Share your happiness
''Have a happy day!'' we often say to each other. We might also say, ''Give a happy day,'' because sharing happiness, even if it's only through a smile, is one of the best ways to bring the healing love of God into action in our lives.
''Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love,'' writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. She goes on to tell us, ''It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.'' n1
n1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Pg. 57.
Sharing happiness is not an onerous task. It is a natural expression of the joy inherent in each one of us as God's child, as the very expression of His being.
Christian Science turns us to the spiritual facts of God and man. It shows us that our true nature is spiritual, Godlike, and forever satisfied, because, as the Bible explains, man is made in the likeness of God.
We are, in truth, unlimited in our capacities, because the Divine Being, God, is unlimited and is the source of our individual being. We reflect God without measure. And this includes the joy of the divine nature.
''We can . . . /Share Thy joy and spend it freely,'' n2 a hymn tells us. A woman I knew demonstrated the healing effectiveness of this instruction. As a widow with two small sons, she was finding the task of maintaining her home an impossibility. With no food in the house and no money to spend on food, she opened her thought to God in prayer. The answer to her prayer came in the recollection of those words, which she had heard sung in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist.
n2 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 58.
Immediately she let her natural sense of joy permeate her consciousness and encompass all within the range of her thinking. The first tangible result was a knock on the door and a neighbor entering with some nourishing food she had made. Other sources of provision, giving evidence of the divine source, opened up, and the family's needs were progressively met. The simple thought, ''Share Thy joy and spend it freely,'' taken into consciousness and allowed to come alive in active demonstration, was sufficient to break the grip of lack.
The commonly accepted view is that joy is the result of gaining something better health or increased supply, for example. This view would have us focus on attaining a material goal with the expectancy that joy and happiness will follow. But experience shows that material improvement is no guarantee of spiritual or mental improvement.
On the other hand-and this is what Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated-an improved mental state, a purer, more spiritual state of consciousness, is expressed, quite naturally, in improved outward conditions.
In his Sermon on the Mount, after speaking about basic human needs, Jesus made the point plainly in these words: ''Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'' n3
n3 Matthew 6:33.
Christian Science, which follows the teachings of the Master, explains that the kingdom of God is not a physical place to be found here or in the future, but is a pure, loving, spiritual state of consciousness. As we grow into this Godlike state of thought, we find permanent spiritual joy and freedom. And this is naturally reflected in improved health, better relationships, and so forth.
To hold in consciousness the continuing sense of spiritual goodness, health, and holiness-true happiness-is our ideal. This requires ongoing conformity to the demands of moral law and to the Master's Christly teachings. We must worship just one God in every aspect of our lives. But to do this and to be happy is normal. As we realize our spiritual unity with God, the one divine, universal Love, we naturally feel the peace of the divine nature. We then bring happiness and healing to mankind. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalms 16:11