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The weather forecast for the day was hot, so I set out unusually early on my daily walk. I noticed the birds singing their cheery songs and thought of these words from one of Mary Baker Eddy’s hymns:  Brood o’er us with Thy shelt’ring wing,      Neath which our spirits blend Like brother birds, that soar and sing,      And on the same branch bend.

Making decisions can involve the promise of new adventures and opportunities. At the same time it can feel overwhelming.

Early last summer, the subject for the Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly one week was “Christian Science. ” Throughout the week I had been carefully studying the Lesson, which is composed of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

“What a wonderful law! I love it so much that I can hardly think about anything else. ”  That’s not a common sentiment, of course.

Listening to the news these days, we might feel dismayed by the many problems confronting us, including wars, weather extremes, immigration crises, and political conflicts. To anyone who is concerned about the state of the world, helping humanity can feel like a daunting challenge.

A Christian Science practitioner once told me that angel messages come with action; they are not just good thoughts, but involve results. I had been devoting lots of my prayer time to thinking about church.

Imagine standing at the threshold of the fourth century after Christ Jesus’ ascension and watching the shadows gather portending a dark time ahead for humanity, as Christian healing disappeared from the practice of Christianity. What if you knew it would be over a millennium before Christ’s Christianity, with its attendant “signs following,” would begin to reappear? Would you just give up, feeling it was futile and pointless to stand against the currents of such an overwhelming nighttide? Or would you dig deep, and resolve never to abandon the Truth you had witnessed the power of—not only for your own sake, but at least as importantly, for the sake of the many in need you could still help and heal? Your decision would have outsized effect—as a modern-day analogy illustrates.

While reading the allegory of the Greek philosopher Plato, born about 400 years before the Christian Era, I was able to draw parallels between it and what Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, discovered about God and spiritual man in His image. In the allegory, found in his influential work The Republic, Plato imagines some prisoners in a cave, who have lived there all their lives.

My mother was a concert pianist, so the healing message about the “Key of Love” touched my heart.

In the clash of electoral politics, vitriol is a pollutant that fills the mental atmosphere with personal acrimony. A hyper-partisan spirit, whether pro or con, depicts a “me first” mentality that puts the self-interest of some ahead of the common good and exalts political dogma above the wisdom of God, the universal Principle that reigns over all His creation equitably.