OUR VOICES JOINED TOGETHER IN UNISON: "Save us, O Lord, from the cynical mind that scoffs at truth and beauty and makes of no account those things which are of good report."
This weekly chapel prayer from my prep-school days didn't mean much to me at the time. But it must have made an impression, because I've never forgotten it. Perhaps that's because looking at the world today through the lens of the news, or even everyday experience, reveals good reason for cynicism, fear, and despair. The things of good report seem scarce, and the variations of evil endless. History and circumstance train us to distrust, or scoff at, goodness, even though we thirst for it daily. And yet the Bible is clear on the importance of choosing good as the reality.
"Whatsoever things are true," wrote the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians, "whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." It's not an empty command. He continued, "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." Phil. 4:8, 9. The God of peace shall be with you. In other words, choosing good, focusing on it, and understanding more about it has practical results: It enlarges our view of God and of ourselves as His children. Then our efforts to see and experience goodness aren't just responses to a laundry list of problems. They're the natural outcome of our love for all things good and godlike—and of our fidelity to God's spiritual reality.
The source of all good
For centuries, people have glimpsed that God is good and the source of all goodness. The Bible's Epistle of James explains, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17. But the general view is that good is variable, and that man's mortality, with its innate sinfulness and vulnerabilities, cuts us off from this divine source of good. The Scriptures, however, do not begin with original sin or limitation, but with original goodness. Genesis I presents the perspective of man and woman made in the "image" and "likeness" of God. And the promise in First John—"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" I John 3:1.—carries the message of our relation to original good even further. We are the effect, the idea, the very children, of good itself.
How often do we start from this premise of originating in God, good? So long as we think we're subject to its opposite—to evil—the answer to that question is probably: Not often enough. Mary Baker Eddy spoke in no uncertain terms of the effects of this improper identification when she wrote: "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly." Science and Health, p. 262. Talk about an impetus for getting one's origin straight! The vagaries and disappointments of human existence can be countered with a truer view of our relation to the source of all goodness, God. And each individual has the opportunity to identify with good and choose it as the reality of being every moment of every day.
We do this as we identify with the innate goodness, worth, and promise that are the qualities of the Divine—and then choose to accept these qualities as the substance of our identity. Science and Health describes the effects of such choosing this way: "Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence,—our health, our longevity, and our Christianity." lbid., p. 167.
While the claims of good are legitimate, evil's suggestions have no origin, and therefore no reality. In fact, evil, which would attempt to convince us that we are separated from good, is depicted in terms of deception throughout the Bible. Jesus encountered the "tempter" during his 40 days of fasting and praying in the wilderness. His decision to stand on the First Commandment—to serve only one God, instead of capitulating to evil's empty promises—was a decision to stand on good. And the results were profound. "Then the devil leaveth him," the Bible relates,"and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Matt. 4:11. Having defeated the lie, Jesus then heard messages from God—messages that perhaps assured him of his true nature as the Son of God, and of his inseparability from good.
Enlistment as a champion for good requires that we refuse to relate to, or entertain, evil in any form.
It involves learning to choose good, bearing witness to it, and identifying with it.
Our divine inheritance
Jesus told a story later in his ministry that developed this idea of sonship for his followers. He told of a young man who thought his inheritance was monetary, See Luke, chap. 15. and that his satisfaction would come from "riotous living." When he found himself down and out, he began to think again of his father's house, of his origin, and headed back in that direction. His father saw him "a great way off"—a turn of phrase that perhaps indicates physical distance, but that could also convey the idea that the son was still a long way from understanding his identity and the nature of his true inheritance. But the father ran to embrace him, rejoicing. And the son learned that his inheritance has been restored, and that he was inseparable from his father's love.
Feeling this inseparability from the Father's love requires that you and I return to our origins, just as this prodigal son did. The valid, scientific starting point is "Our Father" Matt. 6:9.—the words which begin the Lord's Prayer from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The more we know of "Our Father," the more we know of ourselves, our true makeup, and our inheritance of good.
Consider the Biblical concepts of God in this definition, found in the Glossary of Science and Health: "God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." Science and Health, p. 587. Think of what the child of Love inherits. The children of Love are inherently loving, and naturally express compassion, unselfishness, kindness, and forgiveness. What about the offspring of Mind? Or Truth? Daughters and sons of divine intelligence, or Mind, certainly possess intelligence, wisdom, understanding, judgment. The offspring of Truth inherit honesty, integrity, and the capacity to know the difference between what is true and what isn't. The children of Spirit are spiritual. Starting with this expansive view of God, it's easy to see what our inheritance of good includes. In effect, we are thinking out from God to discover who we really are—our worth, and our capacity for good. We find ourselves in and of good and learn the nature of our reality: supreme goodness.
So what's our response when the circumstances of our existence don't seem to match up with this view of God's ever-presence and omnipotence? Mrs. Eddy answered this question when she wrote: "At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." lbid., p. 571. Notice that our part is to know our status as children of God, our relation to good. God's part is the supply of the strength, courage, understanding, purity, freedom, harmony, and health—all the necessary resources—as well as the opportunity to use those resources.
Stick with the real
Rather than feel overwhelmed, then, by the things we seem to confront on a day-to-day basis, as we properly identify ourselves as the children of God, we feel empowered to follow the Scriptural command: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Rom. 12:21. Enlistment as a champion for good requires that we refuse to relate to, or entertain, evil in any form. It involves learning to choose good, bearing witness to it, and identifying with it. This is the fidelity to God's spiritual reality—the only reality—that brings that reality to light, a fidelity that doesn't so much require warfare with evil as a love of all things Godlike.
As the Bible says of Jesus, he "loved righteousness, and hated iniquity." Heb. 1:9. The important thing to remember here is that, ultimately, it's the love of what's real that reveals the real. Staring at iniquity—whatever form it takes—only serves to get us off course by convincing us that evil is real and needs to be batted down.
Believing in Christ Jesus means turning away from the deception and unreality of evil to recognize and accept the supremacy and reality of God and His goodness. To walk accordingly is to bring the uncontestable divine power of the Christ, Truth, to bear on daily life. This is living Christian Science, living in and by God's law. As we do so, we become effective problem-solvers and healers because we understand, as Jesus did, that evil is a fraud—to be exposed as powerless, without weight, substance, or presence, by Truth.
Stand your ground with good
In reality, there is no laundry list of problems—big or small. "Evil has no reality," wrote Mrs. Eddy. "It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense." Science and Health, p. 71. Go ahead and take that position based on the great fact that God, good, includes all that is real. God has endowed each one of His children with spiritual sense, the ability to know the allness of good in the face of apparent evil. This invaluable capacity means that we are not at the mercy of the ebb and flow of events, opinions, chance, locations, or past problems. We are able to know the invariable ever-presence and all-power of God, good, and stay true to it. And this fidelity leads us to inspired prayer that seeks to praise God for a vibrant, perfect creation—instead of turning to Him with a list of mistakes that we hope He can make right.
Turning to God, striving to see and accept more of God's goodness and to put it into practice—and doing so because we love and trust good—is a joyous, liberating process of growing into the Christ consciousness where we all belong. No mind or mindset can stand up to this consciousness. The cynical mind (or mindset), the fearful mind, the prideful or dishonest mind, the sensuous mind, the dis-eased mind must yield to the all-inclusive goodness of that Mind of Christ.
Indeed, in proportion as we choose good as the reality, our work as healers will become less an endless to-do list and more the outgrowth of our love for what God has already done. This is to give us an inheritance of good. And to foster in us nothing short of complete fidelity to His wholly good reality.
