When I was first elected to serve as First Reader at my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I was shocked, and a little overwhelmed. My schedule was already quite packed, and my thoughts began to race with suggestions of why this might not be the best time to take on the additional responsibility of conducting three services a week.
But I'd had enough experiences relying on God to trust the Bible's promise that "all things work together for good to them that love God." Rom 8:28. So I decided to put aside my own limited perspective of how things should work and listen carefully for God's direction and purpose for me. I thought a lot about this statement by Mary Baker Eddy: "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." Science and Health, p. 506. I knew that God, who is infinite Mind, could unfold all the aspects of this particular purpose perfectly—even if I couldn't see how.
When my term as Reader began, I resolved to dig deeper into just what was required of me in this new position. One analogy was particularly helpful. I realized that when a person looks out a glass window at a gorgeous landscape, they're more apt to say, "Wow, look at that gorgeous view" than to exclaim, "What impressive glass!" The glass itself would go unnoticed in the face of the landscape's beauty. I loved the idea that the position of Reader was actually more a case of being the glass than the landscape—that members of the congregation derive their inspiration from the ideas being read from the Bible and Science and Health, rather than from the person reading those ideas.
