Years ago I went to a restaurant with some people from my church. While we discussed the various food choices, I noticed that one woman closed her menu almost immediately. When I remarked on her quick decision, she said she usually chose the first item that looked good because she was eager to get on with a more important conversation. Her priorities impressed me.
We make constant choices about what holds our attention. Increasingly, as we want to be more effective in healing the world’s suffering, we feel impelled to make choices that are more God-centered. This shift is inevitable because choices based on satisfying or securing a matter-based life disappoint our longing for lasting good. Mary Baker Eddy summed this up in a poem that identifies the important choice:
If worlds were formed by matter,
And mankind from the dust;
Till time shall end more timely,
There’s nothing here to trust.
