Your influence for good

At one time or another during our growing-up years, we may have been told to be a good influence. This could have meant modeling good behavior or even gently steering someone in the right direction.

This ability to produce certain effects on the behavior of others is generally thought to be dependent on our own will or personal power. And while that is what appears to be behind the work of many of today’s social media influencers, it is not true influence according to Christian Science. In fact, Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, brought out the most profound sense of the term when she wrote about “a divine influence ever present in human consciousness” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. xi).

Mrs. Eddy was describing Christ – the true idea of God that Jesus embodied – and its healing, saving power, which is still transforming hearts today. To the degree that we allow Christ, Truth, to be foremost in our thoughts, we become an influence for good. Not personally dominating or manipulating others but benignly adding to the mental atmosphere in ways that uplift and spiritualize it.

The mental and spiritual nature of this activity is key because the discovery of Christian Science brings to light the fact that “Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being” (Science and Health, p. 264). This is our universe: spiritual, not material, a universe of thoughts rather than things.

And this explains why Mrs. Eddy emphasized “a scientific, right thought” (“Rudimental Divine Science,” p. 9) as an actual healing power. The adjustments we seek in our own lives and in the world begin with that Spirit-based thought and come to fruition as the influence of Christ outweighs the fear, darkness, or materiality that would make us feel hopeless or helpless.

But what of our day-to-day lives – dealing with routine tasks, home, family, work, community needs? These are the times when we might not be conscious of exerting any influence at all, and yet we are always contributing to the mental atmosphere for better or for worse.

For example, how are we seeing those who inconvenience us or responding to someone who acts thoughtlessly or self-righteously? In these situations, we can allow the divine influence to help us weigh in on the side of good – of forbearance and of affirming the real nature of our fellow man as the beloved image and likeness of God. If we don’t do this, we are adding to the other side of the scale – contributing to a view of others as self-centered, ignorant, or foolish and certainly unlike the Maker of all, divine Love.

Jesus indicated the need to be aware of where our thoughts are resting when he said, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37). While “watching” may include an alertness to danger, the always greater need is to be faithfully awake to good – to be so conscious of the divine reality that we discern the unreality, the nothingness, of anything unlike God, the one Mind, and His image, and recognize each one of us as Mind’s idea.

Could this be any more relevant today with the relentless pull toward fear, divisiveness, and doom that pervades the mental environment? We are charged and empowered not to contribute to this downward spiral, but to be delivered from it – and to help deliver others. This involves active prayer that is open to the Christ in consciousness and allows the power of God, divine Love, to be uppermost and so guide our thought rightly.

I once witnessed a speaker who was met with a wave of racism and criticism utterly dispel that cloud of hatred through prayer and love. She didn’t meet the opposition with human tactics for winning people over. Nor was she defensive, offended, or fearful. She chose instead to put all her weight on the side of divine Love, and the effect of this pure love and spiritual truth-knowing was to completely shift the atmosphere and make it a healing one for all.

“Your influence for good,” explains Science and Health, “depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable” (p. 192). This is a moment-by-moment demand on each of us; no one is exempt. And it is through our prayers, and our love and understanding of God, that we can contribute to a world where others feel not simply a personal impact, pro or con, but the healing touch of Christ – the true influence for good always at hand.

Adapted from an editorial published in the July 8, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.