'Live Earth': With God, no situation is hopeless

Live Earth, to take place on July 7, is set to bring together – technologically speaking – folks from all corners of the globe who want to enjoy great music in aid of a good cause (www.liveearth.org).

I can identify with that. I've had a soft spot for partying in support of good causes since 1985 when I was deeply moved watching Live Aid ratchet up donations in response to a devastating Ethiopian famine.

The impressive roster of musicians lined up for this weekend's Live Earth concerts on seven continents will rally participants to act to save our planet from the threat of the "climate crisis." As they do, I hope that along with the partying/politics mix, another response might be prompted in many hearts, one I learned to value at the time of Ethiopia's famine: namely, prayer.

Faced with the scale of that challenge, I found myself asking if I could make any difference. I was a new seeker into healing prayer at the time, but Christian Science – with its explanation of the practical accessibility of the love of an all-good God – was doing wonders in my own life.

The answer that came to me back then is the answer that comes to me now, as the world addresses the issue of climate crisis. Prayer is a crucial factor in bringing to light needed solutions to what seem like intractable challenges because God, divine Mind, is infinite intelligence, and unlimited thought is exactly what is needed when problems seem insoluble.

I was struck by an idea about God's love in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good" (p. 494).

I became convinced, on the basis of man's (all men's and women's) access to God's boundless care, that no situation is hopeless. As my prayers mingled with the prayers of countless others around the globe, a surprising answer to alleviate the situation did appear: Two musicians, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, initiated Band Aid and then Live Aid as an admirably practical response to the need. Nowadays we have grown used to celebrity aid concerts, but in the mid-1980s a bevy of chart-topping musicians performing together on a charity hit record and in a transatlantic concert was hugely unexpected.

I feel prayer was an important factor in enabling this solution to come about back then, and it's a crucial factor in enabling solutions of all kinds to come to light today to turn the climate crisis around.

The answer to prayer this time will be different, because the situation is different and the scale of the problem is far more demanding. There is no reason, though, why solutions that aren't yet on the radar of scientific, intellectual, and political thought shouldn't emerge from humanity's recognition and demonstration of divine Mind's intelligence.

We can all contribute the prayer that helps prove that divine Love "always will meet every human need" and will not let us down on environmental issues.

To the degree we are humble enough to listen for infinite intelligence, ideas will emerge where they need to in order to be effective. As we do this, let's not be surprised by the solutions that appear.

I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:
But by an equality, that now
at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want,
that their abundance also may be a supply for your want:
that there may be equality:
As it is written,
He that had gathered much
had nothing over;
and he that had gathered little had no lack.

II Corinthians 8:13-15