A small group of believers is called to rise up, renew their faith, and devote themselves unreservedly to rebuilding the wall surrounding their sacred city. This story—of Nehemiah and his people (see Nehemiah, chapters 1—6)—had my full attention one Monday morning as I began reading it in the Christian Science Bible Lesson for that week.
I had recently been praying in a more consecrated way in support of the practice of Christian Science healing, well aware that along the path of anyone’s growing spiritual commitment, trials are encountered at times. Nehemiah’s account of how the Israelites, under his inspired leadership, faced persistent opposition with courage, spiritual alertness, and steadfastness felt alive with implications for my prayers.
About midway through the Lesson, on the heels of verses recounting various attempts by Nehemiah’s opponents to waylay and ultimately prevent the people’s work, came this brief correlative selection in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which side are we fighting?” (p. 216).
The statement “Spirituality lays open siege to materialism” stood out as though it were highlighted on the page, and I reread it several times. Its juxtaposition with Nehemiah’s trials was surprising to me! His numerous opponents, attempting to thwart his mission, certainly appeared to have had the initiative—suggesting that he and his consecrated workers were too few in number and too weak physically for the work, accusing him of ulterior motives, even attempting to surreptitiously lure him away from his God-inspired purpose. But here, in the Christian Science textbook, I was reading that Spirit and spirituality were actually on the offensive—not human personalities, not personal minds and so-called egos apart from God, claiming to have their own agendas.
I began to see that the only accurate way to interpret the many attempts to upend Nehemiah’s God-inspired mission would be to reason from the standpoint of Spirit’s—God’s—omnipotence, as Christian Science teaches. Through the lens of divine Science we perceive the power of God sustaining all His children in His own image, within His loving all-presence. Spirit is indeed the only initiative-owning cause. A sense of personal human ego has no place, no initiative, no power to act within the ever-presence of an infinitely good God.
This truth of spiritual being, humbly entertained in prayer, has the effect of exposing and overthrowing the carnal mind’s false assumptions of power, and of bringing to the fore the Father’s own righteous government and spiritual purpose.
Nehemiah and his watchful band must have been keenly aware of the power of God to protect and prosper a right purpose. Persistently appealing to God, even in the face of severe trials, they retained a spirited commitment to their mission and eventually completed the work of rebuilding the wall.
It’s a particularly useful lesson for us today. It could be said that we are at a juncture in Christian history when we are hearing anew the call to “rise up and build” (Nehemiah 2:18). Many Christian Scientists are sensing a definite need to go deeper in their study and understanding of the Science of Christianity; and they are striving in conscious, prayerful ways to practice spiritual healing more consistently in their lives, in accord with the foundational healing purpose of the Church of Christ, Scientist (see Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 17).
Nehemiah’s account of how the Israelites faced persistent opposition with courage, spiritual alertness, and steadfastness felt alive with implications for my prayers.
We may know, from our own commitment to follow in Christ Jesus’ footsteps, that the way forward isn’t always easy. Sometimes there is what might be termed pushback from the carnal, or mortal, mind to the benign, holy action of Truth in one’s life. Though usually on a considerably smaller scale than those faced by Nehemiah and his workers, challenges may well come up in one’s experience in conjunction with deepening spiritual growth and increasing capacity to heal. For example, having resolved to set aside regular hours for prayer and spiritual study, we may find circumstances arising that make it particularly difficult to keep the commitment. Or there may be an inexplicable disruption in a family relationship on the eve of an important event for which we’ve been actively praying. Perhaps we’ve come under unjust criticism at work—even false accusations—related to having taken an ethical stand.
Situations like these can feel very in-our-face and personal when we’re in the midst of them. But if we’ve been studying and praying and striving to live consistently with our prayers, these challenges may well be the result of the good work we are doing. Mrs. Eddy has an apt term for the type of upheaval that sometimes results from the purifying effect of Truth on human consciousness and experience: chemicalization. “In moral chemicalization,” she explains, “when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin” (Science and Health, p. 540).
