At a meeting of our lecture committee in a Christian Science branch church, the very effective first-time chairman told of an insight she'd had recently about lectures. It was tempting for me to think or even say, "Oh, I thought about that forty years ago—and over and over again while on at least eleven lecture committees since that time." But as soon as that temptation came, I saw an opportunity to value this specific insight about lecture activity. Right ideas are not the possession of certain people but come from our all-knowing Father, God. These ideas are universal. They are available always to those receptive to them. I can bear testimony to that fact as a result of years of experience.
Church activity should be performed with alertness and freshness. But the temptation could present itself to one who has been involved for many years that there are no new ideas to be presented; that there are no new ways to approach a lecture, to teach Sunday School, to prepare for ushering; no new ideas to think of while we serve in a Christian Science Reading Room. But is this true? In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy writes, "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis." Science and Health, p. 258
On that lecture committee, I realized that there was something to give that, for me, was new and special. Over the years I have come to value the Science of Christ and its contribution to our world so much that now there is no fear of presenting it to others. In fact, I see more than ever the definite need to do so. I'm freer about thinking of ways to share this Science and about accomplishing the actual sharing. It seems that this is definitely a substantial way for me to contribute something fresh, and at a more dedicated level than ever before.
