear of being thought ridiculous. They are slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood." Science and Health, p. 68.
