True Victory Is in Working Together
WHAT is it that bolsters a nation so that it can withstand all the winds of change and come up stronger than ever before? Isn't it the people's recognition that what unites them is stronger, more valid and provable, more conducive to hope for the nation's future than what would divide them.
In thinking about changes in the world and in nations, I've been praying to gain a deeper understanding of something Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. There she writes: ``The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity."
I like to think of this ``cement as the cohesive, bonding together of a people. And we can feel sure that any government founded upon this spiritual basis is structurally sound. No destructive, divisive negativism can weaken or undermine it. Every charter, or constitution, or set of by-laws must begin with this foundational concept of a united people if it is to be effective and lasting. The firmness to build upon this structure and implement its basic rules is greatly strengthened by working together in
mutual trust.
Whether people have come together as an ethnic or tribal group, a federation of states in a geographical entity, or a modern corporation, the true basis for their unity lies in their relationship to the underlying Principle, God, who is man's creator. Unity is God-ordained. God, the one Mind, has ordained freedom and justice for all His creation, and we will see greater evidence of these in the world as we work together for good and claim our unity with God. Centuries ago, the Bible records, Paul wrote t o the Romans, ``All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Holding on to this new understanding of God as unifying Principle, for the first time I no longer felt it necessary to take sides or become frustrated and angry over what was being said in recent political debates in my country. I saw that, in truth, each participant loved his country and wanted only what was best for its progress and long-range betterment--however they differed on the means for achieving this. As I listened, I could calmly sort out what was good--and therefore had its source in God--fro m what was unacceptable. In the end I saw that there was only one choice to be made, God's choice, His true and affirmative course of action. And I could see that choosing God's way not only would bless my nation but would bless the world of nations as well. So let those winds of change blow over! Spiritually based unity will have no trouble withstanding them!
In his Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew's Gospel in the Bible, Christ Jesus speaks of a man who built his house upon a rock, where it was able to hold its own when the winds blew. We can pray to see that our nation, and all nations of the world, can know the real joy of working together to build for peace and progress under God's unerring direction.
We have much to do in our world. It must be healed of all its bitter divisions, its age-old hatreds, its violence and despair. Let us begin by remembering and responding to those rallying, steadying words of Moses when, as the book of Exodus tells us, he said to the children of Israel as they fled from the Egyptians: ``Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. " That's the only true victory there can be, and in that ``salvation of the Lord there are no losers! When we consider the infi nite allness of God's plan, no one can be excluded; all are needed.
