We are all familiar with unwarranted requirements and demands made upon us in our businesses, by our families, and in our human relationships. Perhaps we give what we feel is a fair amount of time and effort in these areas, but additional demands are made causing what seems to be an imposition—a burden. Here we must be alert not to be used, not to let a joyous giving and sharing be turned into a burdensome imposition. When this is permitted, the joy is overshadowed by heaviness and depression.
If we are serving God and helping mankind from the motive of love and with joy, then the task is easy and rewarding, and there is no penalty. Let us be sure that the demands we fulfill are just demands. Then with buoyancy and the joy of giving we can go forward to bless and be blessed.
What about the more subtle forms of imposition in our human experience? Are sin and its effects manipulating us? Are we feeling imposed upon by disease? Are age and time crying, "Penalty"? Are we feeling afflicted by a lack of supply or limited opportunity? Let us awake to the fact that these impositions are no more warranted than are unjust demands made by a business associate.
Probably the most blatant imposition is sin. First it dupes us into believing it has its necessity. Next we are fooled into thinking it gives pleasure and satisfaction. After we have permitted the imposition, we are haunted by the suggestion that we can never again be free and uncondemned. What a bold-faced lie this is! Sin can make no demand on man. Part of the definition of man in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy reads, "The spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."Science and Health, p. 591:Science and Health, p. 591: Man is always spiritual, sinless and perfect, needing nothing, lacking nothing, and experiencing no voids or vacuums. When we understand these truths, we see there is no necessity for us to sin, no pleasure to be gained from sinning, and no power in sin to imprison us. Sin is an imposition on one's inherent purity, innocence, and God-given freedom. Christ Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5:48;Matt. 5:48;
For almost thirty years a relative of mine felt trapped by the cigarette habit. He had relied solely upon Christian Science healing for over twenty years. Never did he desire to drink socially or to serve alcoholic beverages in his home. The daily study of the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly provided an increased understanding of God and man. His wife was an active church member and his children Sunday School attendants. But this smoking habit imposed a barrier to his branch church and Mother Church membership.
One day it became clear to him that smoking was an imposition on his manhood and was depriving him of the privilege of serving the Cause of Christian Science and gaining the spiritual growth church membership would provide. There could be no pleasure in an imposition. Real joy came when, with the help of a Christian Science practitioner, he found he could refuse to be used, and exercised his God-given dominion.
Sickness and disease sneak into an unguarded human consciousness through a belief that a material body controls man. This body is supposed to be structural, organic, biological, chemical, electrical, and brain-centered. We find through the study of Christian Science that life is not dependent upon physicality ; our life is wholly dependent upon God, Spirit. Life is God-Centered, God-controlled, and God-preserved. We are not at the mercy of matter.
Matter and its theories about life, health, and sanity are impositions on an individual, whose true selfhood is a harmonious, healthy, perfectly balanced child of God.
Medical and psychological beliefs are pressing hard upon us to accept them as law in our experience. Refuse to be burdened by this false concept. Mrs. Eddy assures us, "The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man." Science and Health, p. 99;Science and Health, p. 99;
"Maybe I'm doing too much" or "a man my age should know better than to do . . ." are examples of how the suggestion comes. Limitation and inactivity imposed by age and the passage of time are subtle. Outgrowing a desire for certain activities or exchanging an activity for a higher one is entirely different from giving up something because of fear and belief in penalty. The stimulating, energizing influence of the divine Mind is ever present in human consciousness. We must daily accept our continuous ability to experience enthusiasm and zest for each new day. The vitality of joy needs to be mentally entertained and thereby demonstrated in fruitful human activity.
Remember it is Mind that nourishes us. Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: "Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb."p. 248; Accumulated false beliefs and the penalties outlined by mortal mind are impositions on our right normal activity and our ageless being.
Limitation, lack of opportunity, not enough to go around, are some of the whisperings of mortal mind that hide from us the truth of God's unlimited provision for His beloved children. Self-will, pride, ingratitude, self-righteousness, impatience, and discontent sometimes impose upon us, push us, and deprive us of sound judgment. What can possibly impose itself upon our inexhaustible source of good, God? The Father shares freely. If we humbly listen for and use in our field of employment or activity the spiritual ideas God gives us, we will be supplied with everything we need.
Obedience to God's demands always brings blessing and healing. More love for God and man is the crying need of our world. When we put God above all else, our lives must express more security, better health and morals, prosperity, and fruitful activity. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, bitterness, greed, resentment, and misunderstanding melt away, and our human relationships are joyous.
Does this sound like a toilsome task? The impositions of the carnal mind we tolerate are far more burdensome and have no real reward or promise. The Bible assures us that God's requirements do not impose. Hear the words of Micah: "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Mic. 6:7, 8Mic. 6:7, 8
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