outlook that heals

PEOPLE view the world from different standpoints. They hold different opinions because of different mental and physical perspectives. Yet by taking a Godlike mental stance, a spiritually compassionate one, we can develop an outlook that unites and heals. How can we do that? The most practical and effective way is to acknowledge that there is one universal God, that God's nature is all-loving and all-wise, and that everyone's actual selfhood is made in God's likeness, as the Bible explains. An attitude that's truly compassionate enables us to see ourselves and others in a better, kindlier, wiser way, as children of the same divine Father-Mother--offspring of the same divine Mind, or Spirit, expressions of the same all-loving, all-wise Principle. This vie w of life can bring healing and reconciliation. I grew up on an island. My home was near a river. When old enough I sailed down that river and across the ocean to Africa, Asia, and Continental Europe. I learned then how radically different people's viewpoints can be. For instance, the ocean, to me, was a highway, uniting people and countries. But for many of the people I met, the ocean was a barrier, a division separating people. The truth is, there is no barrier to the Spirit that unites us. As individuals, with individual views and outlooks, we are still united, whether we realize it or not, by one universal Spirit, one Truth, one Love, which is God. When Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor at the time of Jesus' trial and crucifixion, asked the great Master, ``What is truth?'' 1 the answer lay in Jesus' attitude and response. He loved. While others were hating, judging, and condemning, he loved. He didn't react with resentment or fear. He didn't take offense or blame. He didn't withdraw into self-justification and self-righteousness. He just loved, and by his living example demonstrated that God, the one universal healing Principle, is Love. If we approach our differences in a spirit of love--a love that reflects divine Love--practical solutions can come to light. This doesn't mean we should be naive about the nature of evil, that we should overlook the sins of individuals or nations. But it does mean that we need to discern the true nature of creator and creation, to realize that divine Love is now and ultimately the only genuine power, and that God's offspring is the very manifestation of Love. There's no better healing method than loving as Jesus loved. His Principle was Love. It enabled him to recognize that ignorance and lack of understanding lay behind his persecutors' actions. He loved compassionately and healed others on this basis. Not one of us has yet attained the level of spiritual compassion Jesus embodied and expressed, but we can strive to approximate it. We can acknowledge the true nature of God and our own true relationship to Him; acknowledge that we are made in God's perfect likeness, spiritual and complete; and learn to live and think from this spiritual basis. In humility we can accept the Master's prayer ``Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do'' 2 as applicable, in a sense, to ourselves. We all have muc h more to learn. By taking stock of ourselves, and shedding prejudices and biased opinions, we can clarify our view of life and see that truly life is the outcome of Love, that without Love there is no true life. `` `God is Love,' '' writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. ``More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.'' 3 The liberating, healing, reconciling power of life is Love, divine Love. By acknowledging this truth, feeling its reality through prayer, and looking out from it, we can have a Godlike, healing view that's a sound basis for reconciliation. 1 John 18:38. 2 Luke 23:34. 3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 6.{et