Partnerships

Prayer that yields to God, the one Mind, can greatly bless humanity. It can dissolve barriers to useful cooperation.

This was shown in an experience I had with a research project that had important humanitarian aims but had been controversial from the start. Near the end of this project, our organization got a new chief administrator. He told me that one of the key businessmen who had been asked to fund the results of the research felt the project was ''worthless.'' We were asked to rethink our findings and our recommendations. Since we had already been at work for two years, this request seemed unreasonable. At the outset we had consulted with various groups and organizations affected by the research to agree on goals. Though we needed the outside funding, I did not look forward to a partnership with someone who questioned the worth of our efforts.

After considerable soul-searching, I realized that I needed to return to the basis on which I had begun work on the project. As a Christian Scientist, I had prayed from the outset to express more of the spirit of the Lord's Prayer: ''Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'' n1 I loved the new view I was gaining of God as the one Mind, the source of all intelligence. As I yielded personal views to the fact that God, Mind, alone governs, fears and conflicts yielded to more effective relationships in our team and with others. I knew, then, that the new challenge could only be met through prayer.

n1 Matthew 6:10.

I began to see that the real demand being made on me was not to give in to personal or political pressure; it was actually to understand God as the only genuine source of good, intelligence, and vision, and to realize the true nature of man as the very expression of His wisdom and goodness. To acknowledge God as the only power at work opens the door to progress, according to His will.

An insight from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy n2 was most helpful. She writes: ''Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. 'Let there be light,' is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres." n3

n2 The Discoberer and Founder of Christian Science.

n3 Science and Health, p. 255.

I knew that Christ Jesus showed fully in his works and teachings the power of God, divine Truth. For him, doing God's will meant healing the sick, feeding the hungry, raising the dead, and redeeming those who had lost sight of the power of God. It meant exposing and destroying what was untrue, unlike Deity. I realized that the divine power he demonstrated was here for me to rely on as well.

As our team set about to rethink the project, I began my days with a sincere desire to see Truth at work, to witness the supremacy of the one Mind. The next months were not without confrontation and challenge. I found I needed patience, courage to speak forthrightly, and flexibility. At one point, we were even asked to put the project aside for five months. Each time we faced a challenge, I felt I emerged with more readiness to see in myself and others what Paul knew so well: ''It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.'' n4

n4 Phillipians 2:13.

At the end of the five months, we had arrived at a revision that met our goals and those of the new administration. In a key debate, the individual who had called our research ''worthless'' made a special effort to see that our report got a fair hearing. Several of our recommendations were funded immediately. And many of those that were not were taken up for further consideration by other groups.

Partnerships such as the one described here between education and business are increasingly important (see tomorrow's Education Pullout Section, which explores business support of educational research), and prayer is a vital ingredient in the cooperation. As Mrs. Eddy writes, ''When the divine precepts are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with the Scriptural command: 'Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' '' n5

n5 Science and Health, p. 276.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE Be ye all of one mind. I Peter 3:8