"THIS one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13, 14). Many people wish they could follow Paul's example, but they do not understand how they may be freed from the tenacious bonds of past mistakes. It is obvious that a progressive, productive life is not the result of the type of thinking which is constantly agonizing over yesterday's errors. But how does one forget "those things which are behind"?
Late in the nineteenth century an inspired woman, who had known the grief of an unhappy past, gave the world a way in which meaningful, joyous living could be experienced. Mary Baker Eddy was this woman, and through her discovery of Christian Science she has enabled mankind to follow in the way outlined by Paul. Through an understanding of Christian Science, anyone may forget the unhappiness which lies behind him.
Let us look at the way in which a Christian Scientist may handle the tormenting suggestions that he has failed or that he has committed grievous errors. In working out any problem, he would begin with God, not with the problem. In the textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy defines God as follows (p. 587): "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence."
A starting point for solving the problem we are discussing might lie in an understanding of what the synonym Mind means. The popular opinion is that mind is contained in the brain and is an individual possession. But when Mind is used in Christian Science as a synonym for God, the word is capitalized and refers to the omnipotence which includes and governs all.
Mind is not in anyone, but is reflected by all its creation. It knows only its own perfect, joyous, all-inclusiveness, in which there is never an opportunity for mistakes or failures. It is the law of Mind that there is no mingling of good and evil. The presence of good precludes the possibility of anything but good.
Then what is it that suggests to someone that he is less than good? It is simply the false assumption that there is something besides God. It is the erroneous belief that although God exists, man is separate from Him, with an independent mind which is able to choose evil instead of good, and that once having made the wrong choice, the individual is condemned to bear the heavy burden of his mistake.
When we are tempted to gaze backward into what seems to be a cave of despair, we must deliberately turn our thought to the contemplation of the man God created. In the first chapter of Genesis we are assured that God "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (verse 31). Christian Scientists accept this inspired Word as an unfailing guide.
The suggestion that we are, or ever have been, less than the children of God is nothing but a claim against the perfection of God. If we accept these suggestions as real, we find we are claiming that a time actually did exist when God was not All. That which claims it can make mistakes is not now, nor ever has been, our real selfhood. There never was a time in which mistakes were possible—ours or anyone else's—because our spiritual, perfect identity, forever at one with the Father throughout all eternity, is pure and whole, free from fallibility.
One might ask, "But what is my real identity?" Since the Scriptures tell us that man is made in God's image and likeness, the thought that we are erring mortals may be seen for what it is—simply a case of mistaken identity, a serpentine suggestion that does not originate in us and need be no part of our thinking. We should never condemn ourselves or others for mistakes; rather should we condemn the lie that good and evil coexist. To punish ourselves makes a reality out of error, makes a mistake something real, something which has to be destroyed.
That which is real can never be destroyed. If we consider our errors as realities, we shall never be free of them. Do we criticize a twelfth grader for mistakes he may have made while he was in the third grade? Of course not. And chastening ourselves for a mistaken yesterday is just as foolish. Not only is it foolish, it is a waste of the precious now; it limits our present performance.
A prerequisite for erasing mistakes may be found in Jesus' words (John 8:11), "Go, and sin no more." Our Leader writes in the textbook (p. 497): "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts."
A Christian Scientist had a healing which lifted her above remorse over wasted opportunities and past mistakes. Through what seemed to be her own foolish choice, she wasted many years vainly seeking joy and satisfaction in material living. This frantic pursuit of happiness caused her to lose her home and the respect of her friends and family. She had known of Christian Science since childhood, but she had never considered that it might be possible to find the happiness she was seeking through prayer and study. To her thought, happiness was something that was always just out of reach. Finally, miserable and with an illness caused by her discordant thinking, she turned to Christian Science for help.
The truth found through study and prayer brought her freedom from illness, and shortly friends and a better sense of home were included in her experience. But she still suffered from depression brought on by frequent contemplation of the years she had wasted. Often her thought was dark and heavy with self-condemnation and guilt. In an extremely depressed mood one day she went to a Christian Science Reading Room. There she earnestly turned to God for a way in which she might erase from her thought the agonizing memory of past failures. As she was studying she turned to a definition which is found on page 599 of Science and Health: "Zion. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; inspiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithfulness; desolation."
Emptiness, unfaithfulness, and desolation certainly seemed to describe her past. Then her attention was arrested by the spiritual reverse of these unhappy states of mind: inspiration and spiritual strength. By reversal she saw that what she was claiming as memory was not memory at all. Mind has never known anything but its own perfection. True memory is not mortal, but immortal, for it is the ever-presence of divine ideas. A mortal sense of memory would include man in time, and man has never been in time, for time is a mortal concept, a measurement of human events that are not included in reality.
Man's life cannot be compartmentalized into past, present, and future. A memory of a material past was nothing but a false belief. She was relinquishing her false beliefs; they could not cling to her, nor did she wish to cling to them. Joyously she claimed immortal memory as part of her real identity, and the darkness caused by ignorance was dispelled by the light of spiritual understanding.
Only God, good, really exists. God's law for man is perpetual harmony, and we may be sure we have divine authority for living each moment with great peace of mind.
