Our unlimited source of good ideas

I was on my very first canyoning tour. In short, canyoning involves climbing up and down steep mountain walls and jumping into rivers. All the other participants in my group were doing the activity for the first time too.

On the first steep face, the guide showed us how to belay ourselves using rope and hooks. After that, he rappelled down into the depths. We were supposed to follow him one by one. I stood at the very back of the line and watched as the first person took the rope to belay himself.

Suddenly I had the impulse to go to the front of the line. As soon as I did, I alerted the person who was about to rappel that he had tied the rope wrong and that as soon as he put weight on this rope, it would come undone. I said this before I had actually looked at the knot. When my fellow group member looked at the rope, he saw that what I had said was true. He changed the knot and went down safely. We were all overjoyed and more alert from that point on.

I later realized that neither the impulse to go to the person in the front of the line nor the clear statement about the wrong knot had come from my own thinking or knowledge about the sport. They were simply there, crystal clear, and I was just following the direction I felt compelled to.

Through studying the Bible together with the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, I understand this impulse to have come from divine Mind.

In Christian Science, God is understood through different synonyms, such as Mind. Divine Mind doesn’t just have but actually is all wisdom. Christian Science also teaches that each one of us is spiritual, the reflection of God. As the spiritual reflection of Mind, each of us very naturally reflects this divine wisdom and so is able to bring this wisdom to our experience in practical ways.

This sounds easy in theory. But when we are facing problems, fear and doubt might sneak in, causing us to think we need to solve the problem with our own capacities. If we credit the so-called human mind as the source of good ideas, we find it is limited or even wrong. Then, when we find ourselves at our wits’ end and problems seem beyond our capabilities, we might feel solutions are limited or nonexistent.

We do not have to accept such conclusions. Over time, I have come to have deep faith in divine Mind, which frees me from relying on myself, my knowledge, and my abilities. This faith opens up an infinitely wide horizon, an infinitely large way of thinking, and through my reliance on God as Mind, I am more and more open to finding solutions that do not arise from limited, human thinking.

I am learning to think from a more spiritual basis, acknowledging God as the source of all good ideas and good works. It has become quite natural for me to listen for God’s direction and follow it – as I did that day during the canyoning trip.

Mrs. Eddy describes such works of God as “supremely natural.” She writes, “They are the sign of Immanuel, or ‘God with us,’ – a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised.
(Science and Health, p. xi)

This “divine influence ever present in human consciousness” is Christ. In Christian Science, we know Jesus of Nazareth as the man who lived on earth two thousand years ago. Christ is the divine idea of God, which Jesus demonstrated so perfectly, and which is still here with each of us today.

We all can learn how to make way for the divine influence – the healing Christ – and let it work in our lives. When we consider the need of finding global solutions, we realize we need an infinite source. So we turn to God, divine Mind, the absolute good, who is always communicating to His creation.

Learning to rely on our divine source for all good and right ideas is a bigger adventure than canyoning – and it brings safety and practical solutions.

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Adapted from an article published on the website of The Herald of Christian Science, German Edition, April 24, 2023.