Victims of circumstances. How many people believe they're suffering conditions they can do nothing about: consistently difficult workmates, a discontenting marriage, a weakening disease? Our response to these is more significant than the conditions themselves: we can react mortally and suffer on, or respond metaphysically and get out.
At heart, such worrying situations are human misconceptions. And they can be adjusted by correct spiritual conceptions. The sense of being a victim can be replaced by the conviction of dominating the problem through a radical change of thought from the material seeming to spiritual reality. "We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material,"Science and Health, p 428; Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
The "mental might" displacing human misconceptions can be enjoyed by anyone victimized by an unright, poor sense of being. Every such person, with no exceptions whatsoever, is a potential demonstrator of the truth that life is spiritual, not physical. The mental might that can pull us right out of whatever quicksand we're in is the might that derives from the only real Mind there is: God. Daniel sensed this: "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his."Dan. 2:20;
Divinely mental might is here. It can't be resisted by mistakes and errors. In the ratio of our agreement with this, we can prove that apparent victims of tough circumstances are actually beneficiaries—the very expression—of the borderless good and intelligence of divine Mind. Man, by virtue of the perfection of his being, is the natural includer of spiritual ideas, the excluder of mortal beliefs.
The enormous comfort of Christian Science comes from the fact that it doesn't lead us simply to have faith in and to believe the divine but that it explains the nature of being in understandable terms. It deals with absolute realities, in which we can come to have full confidence. By pulling into sharp focus what man really is, it defines what we really are. This is not intended to be a sales pitch for a particular religion, Christian Science, but an invitation to learn something of universal spiritual laws that negate the lawlessness of disease, accident, and mortality. Few things are more depressing than facing some looming trouble and not having the least notion of how to cope with it or even the flimsiest tool with which to repair it. To take but the one step of admitting that troubles—misconceptions—can be offset is mightily encouraging. You can confidently take that step now.
A misconception is a misconception of something, of something true and authentic. Mrs Eddy indicates this: "Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand."Miscellaneous Writings, pp 60-61; The very sense of having a misconception, when viewed under metaphysical logic, can be interpreted as evidence of the presence of something actual and permanent. To concede this is to be reassured that mental might, and its capacity to offset misconceptions, is operating for us.
Let's take a specific. According to Christian Science, God is divine Love, always providing man—Love's image—with whatever is needed to maintain man's satisfaction. Human beings, however, are often in a state of lack—certain accounts can't be paid when they're due; a more adequate house can't be afforded; a useful university course can't be undertaken.
Now, because of the way God made and maintains all existence, lack is a human misconception. It's a deficient, twisted, mean, mistaken view of Love's immeasurable substance. Lack can only make an argument for itself, can only claim authenticity and reality, can only seem to exist, because there is actual substance and supply for it to lie about. If spiritual substance and abundance were not the reality, there would be nothing for human reasoning to invert and to then label "lack." According to metaphysical Science, various claims of poorness, finity, and restriction we may seem to be wrestling with are proof positive of the actual, provable presence of their divine opposites, divine Love and its immortal, perfect creation.
As lack is not an actual condition but a mental misperception of infinite substance, it can be offset by the power of the spiritual truth of being. Finity, no matter what mask it wears, can be classified rightly and turned upside down. Then it has served its self-destructive role, if you will, of acting as a reminder that divine infinity is the reality. Inverting false claims, under the direction of Christian Science, we break earth-tied reasoning and speculation and discover the perfect creation of God's making.
Christ Jesus was the prime offsetter of human misconceptions. His sense of reality was so solid and precise that he was not fooled by claims that man is finite and mortal. Every event in his life reinforced this assertion. He regenerated those in despair, inspired and clarified the confused, spiritualized the materialist, cured the ailing, and was victorious over those who tortured and sought to get rid of him. He consistently, effectively, and predictably set aside human misconceptions for divine realities. Mrs Eddy was fully justified in claiming, "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe."Science and Health, p. 313.
Through following the directions of the Science of Truth we, too, become more scientific, in the deepest spiritual sense of that term, offset more effectively human misconceptions, and demonstrate man's impeccable selfhood as God's expression.
