WHEN faced with a problem of disease, confusion, lack, or with some other difficulty, do we see the joy in overcoming it? God, good, is All-in-all, and the great joy of life is to prove this true. Facing whatever appears to contradict God's allness and goodness with the understanding of God as the only Mind shows the seeming contradiction to be but an error of material sense. Exposed and rejected, the error ceases to have power over mortal man and disappears. In other words, the human difficulty is healed. As man is seen to be the spiritual idea of the one Mind, the fear of failure, mistake, or mishap ceases to haunt us. Instead, every turn in life's road presents a new opportunity. The world does indeed become a brighter place for him who knows the joy of overcoming.
In Christian Science the cross is understood to represent the burden one seems to bear when demonstrating the unreality of the material sense illusion through the realization of God's allness and goodness. At times this burden may seem very heavy, for the truth with which error is faced is the truth which exposes the nothingness of much that human sense holds dear. Physical pleasures, false responsibilities, the pride of experience, the comfort of conservatism, the so-called satisfaction of classifying and judging people, the desire to appear humanly infallible—these are but a few of the earth weights which make the cross seem heavy. We must relinquish these in order to have the pure thought which exposes and destroys error. If mortal reasoning argues that the cross is heavy because of thoughts outside ourselves, we need but heed the compassionate words of him who faced and overcame the world's evil (Matt. 11:28 30): "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. . . . Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
The cross can never weigh us down if we love as Jesus did. The burdened heart needs only the meekness and lowliness which leaves all for Christ. Mary Baker Eddy reveals in her poem "Christ My Refuge" the change that inevitably occurs when the seeker for Truth turns his affections away from the material sense of existence to the joy of expressing Spirit, God. It reads in part (Poems, p. 12):
