Ordinary Blokes

I LIVE in New Zealand, where ordinary people are referred to as ``ordinary blokes.'' But ordinary people can be quite noteworthy. When you read the Bible, you're reading about remarkable things ordinary people did. For instance, Peter, one of Christ Jesus' disciples, was a fisherman. By spiritual means alone Peter, accompanied by another fisherman called John, healed a man crippled from birth. Ordinary men and women, the Bible shows, are capable of surprising achievements when they understand something of their true spiritual nature. This applies to everyone, everywhere. God, we learn from the Bible, is universal Truth, Life, and Love. God is Spirit, and man is made in God's likeness. The true nature and character of man is spiritual, not material -- limitless, not limited. Everyone, in his or her true spiritual nature, is a child of God, capable of expressing the limitless capacities of Truth, Life, and Love. We are all God's children, equal in God's sight.

How we regard ``ordinary'' is important, because the way we think of it defines our view of life. If we think of ordinary as uninterest-ing, we're liable to see people that way. On the other hand, if we think of ordinary as normal, then we can see everyone in his, or her, true spiritual nature, because normal, viewed spiritually, is Godlike.

To Christians, Christ Jesus is the Son of God. But Jesus was also a carpenter, and his immediate followers were ordinary men and women. This tells us much about the liberating message of Christianity. It is for everyone. Everyone can understand it. Everyone can practice it. Jesus' first disciples were ordinary people, with ordinary lives and backgrounds. They were honest, sincere, kindly folk, and it was these spiritual qualities that Jesus recognized. With these spiritual talents Jesus sent them out into the world to spread the healing truth of God and man.

Jesus' mission of healing and teaching lasted only three years, so it wasn't length of time that gave the disciples their new-found spiritual power, it was revelation. To his disciples, Jesus taught the true spiritual identity of man. He showed them who they really were, what they really were. He revealed to them that God is Spirit and man is spiritual, that God is Love and man is the loved and loving expression of Love. Through the revelation of Truth and the power of Truth, they learned to heal spiritually. ``With God all things are possible,'' Jesus taught them.

Peter and John proved this at the temple in Jerusalem. At the gate of the temple was a beggar, a man lame from birth. When he asked Peter and John for money, Peter said to him instead, ``Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.'' Then, the book of Acts records, he helped the man up and ``he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.'' Miraculous? Extraordinary? To the onlookers it certainly was. But to Peter and John it was a normal, practical demonstration of the truth taught by their Master that with God all things are possible.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Miscellaneous Writings: ``Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scriptures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall be filled -- not by reason of the schools, or learning, but by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed on him, to give utterance to Truth.''

You can find more articles about spiritual healing in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine.