Something More

SOMETIMES our lives can be so full they're spiritually empty. We're on the go, but the question is, Where are we going? Many claims on our time are certainly legitimate and desirable. Jobs are often highly demanding. Families need care. But when the momentum never stops, and the drive to pursue material wants and activities takes most of our thought and time, the spiritual dimension -- our relationship to God -- gets crowded out of our lives.

Actually, this relationship is the thing that gives real meaning to life. Christian Science teaches that God and man are not alienated but inseparable. This great fact directs thought to our higher, spiritual selfhood. It lifts us above the depressing view that man is basically a machine slated to wear out and die and shows us something better.

Yet how easy it seems to get along without even thinking about this spiritual dimension. The days go by, the routines continue, and we may honestly have no idea there's anything missing.

But there's no mistaking the emptiness we feel when, for example, a tragedy or loss occurs, and we face materialism's void -- the darkness of believing we live in matter, without God. We might feel the best we can do is steel ourselves to accept the loss as ``part of life.'' Yet there's something in the human spirit that sooner or later rebels. We want to know, ``Isn't there something more to life?''

Yes, there is something more than what the material senses perceive. Materialism is eventually seen as going nowhere and can offer us nothing but a deception about life instead of Life itself. The fact is, God is Life. And because there is one God, there is only one Life. In this divine Life there is no end to intelligence and love. There is no disease or abuse or hatred that can cut man off from God, from his Life. Life is good and indestructible because Life is God. And man, in reality, is Life's -- Spirit's -- expression.

It's possible to begin to experience now this ideal sense of life in Spirit -- the ``something more'' of enduring harmony -- through a better understanding of God. But how do we get to know Him? Through His Son, Christ Jesus.

The Bible records what the Master taught and how he lived. Studying the Scriptures, particularly his Sermon on the Mount,1 and striving to think and act as he did, are the ways we get to know our God -- ways that lead to eternal Life. We could say that as we know Christ, so we know God. And the more we know God, the more truly alive we are.

We have through Christ a treasure far greater than anything the world can offer. It is a realization that ``we live, and move, and have our being''2 in God. Learning this doesn't discredit what's worthwhile on the human scene; it enriches everything we do, releases us from preoccupation with the trivial or the worldly, and assures us of the immortality of all that is good. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, observes, ``The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring.''3

So if you're feeling there's something missing in your life, maybe you're missing the knowledge of God that is within your present reach. Jesus showed us the way to God. He showed us the fullness and peace of life in Christ. When we follow him, we do know where we're going -- to the Father, who is our Life.

1See Matthew, chapters 5-7. 2Acts 17:28. 3Miscellaneous Writings, p. 19. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world....The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:15, 17