The curse of the world has been a false sense of responsibility. The human mind has burdened itself with the belief of being a cause, and with that has of course followed the necessity of producing effects. With this necessity has come fear of failure, worry over results, and a general loss of all of the joys of life through the pressure of attempting to create.
The human mind has attempted to classify its victims into two classes, those who are responsible or reliable and those who are irresponsible. In fact, one who is called not responsible is assumed to be not in control of his mental faculties and so without a mind, or insane. Therefore the effort of training has been to give a man a human sense of responsibility, for without that he was considered incapable of being of use in the world. The period of transition between childhood and manhood is the period of training and therefore of assuming human responsibility. Also this period is the time at which the joy and spontaneity of life usually disappears. One who does maintain his joy beyond this time is said to have kept his youth, or not to have grown up. And yet the Master said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." No statement has ever superseded Jesus' definition of the condition of thought which knows God. None is more complete, yet none is more overlooked by the aspiring human mind which is seeking to take itself into the heavenly kingdom.
The reason for this worship of responsibility is the egotistical belief of the human mind that nothing is done unless it originates in that mind. Knowing no other cause than itself, it is blissfully unconscious of any opposition to its false claims of causation and is sure that no result can be obtained except from human activity. From this belief comes the desire for a strong human will, as it is felt to be the motive power of the human mind. As a result of this education of the human will we are coming into contact with all forms of human thinking which guarantee to produce the results desired by the human mind. We see schools of salesmanship and books on the power of the educated human will, and many people have been deluded into thinking that such schemes can "profit a man."
Human desire outlines just what it wishes accomplished. Human efficiency shows what method to take, and then human will undertakes to bring the desired result to pass through the subjugation of all human wills which may conflict or interfere with the fulfillment of its plans. Its assumption of personal responsibility leads to the assumption of responsibility for others, and so the one who assumes the responsibility for the greatest number besides himself is the greatest in the kingdom of earth. But he who has the least understanding of the power of God is greater than he, "for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
Jesus of Nazareth completely destroyed the bubble of egotism of this false sense of mind. He said, "I can of mine own self do nothing." He did not mean by this that nothing would be done, but that it was the Father and not the Son who was the creator, for he said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." The Father was to be responsible for the works, as they were and are His production. Again Jesus said, "For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel."
There was no one point which was stressed so much in the words of Christ Jesus as this point of God's activity. God was shown to be the cause of all, and man the effect. On page 207 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause." But an effect is not responsible. It responds to the cause but does not create, and so man is not responsible but responsive to God. Man is constantly responding to God. He is responding to God's goodness, health, joy, harmony, and truth. He is in a constant state of responsiveness to good but not to evil. There is nothing in man which can respond to evil, because nothing could enter him but that which came from his cause, his God.
The byways of life are crowded with the wrecks caused by an attempt of this human mind to assume the responsibility rightly belonging to God. Trained to turn to itself, human sense stands abashed before the statement, "I am the Lord, and there is none else." Joy is wiped from the experience of the one who allows this sense of false responsibility to govern him. Pressure, the weapon forged by the human will to carry out its purpose, brings its results of depression as well as suppression.
When man turns from this effort of false sense and surrenders to God he finds peace, because he has found the only cause and from that cause comes all righteous effect. But remember that when asked to surrender to God the human mind is quick with its answer: "Unless I do something, nothing will happen. I cannot become negative, a nonentity." Little does it know that all the good ever done was done by God and not by human sense. The good acts and deeds are the shining of the sun through a mist, and the mist of human responsibility would hide the glory of God's goodness and abundance more than any other phase of human limitation. So we may be content. Good will continue to come when we surrender to God. In fact, it will unfold faster than we have ever seen it before. The arguments which oppose surrendering to God are legion, but the results of carrying out the surrender are big and glorious.
