In many organizations today, decisions are made and things get done through influence and persuasion, rather than by bosses giving orders and subordinates obeying. Some years ago I worked for a global corporation, and our team was tasked with getting the subsidiary businesses around the world to improve their management processes. My role was to persuade the senior team of a large and successful subsidiary on the far side of the world to make major changes, and oversee their implementation of them, but their position had always been, “Now is not a good time” to embark on such a program.
I managed to secure a conference call with the business leader and his team. I prepared my arguments carefully, but most importantly, I prepared myself as I have learned to in my study of Christian Science. I realized I needed to start from the standpoint of the authority of our creator, the one omnipotent God. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: “. . . man is immortal and lives by divine authority” (p. 76).
I saw that my business colleagues and I were all under the infinitely wise government of divine Mind—one of the synonyms Science and Health gives for God. The spiritual fact is that God’s children, who we all are, can act only according to God’s direction; and since God is wholly good, that direction can only bring about results that bless everyone.
I needed to start my reasoning from the standpoint of the one omnipotent God.
The book also tells us, “When the divine precepts are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with the Scriptural command: ‘Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus’ ” (p. 276). So my priority was to express that Mind, and to know that all my colleagues did too. We were not many individuals having many opinions, often in conflict.
I also thought about the story of Moses in chapters 3 and 4 of Exodus, when he was given the assignment to free the children of Israel from the slavery they had been suffering in Egypt under the ruling Pharaoh. His instruction from God was: “Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt” (3:10).
Moses’ immediate response to this command was, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” But God reassured him, “Certainly I will be with thee” (3:12), and urged him, “Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say” (4:12).
Compared with what Moses had to do, my assignment was minuscule, yet those words spoke to me loud and clear. I knew that the same divine wisdom that guided Moses in his duty would guide me too. I simply had to surrender any false sense of being personally responsible for the success or failure of this initiative, and be a receptive listener to God’s guidance.
An experienced businessman, also a student of Christian Science, once told me that whenever he had to go into a difficult meeting, he did what Mrs. Eddy once did in facing a daunting interview—she briefly waited for, as she put it, “the Christ to go before me” (Julia Michael Johnston, Mary Baker Eddy: Her Mission and Triumph, p. 166). This means to me that when we approach a difficult situation, we can pause to acknowledge the ever-presence of divine Mind, Love, Principle—all God’s synonyms that help us better understand the nature of God—and to allow God’s divine message to lead us.
We need to reject any false suggestions that we don’t have the skills or whatever is necessary to arrive at an amicable consensus. We should remind ourselves that God is the only source of intelligence and action, and that all of His creation is joyfully responding every minute to the direction and control of His infinite wisdom.
That night in a remote car park, speaking to colleagues on the other side of the world, the cellphone reception turned out to be excellent, and to my surprise and delight, the team leader I was calling said that the time for delay was over. He articulated virtually all of my talking points to his team, without my ever having sent them to him. Then he asked his team members to commit to providing me with whatever information, resources, and support I needed.
I knew that the same divine wisdom that guided Moses would guide me.
When he turned the call over to me and asked what I needed his team to know, I was able to gratefully say that I had very little to add to his clear explanation. I shared details of how we planned to execute the task, and a number of those on the call said they looked forward to meeting and welcoming me in person.
So, God had taught not just me, but also my senior colleague, what to say. And in my case, I had to say very little.
When I visited the subsidiary’s offices a couple of weeks later, the project went extremely well. I experienced a high level of engagement and cooperation among everyone I met and ready acceptance of the need to make changes to the business processes.
The promise given to Moses thousands of years ago is still valid, and applicable to every one of us. If we shut out the noise of material assumptions and plans that are constantly assailing us, through spiritual sense we will hear the voice of our creator and Father, right where we are, telling us and our fellow men and women what to say and when to say it. We will see the one infinite Mind in action. And we’ll find things simply work out not just for the better, but for the best.
