There is much talk today about active involvement in solving the pressing problems and issues of our time. Should we get involved? Or should we just watch and wait for the other fellow to get involved—perhaps with the thought of offering constructive criticism on his handling of the situation as though we could have done better if we had not preferred to remain uninvolved.
If we ignore or walk away from a human situation that our knowledge of God, or Life and Love, would certainly help or heal, we are selfishly and disobediently interfering with the fulfillment of our true purpose. God requires that we actively express Him. In fact, one who understands himself as the real, spiritual man can do nothing less than actively and constantly express Love. There is actually no walking away from this expression. To do so would be to yield to the erroneous suggestion that we are unwilling to help or incapable of aiding or that we do not fully understand our ability to express Mind in active involvement. Obedience to the divine demand to be actively, scientifically involved wherever God points out the way brings the blessing of demonstration and the reward of a job well done.
The teaching of Christian Science anticipates that we shall actively participate in solving the problems that come to our attention. It provides a demonstrable basis on which spiritual facts can be brought to bear on any human situation. That basis is that man and the universe are God's spiritual reflection.
Christ Jesus' awareness of man's spiritual perfection made him an active participant in solving the human cares and affairs that touched him as he went about his business of expressing his Father. In demanding right action and involvement, he said: "Go ... to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils."Matt. 10:6-8
During his ministry Jesus often felt the need to go apart to pray, to restore his spiritual sense. Even at these periods he was actively involved in human affairs, for he was evidently reaffirming his consciousness of God's presence and power. These periods of refreshment resulted in his active participation in the lives of his contemporaries. His prayers, affirming the spiritual truth of God and man, reached such lofty heights that he healed multitudes.
In the endeavor to follow the Master's example we must diligently handle and destroy apathy, indifference to others, self-centeredness, and the belief of uselessness or inability. Christians need to watch that their compassionate involvement with their fellowmen does not deteriorate into these false attitudes. Rebuking one's anxious, fearful, or apathetic thought from the standpoint of spiritualized consciousness is essential if one would heal and bless mankind. When presented with a personal sense of selfish depression or apathy, the author has many times prayed and then at once gotten involved in doing a kind deed for someone. This involvement, an act stemming from love of his brother men, has usually broken the mesmerism of apathy and depression.
Human life, based either on total involvement with matter or on rebellion against materiality while still believing in matter, is bound to end in bitterness and confusion. Spiritual understanding and alertness protect us from this frustration. In Ezekiel we read, "And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not."Ezek. 33:32 There is no need for this state of thought to affect the Christian Scientist, whose religion, when understood and demonstrated, governs all facets of his human experience and is expressed as an active, compassionate love for his fellow beings.
Mrs. Eddy gives the Christian Scientist an idea of the work he is to do in following the Master's footsteps. She says, "Difficulty, abnegation, constant battle against the world, the flesh, and evil, tell my long-kept secret—evidence a heart wholly in protest and unutterable in love."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 134
For one to carry out the admonitions of Jesus and express obedience to the orders of his follower, Mrs. Eddy, healing the sick and sinful is a necessity. This is the activity of the Christ, Truth, and is its highest human expression; it is a continuous practical protest against error of every sort in the name of God, who in absolute fact is perpetually maintaining His harmonious spiritual universe.
The affirmation and realization of Mind's presence and power are required to resolve any unpleasant situation. Active involvement is God-governed and God-controlled. This reflected activity always brings to the individual peace, health, and restoration of harmony.
God is never involved with matter. Matter is an illusion, and the more we know of God, Spirit, the more we are able to see beyond material conditions and expose their nothingness. The Christian Scientist is involved in declaring spiritual man's unity with God and denying the carnal mind's false claim that God's man is mortal and material. God, Life, creates only good. And man reflects Life; so he is not involved in matter, death, disease, and evil.
The Christian Scientist is charged with the duty of seeing that his active involvement and protest in righting wrongs and falsity are not limited to a period in his human life called youth. If Christlike qualities are confined to a certain period in human life, they will deteriorate into a personal sense of good. If one thinks of himself as the source of the qualities that can have their source only in God, his false sense of these qualities then becomes subject to limiting beliefs of chance, change, and corruption. All divine qualities are attributes of God, and man expresses them eternally. Our understanding that freedom, activity, and enlightenment come from God infinitely extends our active participation or involvement.
Neither by example or words does Mrs. Eddy limit the good a Christian Scientist is to do. In Science and Health she writes, "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good."Science and Health, p. 450.
Getting involved should be the result of understanding and demonstrating spiritual law. If involvement should stem from false mental methods such as willpower or hypnotism or from using drugs, it is dangerous and destructive to individual growth.
Being truly involved is always spiritual activity. Because its source is God, the results always bless. To be involved in healing and regenerating mankind through prayerfully acknowledging the all-power of God is involvement with untold possibilities for good. The ages await our individual fidelity to this spiritual activity.
