These days it can seem that the pull to undermine others has become an all-too-common barrier to thoughtful, solution-oriented discussions. To think before we speak is good counsel. Even better may be to pray before we speak, or even before we listen to another person speak.
I’ve found that looking humbly to God, divine Love, for guidance has made my interactions with others more valuable and constructive. A story in the Gospel of Luke offers an encouraging example in this regard. In the account, Christ Jesus healed someone who previously had been unable to speak.
You might think that upon witnessing such a healing, everyone would want to talk with Jesus and learn how it had come about. But some of the people watching felt threatened by his goodness and healing ministry. So they sought to undermine him, suggesting that Jesus was a trickster who associated with devils. In other words, that no matter what kind of goodness or compassion Jesus seemed to demonstrate, it must be dubious, even devious, on account of the evil type of person he must surely be.
Yet Jesus – whose healing works stemmed from his profound understanding of God’s nature as wholly good, and of everyone’s true, good nature as a child of God – did not rise to the bait. He responded rationally and then continued on faithfully and successfully in his service to God (see Luke 11:14-20).
Christian Science teaches the importance of understanding the stark difference between the pure goodness that exists in that which God creates and the evil behaviors we see indulged by mortals. God is Love, and His creation is neither mortal nor flawed, but spiritual – God’s own reflection. Infinite Love could never instill in its creation anything but goodness, caring, insightfulness, purity, and so on. It is God that defines the nature of what He creates, and this God-given, spiritual nature doesn’t include a single evil.
To behold in prayer God’s children as beautiful and entirely good isn’t to ignore evils. It actually has the effect of correcting them. “By the love of God we can cancel error in our own hearts, and blot it out of others,” astutely observes the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy (“No and Yes,” p. 7).
In an organization to which I once belonged, it seemed clear that an associate desired my downfall. His words to me and others brought into question my motives behind some recent, modest successes. His efforts to undermine me were so relentless that it felt as if I could see hatred and selfishness in his very eyes.
I knew, however, that I would never truly progress until I didn’t see those qualities as part of this person’s true nature. Did this mean that I had to wait for him to change, or ignore the bad behavior? No, it involved actively beholding him in prayer as the purely good individual that divine Love had really created him to be – rather than responding in kind. I committed myself to making a clear distinction, in my own thinking, between his God-given, spiritual identity and the behaviors that weren’t consistent with that identity.
There wasn’t one specific day that everything changed, but as I prayed over the course of a week, I saw more clearly that God’s children can’t be influenced by jealousy, hatred, or selfishness. And gradually the dynamic shifted. We actually became very close teammates.
God never undermines His cherished creation. In our dialogues with others, we can strive to behold everyone’s God-given value and goodness. Letting divine Love guide us enables us to sidestep the pull toward destructive reactions in our interactions and instead enjoy thoughtful, productive discussions.
