Finding security
THE natural tendency is to look for security in our family life, in cultural traditions, in our work, in the policies of government. And these often do provide a certain comfort, strengthening us in many ways. Yet circumstances change, and perhaps what we once looked to for a feeling of stability is no longer present or has changed radically. The world as a whole has changed in a way that affects all of us. The nuclear age challenges humanity to gain a deeper understanding of security. The fundamental answer we're looking for goes beyond manipulating circumstances, or seeking refuge in them, or looking to the past for comfort. It goes beyond what can be offered by the shifting scenes of human life or by even the most well-meaning human efforts. The fundamental answer to the security question is a spiritual one. It lies in the recognition that our ultimate well-being is found in God Almighty, whose law of good is an unfailing remedy for the challenges facing individuals and nations.
To some this may seem an abstraction, of little relevance in today's world. But it is practical truth, which only seems irrelevant to a worldly view of life, a view that would have us evaluate our prospects solely on the basis of what our eyes, ears, and intellect tell us. But there's more to life than what the physical senses report. There's the infinite goodness of God, of pure Spirit. God's care can always be trusted, not just to bring us a vague sense of comfort but to provide us with what we need.
If there weren't a divine creator, an infinite intelligence, to which we could turn, then evil really would be power. We would have no genuine, lasting source of safety. But as those who have turned to God for help have proved, our creator does exist and does care for the needs of His creation. His supreme law of good has already sentenced evil to its own self-destruction. To begin humbly to accept this spiritual fact, although what we see in the world may deny it, is to begin to prove it in some degree ourselves.
Mankind's troubles don't disprove God's existence but point to a need to turn more radically to Him. To look to God isn't to ignore human avenues of security but to place our well-being on an unshakable basis and to find the direction we need.
Materialistic thinking--hatred, selfishness, sensualism, and so forth--is what fosters discord. Loving, humble, spiritually based thinking, cultivated through communion with God, sees beyond appearances to the divine order in which harmony is the fact. This pure state of thought was exemplified by Christ Jesus, whose healings of sin and disease confirmed the presence of divine power. They confirmed the spiritual reality of existence, transcending what the physical senses take in. To perceive this reality in prayer isn't an exercise in escapism but a means of bringing healing to our lives. The Bible represents God as saying, ``Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.'' 1
Our security rests not only in a better understanding of God but in a clearer sense of our own true identity. God didn't create vulnerable mortals. He created man in His image, and that's who we really are. God's man is always secure. He's fulfilled and worthy because he's inseparable from God and from the good that God imparts. Neither our security nor our worth is really in danger, because they have an eternal, spiritual basis. As we come to see this, we'll gain greater dominion over circumstances. We'll feel a more lasting peace.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ``Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.'' 2
Through increasing trust in God, through humble prayer to understand Him better, and through a greater expression of love and purity, we begin to discern the reality of Spirit. More and more we feel that we are the children of God, secure in His love. And more and more we experience that security. 1 Isaiah 41:10. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 261.
