An Important Choice

Written for The Christian Science Monitor.

We are all called upon to make important choices in our lives-regarding the right life partner, career move, course of study, place to live.

So many things clamor for attention, and they all seem to be saying "choose me." Common sense says they can't all be right, especially when there's conflicting advice. There is a way to solve this dilemma. We can be still and listen for God's directing. God does help. "Be still, and know that I am God," says Psalm 46 (verse 10). I have learned about God from Christian Science, which identifies God as divine Mind. Thinking of God as Mind-divine consciousness-lets us see Him from a particular, spiritual point of view.

There's just one Mind. We are all under its unerring control. With one Mind, one God, there can't be differences of opinions. With one Mind you can stop struggling for what you want or what you think, and let God speak to you. God already has the answers to your most pressing needs, and if you're prepared to be still and listen, you'll be guided in the right way.

I used to ask myself this question: "If everything I had suddenly disappeared, could I still be happy?" My answer was yes, that I'd have God.

In a situation where we are thrown into something difficult we certainly would not have chosen for ourselves, turning to God is helpful and practical. That sort of devastating experience happened to my mother-in-law and her family during the Second World War. Her house was hit directly by a bomb. The family escaped physical injury by sheltering in a simple bomb shelter. But when they emerged, everything was destroyed. She told me that you can never feel the same about material possessions after an experience like that.

But my mother-in-law was strengthened by her newfound understanding of God. She had this understanding from having begun to study Christian Science, the discovery of Mary Baker Eddy. My mother-in-law said she had had no choice but to trust God, and this is what she did. She had been learning that God cares for all our needs and will never let us down. She was learning that the only reality and permanency of being is in God and is discerned in spiritual ideas.

But is evil a real power as well? Not according to Christ Jesus. He said that the devil was "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). A liar. If you believe Jesus and acknowledge his healing works, you're believing in the power of God. It does not make sense that God, who is good, also made anything evil. Choosing God means choosing good.

Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures shows how to find a new world, a real world, of peace, health, happiness, security. It shows the reasons why these are ever present and with you now-they're spiritual, given you by God, and therefore permanent. Science and Health says, "As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else" (pp. 480-481).

I made a conscious choice between good and evil when I had my first baby. I woke one morning to find that his eyelids were stuck together. He couldn't open them. I tried phoning someone to pray for him, but they had gone out.

Knowing that I needed to get a grip if I was to help the child, I reached out to God with all my heart. I knew I had to make the right choice. And I made the fundamental choice to trust absolutely in the power of God alone for healing. I knew that God was the only creator and could make nothing impure or imperfect, which meant my child was not capable of experiencing evil, including this eye condition. My fear vanished. And when the baby woke again soon after, there was no trace of infection.

That choice didn't involve blind faith. It was the result of my growing understanding of the facts of spiritual existence. I knew I could trust God. This had healed the baby and set me on a path of exciting spiritual discoveries.

God is good, and He has chosen us.

You can find other articles that discuss prayer in a weekly magazine, the Christian Science Sentinel.

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