If you were lost and desperate in a dark wilderness and suddenly saw a steady beam of light at the top of a hill, you would most likely struggle to reach the source of that light. It could be the way out for you, the answer to your need. The light of the divine Mind, God, reflected by the individual members of a Church of Christ, Scientist, is like that. It signals the way out of darkness and defeat.
What kind of light is coming from your branch church? Is it a steady glow of love and compassion, guiding people to divine Science? Or is it a dim flicker that could easily be obscured by superficial, petty, mediocre concerns?
While church work may appear to be collective, in its spiritual sense it is individual and divinely based. Church, absolutely speaking, is a spiritual idea, which we come to understand through our own receptive thought and awakening. We each manifest, according to our understanding, an approximation of this spiritual idea. Therefore our sense of Church should in no way be dependent on or limited by the activities of other members. We can always gain an improved, spiritual concept of Church and consequently a higher understanding of its divinity. Our human experience is never really subject to what others may think or do. Regardless of certain human attitudes about a branch church, a single individual can spiritualize his own thinking with the radiant expression of divine Love, until his whole life reflects that spiritual light which attracts others to its healing warmth.
