There is immense satisfaction to be gained from church work, because it is based on giving. Christ Jesus taught simply, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." Luke 6:38. We today can truly be his followers if we let unselfish love characterize our actions.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy makes this striking statement: "Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power." Science and Health, p. 192. This statement precedes an account of her healing of a man who was dying. Mrs. Eddy's expression of "unselfed love" was evidently so pure that it reflected the divine power, which alone regenerates and heals. Our aim can be to express this same quality of thought in our church work. Then people are bound to be spiritually refreshed and to find healing at our services, testimony meetings, lectures, and in our Sunday Schools and Reading Rooms. Our basis of success is our willingness to exclude a self-centered personal sense of things from our work. We have to stand aside, so to speak, in order to allow the full force of the healing Christ to be felt by those in need of healing.
On one occasion, when I was serving as First Reader in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I became ill. As the time for the Wednesday testimony meeting approached, I asked a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer. As I stepped out onto the platform to conduct the meeting, I was suddenly healed. It seemed clear to me that as soon as my thought was lifted off the trouble and I began to concern myself with giving to others, I was receptive to the divine power that heals, and so was immediately free. What was being given out in the reading was, in fact, the healing truth of man's total freedom as the perfect, spiritual offspring of God and this freeing truth must have an effect upon all those who are responsive to it.
The need is to approach our work for church from a higher standpoint to see it not simply as this or that human activity but as a vital means of bringing enlightenment to humanity. Prayer for every aspect of church and its mission is at the heart of this work, and its benefits can extend to other departments of our lives. For instance, such prayer can help us do a better job in our line of employment. Couldn't a church treasurer, having learned that provision comes from God, be of considerable service to his or her firm if it happened to be in financial difficulties? The inspiration that he or she has gained from church work, approached through prayer, could be of inestimable value in the community.
In my own case, I became a far better schoolteacher through drawing upon the inspiration that I was gaining from my church work. When I became a First Reader, there just wasn't time for me to continue with my previous overconscientious and rather pedestrian approach to schoolteaching. Instead, the spiritual insights that I began to gain from spending so much time with the Bible and Science and Health guided me into taking intelligent shortcuts in my preparation work for school. The result was that I became a far more inspired and successful teacher than I would otherwise have been.
Later, when I was elected president of my branch church, the effect upon my schoolteaching was even more marked. The office of president was one that I had never aspired to. Quite frankly, I felt appalled that it had come my way. I was so concerned, that on the night before my first meeting as president I rang up a practitioner and asked for her prayerful help. She suggested I look up all that Mrs. Eddy has to say on the subject of God's government of man. I did this, and I went to the meeting fully convinced of His government. Needless to say, the meeting was inspiring.
This strong conviction that God governs man continued to pervade my thinking the next morning, and as I was driving to school I suddenly thought of a way in which I could reorganize the teaching in my department. I put my new plan of action into operation that very morning, and everything fell into place without a hitch. Hundreds of students benefited from that inspired reorganization — a change that had come about indirectly as a result of a meeting held in a local Christian Science church!
The spiritual truth that underlies the wide impact of our work is the omnipresence of the one divine Mind, of the kingdom of heaven. This is where each of us really lives, and it's what we're naturally receptive to as offspring of God. The awakening of human thought to this truth and to the demonstration of it is at the heart of all our work for church. When this is our standpoint, our influence for good can't help spilling over into the lives of those with whom we work and associate, and of those universally who are receptive to the things of Spirit. How true is the Biblical statement that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump"! 1 Cor. 5:6.
We never know the full effect of our church work on the community around us; but we surely know of the effect on ourselves. Our own troubles are inevitably lightened as we follow this counsel of Mrs. Eddy's to a branch church: "Forget self in laboring for mankind; then will you woo the weary wanderer to your door, win the pilgrim and stranger to your church, and find access to the heart of humanity." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 155.
When my first wife passed on, I was serving as Sunday School superintendent and also as a teacher. I used to get to church early in order to have everything ready for the pupils' arrival; and as I walked through the building during that period I felt strongly the presence of God's love. Later in the morning, when my teenage class would arrive, I always felt their support. All of them were nearly always present, and I felt that they were really with me through that difficult time.
It is not surprising that we can feel very aware of God's love for us at times when we are giving out love to others. It is provably true that the more time we give to the service of others, the greater is our own feeling of satisfaction and well-being. As a hymn puts it, "True, the heart grows rich in giving. . . ." Christian Science Hymnal, No. 360.
Our work for the Church of Christ, Scientist, has a profound healing effect upon our lives as we become more aware of and more in tune with the divine Love that founded and maintains this Church. The infiniteness of this Love has to be appreciated and yielded to before it can transform our lives — but this it will surely do. To work for divine Love is the best way to feel loved and satisfied. It's the best way to help humanity.