An important takeaway from the story of Nehemiah is that such seeming upheavals are not “the main event.” They function something like the wake produced by a forward-moving sea vessel, in that they dissipate into the distance as the vessel advances. Although we do pray about trying situations when they come up, the great need is to press forward spiritually with that which is truly vital—giving our heartfelt attention and focused prayer to drawing closer to God, to understanding Him better and recognizing ourselves as under His guidance and care.
The reason I had been surprised on that Monday morning as the details of Nehemiah’s story unfolded was that I had become engrossed in the various dramatic details of these people’s trials and had essentially lost sight of the big picture. The account so clearly illustrates God as the only real cause and power. God was the power behind Nehemiah’s inspiration to take up the task of rebuilding the wall. God inspired the king of Persia to let him travel to Jerusalem to fulfill that task. God had prepared the heart of the people to take on the project. And God had raised up in each participant the spirit “for this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18).
Just so, it is God who impels each one of us to take the path of increased commitment to demonstrate Christ-healing. Whether we let it be known publicly that we are available to give Christian Science treatment, or resolve to be more conscientious in praying about social issues, or feel prompted to take some constructive civic action, it is evidence of God’s Christ moving on our hearts. In fact, every impulsion for good comes from God and is the result of the Holy Ghost, or eternal Christ—the divine animating influence of God, Spirit—acting on human consciousness. The Holy Ghost moves us to act in ways that glorify God; it inspires and energizes us spiritually to fulfill the purposes of good.
Essential to our forward progress is a healthy sense of resistance to any aggressive mental suggestion that would engage us in chronic self-doubt or embroil us in negative human emotion. We may want to put the question to ourselves that Mrs. Eddy asked: “On which side are we fighting?” Am I allowing my thoughts to be enlisted on the side of some challenge, seeing myself as the object of a personal attack and feeling fearful, angry, vulnerable, even inept spiritually to pray effectively for a healing resolution? Or am I laying aside human reaction, including a false personal assessment of myself and those around me, and appealing to God, humbly, importunately, for spiritual insight? Am I siding with what He is showing me in my prayers? Spiritual sense enables us to declare with assurance: “I am made in His likeness and so reflect unlimited divine wisdom. I am, as it says in Ephesians, ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (6:10). I am embraced, along with all of God’s children, in His infinite divine Love, and so am enduringly safe.”
We know we’ve reached a pivotal point in our spiritual progress when our sincere desire is to see divine Love prevail in a challenging situation and our so-called persecutors blessed. When our desire to know God and experience Christ-healing outweighs any desire we may have to see ourselves vindicated or others punished, then we are in a position prayerfully to witness the operation of God’s law forwarding the purposes of good.
No matter how intensely a human drama may appear to be playing out, we have divine Love’s assurance that we are not in fact where animal magnetism (mortal mind’s false asserting) has been saying we are—among a myriad of mortal personalities, in circumstances that appear impossible to navigate. None of us is. We are in God’s realm, the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus described as being ever “at hand” (see Matthew 4:17). Here, within the infinite all-presence of divine intelligence, there is no mortal mind and consequently no mortal-mind pushback to the Father’s loving will and purpose for us. God alone is Mind, the only Mind governing man—ourselves and everyone involved. The seeming presence of injustice, false mortal opinions, persecution for righteousness’ sake, are but so many masks of the fundamental false belief of many minds. They are fraudulent ploys that would if they could turn us from the truth of one unerring Mind. But they have no inherent power to deter our growing confidence in God as all or to undercut our heritage as His children, which includes dominion over the claims of error.
It’s not nearly so significant that trials sometimes occur when we are growing spiritually as it is that we interpret these trials accurately—as evidences of Truth’s challenge to error, not vice versa. As we stay with the spiritual facts of being, hew closely to the Master’s example, and continue with the work the Father is giving us to do, the stir will be allayed, and we will find ourselves on new, firmer ground spiritually. We can trust Truth’s ongoing redemptive action and foresee its triumph in whatever challenging situation we may be facing.
