We're all in this together

In preperation for this past New Year's Day, I bought a few gallons of bottled water and planned on filling my car with gas. But frankly, I hadn't been too concerned about things.

Then, my wife scheduled a flight. After all the jokes I'd made about flying on New Year's Eve, she was going to do just that. Suddenly, I realized that maybe I really did have some fears about what could happen.

Thinking about the new set of circumstances, I saw that it had never been sufficient to just hole up and wait out any Y2K problems for myself. I really had to pray about the situation - for everyone. I needed to be clear about God's care for the world - clear that everyone should be benefited and should be guided in a right way. It was time to contribute something for the good of all.

Well, my wife's flight went just fine, and as we all know, there were no major problems anywhere. A lot of people had done a lot of work. And also a lot of praying. Weeks and months of clear, inspired thinking and action had prevented significant problems. Because it had been a situation that required everyone's attention, many people had worked together. The status of one bank or airport concerned that of banks and airports in the next city or in the next state. In a broader sense, it was an example of just how much we're all in this together.

No one lives in a vacuum, though it may often look like that. In fact, the growing connectedness we have through computer systems may offer a hint of the fact that we are all related through God.

God is the one, universal, divine Mind. And this Mind, this spiritual consciousness, imparts wisdom, love, and harmony to all of us, its children. God's wisdom is seen in good actions, loving motives, wise solutions. And as one individual expresses this God-given wisdom, everyone shares in the benefits to some degree. As one person better recognizes the divine Mind's direction and care, more ideas come along, and clearer inspiration resolves far-reaching problems. Safety is more assured. The view of life as governed by God becomes more real to us.

Trying to hide from or ignore a problem never helps. In fact, it tends to allow the problem to build or spread. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that "selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards the side of error, not towards Truth [God]" (pg. 205). Selfishness sets up roadblocks that hinder receptivity to the natural flow of good. But when someone expresses God's love through unselfish prayer for the collective good, it helps to break down those mental roadblocks.

Situations such as Y2K help confirm the importance of Jesus' emphasis on loving one another (see John, chaps. 13, 15). Genuine love and support carry with them the power of a universal good that can't be stopped by any kind of barrier or limitation. It's a consciousness of life in God, in Love itself.

As St. John the Revelator wrote, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (I John 4:16).

We can learn more and more that trouble is not natural, not made by God, and isn't something to be feared and expected. And even one person who understands the natural, unopposable, good power of God is making a tremendous contribution to the world.

For though there be

that are called gods,

whether in heaven or

in earth, (as there be gods

many, and lords many,)

but to us there is but one

God, the Father, of whom

are all things, and we in him;

and one Lord Jesus Christ,

by whom are all things,

and we by him.

*Corinthians 8:5, 6

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society