The British slogan “Keep calm and carry on” began as a 1939 poster but has made a global reappearance today. In the midst of modern-day disturbances and disasters, it encourages many. Some scoff at this and similar words of encouragement, however, saying that such statements are empty words, easier said than done.
Christian Science shows all constructive concepts and right ideas, such as the “keeping calm” and the “carrying on” of this slogan, to be not mere words, but empowered, active qualities of God—the one omnipresent Mind. And they are eternally expressed by us as God’s spiritual reflection.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, encourages us to identify with this expression when she writes, “Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 495). Fears or doubts may claim to possess and overwhelm us, but our inherent “clear sense and calm trust” is ever present as our true consciousness, conceived, kept, and maintained by God.
“Keeping calm” and “carrying on” are not empty words, but empowered, active qualities of God.
Our innate, conscious ability to think constructively, or rightly, is our dominion, given by the infinite Mind, which conceives man—our true spiritual identity—in its image as the full embodiment of perfect, pure, right ideas. God is also eternal Life; therefore, man, as God’s likeness, is the lively expression of His perfection.
“Life harmonious” is completely spiritual, and ever operative. It isn’t a state of mortality, subject to sin, disease, and death. The all-harmonious divine Mind does not include thoughts of mortality, so man reflects a clear, calm sense of well-being, equanimity, unperturbed balance, and poise.
False, mortal sense opposes man’s natural state of dominion and spiritual harmony by claiming that man is governed by a mortal mind that reacts to a range of changing circumstances, and expresses fluctuating emotional tendencies. This is just a false mental suggestion, no matter how aggressive it seems to be. It is the “painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.”
God, infinite Mind, is all that knows, and is all that is known. Therefore, man truly knows only what God knows. Jeremiah records, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). Neither God nor the spiritual man can know fear, doubt, or any belief of “that which Life is not.”
The truth of this statement was demonstrated to me some time ago. I was taking a hot pan of cupcakes out of the oven with an oven mitt. Unknown to me, the mitt was wet. As I pulled the pan out with my left hand, the heat went through the pad and burned my hand. The pain startled me, and I jumped back, dropping the pan.
With my bare right hand, I automatically grabbed the hot pan as it fell and set it on the counter. The pain, in both hands now, was intense and seemed overwhelming; but then I calmly thought through Mrs. Eddy’s statement quoted above. I reasoned that the suggestions of fear and pain were untrue, and nonintelligent, because they were not constructive ideas from the divine Mind. Therefore they could not claim to be present or predominant in my consciousness. Mind didn’t create “any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.” I affirmed my natural “clear sense and calm trust” in God, who is Life eternal, governing all in harmony.
Immediately, the pain vanished. Never looking at my hands, I carried on with my activities. When I finally looked at my hands the next morning, there wasn’t a red mark to be found. They were perfect!
Paul says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, 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” (Philippians 4:8). Replacing the word things with thoughts, I see Paul as saying, “Think on these thoughts”—know these thoughts as God’s thoughts, and by reflection, your thoughts.
These qualities listed by Paul were expressed by Christ Jesus, who understood individual consciousness as inseparable from Mind, and knew that spiritual man forever reflects Life’s harmony and Mind’s knowing.
In his parable of the good shepherd, Jesus illustrates man’s inherent ability to recognize and express right ideas—true thoughts—and shows how the Christ shepherds and safeguards us. As sheep respond only to the call of their shepherd, so God’s children respond only to Christ’s voice. The parable says of the shepherd, “And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4, 5). God’s children have the Mind of Christ, and therefore recognize only constructive thoughts from God as legitimate.
As sheep respond only to the call of their shepherd, so God’s children respond only to Christ’s voice.
Mortal beliefs are finite and deny the one infinite Mind, which is the only intelligence. Therefore these beliefs are untrue. They oppose man’s eternal expression of infinite substance, Spirit. Being limited in time and scope, they deny divine Life as infinite, and ultimate in the self-destruction of mortality.
To differentiate between illegitimate, finite, mortal beliefs and the gloriously legitimate, infinite, right ideas inherent in God’s expression, is to have the Mind of Christ—the consciousness of “life harmonious—as Life eternally is.” We can continually “keep calm and carry on,” rejoicing that true thoughts, good thoughts, God’s thoughts, are our thoughts.
Mrs. Eddy sums it up this way: “[Christ Jesus] . . . said: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love” (Pulpit and Press, p. 3).
