A young woman I once met had just attended her first Sunday worship service. It was in a Christian Science church. When asked what she got from the service, she paused, then answered, “I learned there’s a whole lot more to being a Christian than sitting in a pew on Sunday and trying to be a good person.”
As helpful as pew-sitting (and listening) on Sunday and striving to be a good person can be, one can’t delve into Christ’s Christianity long before realizing that being a Christian is a 24/7 activity. It involves dedication and faithfulness, and is both a privilege and a duty. It’s a moment-by-moment, thought-by-thought striving to follow in every detail of our lives the example of Christ Jesus, whose every thought, word, and deed proved God’s constant, invariable, omnipotent love for His children. And this love impels us to love God with all our heart, soul, might, and mind, and our neighbor as ourself.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, put it this way: “To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 160).
This living so as to keep our thought close to God begins each morning, the minute our eyes open. For me, this starts with immediately acknowledging in some inspired way, “This is God’s day.”
Christian Science shows that God’s day is His continuous unfoldment of spiritual good. Every moment of this day is already God-filled before we get to it – filled with His love, His care, His lessons, His blessings. This realization can empower our commitment to welcome every moment of the day; to witness His ever-present, ever-active, loving attention, no matter what the physical senses present; and to learn His lessons, which always bless.
This is not always easy. In fact, sometimes it’s really hard. But it is doable, as I’ve learned.
I remember one morning in particular when the in-my-face pictures were alarming – this included a news clip of emaciated, famine-starved children dying in Africa, a tornado-destroyed house a block away, and the sudden death of our mail carrier, a loving father of six. I was overwhelmed. My need to see God’s day – His continuous unfoldment of good – was huge, but nigh impossible, it seemed.
As I reached out to God, what came to me was something Mrs. Eddy wrote: “No evidence before the material senses can close my eyes to the scientific proof that God, good, is supreme” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 277). This echoes Christ Jesus’ instructions to his disciples on what to do when bad stuff happened: know that the kingdom of God is right at hand.
This awakened in me a deep commitment to do the same. Looking away from the material pictures of death and destruction, I focused only on what I knew of God – His 100% goodness, His almighty presence, His irresistible love. Thinking on His promises in the Bible was a big help.
All day my thought stayed on the many examples in the Bible of God’s omnipotent care. By evening, God was more to me than ever – more than all the distressing news that I’d heard that morning.
Did my prayer help me? It certainly lifted my thought above the din of error (everything denying God, good) to an active awareness of the presence and power of God. And hope – the highest degree of well-grounded expectation of good, as my dictionary defines it – was alive in my every thought.
That evening’s news reported that humanitarian aid to those in the famine-affected area, which before had been detained or stolen by corrupt officials, was now getting through, and individuals’ charitable aid was pouring in. The tornado-destroyed house near us was rebuilt within six months. Over 100 people attended a sweet memorial service celebrating the mail carrier’s life, and his family was grateful for the generous, continuing support from neighbors and friends.
Every thought that helps us see God’s love in action magnifies the good at hand and helps humanity to “be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). This is spiritual strength, straight from God. And we all have it and can contribute to proving it for ourselves and our neighbors, near and far.
Adapted from an article published in the March 28, 2022, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
