Frustrated? try loving what's divinely true
BEFORE moving into another apartment in my building, I noted that several things needed adjusting. The cleaning, for instance, including the carpeting, was not satisfactory. I told the manager about it, and she, as well as the workman, felt that my complaint wasn't valid. She added that she didn't think the owner would authorize any further work. One minor adjustment was made, but nothing further. I felt frustrated -- and distressed. Then I realized that what was really upsetting me was the thought that I was not loved. But had I been really loving? Was I believing that something could come between me and the proof that divine Love, God, meets the human need naturally and quickly? The Apostle Paul was so convinced of the power and continuity of God's all-encompassing love that he could say, ``I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'' 1
What could interrupt the flow of ongoing good in my experience when Love itself was motivating and unfolding that good for each of its offspring? I knew that in Love's universe each of us, as a manifestation of the divine nature, can only express God's love for each. I needed to see that the divine Principle that governed me governed all, and that Principle has no favorites.
I was more at peace and continued to pray, affirming the spiritual fact that God-derived harmony was actually present where the discord appeared to be. This allowed the healing currents of spiritualized thought to remove the clog of resentment and move me onward and upward. I was trusting spiritual, not material, means to solve the problem.
But I came to realize that I had been relying on a human sense of justice instead of turning immediately to Love's divine justice, which is always available, impartial, self-sustaining, self-enforcing. I was more than a tenant with certain rights; I was God's beloved child. I needed to trust what was spiritually true about the situation instead of believing a lie about it.
When I met the workman on the elevator, I gave him a loving smile and meant it. He smiled back and assured me he would do what was necessary. At the manager's request the owner had inspected the apartment and ordered a second overall cleaning of the carpeting. And the rest of the needed work was done. The healing of an aching tooth confirmed my restored peace. This all came about as I turned from rebellion to a realization of what was divinely true about myself and others.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says: ``Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.'' 2 And elsewhere in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures she writes: ``Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not.'' 3
When a nobleman begged Jesus to come and heal his son, who ``was at the point of death,'' the Master said to him, ``Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. . . . Go thy way; thy son liveth.'' The man believed, and his servants met him on his way home, repeating Jesus' words ``Thy son liveth.'' The son recovered in the same hour that Jesus spoke the healing truth to the nobleman.4 Through healing, Christ Jesus proved what was already true -- that each one of us is the child of God, forever inseparable from omniactive divine Love and Life.
Trusting Love's control of all that concerns us brings peace. It smooths the ruffled feathers of indignation and self-righteousness and lifts us higher to forgiveness, charity, and brotherly love.
We read in Science and Health, ``God is natural good, and is represented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature of Spirit, God.'' 5
Frustration results from the belief that good is materially personal; that it depends on the actions of others. The remedy is to know that all good is God-derived; therefore it is immutable and always present. 1 Romans 8:38, 39. 2 Science and Health, p. 71. 3 Ibid., p. 472. 4 See John 4:46-53. 5 Science and Health, p. 119.
