The importance of yielding
A willingness to give up pride and willfulness and to instead lean on God, Spirit, empowers us to more freely feel and experience God’s goodness and love.
I felt as if my world were caving in on me. My husband and I had been married for only a few months when the couple from whom we were renting a house decided to break our lease to give the house to their son. We were to be out within a month. There were no comparable rental houses nearby. We were scrambling to see if we could purchase a house, but it didn’t look promising.
I was surprised and hurt when my parents said they weren’t interested in helping us, though they had recently helped another family member with a larger transaction. In addition, I had developed an aggressive cough that was keeping me from work and keeping my husband awake at night. Thus, I was sleeping on the sofa.
I wholeheartedly reached out to God, divine Love, to help me. The thought that came, distinctly, was “God is your Mother.” I found myself wrestling with this spiritual concept deep into the night. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, presented the concept of God as a loving Mother as well as Father. She wrote, “Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 332).
Finally that night, I yielded – completely yielded – to the spiritual fact that God, omnipresent Love, is my Mother (and Father) and the source of my being. I am forever enfolded in Her impartial care and supplied by Her endless wealth of resources. She loves me and delights in supplying my every need, as She does with all Her children.
What happened next was remarkable. The cough and all its agitation immediately stopped. I felt a warm, calm peace. Within three days, our real estate agent found us a cozy home and an independent loan. The relationship with my parents was gently restored.
When I turned my thought over to God as Mother, I saw myself as infinite, without limit, approved of by Her and embraced in Her goodness and power. My limited concept of reality gave way to a spiritual perspective that changed my experience.
Spiritual facts can seem radical. They often stir us because they can be contrary to traditions and education. Science and Health states, “The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (p. 162).
We might say, “I really want to yield to the allness of God, Spirit, and the nothingness of evil. I want to yield to the facts of my spiritual selfhood that this divine Science presents – but how?”
A metaphor for yielding that might be helpful is to ask yourself, “What am I willing to leave at the altar?” I once observed a ceremony at a Hindu temple in Bali and found it humbling to see families who had walked miles, sometimes down rugged paths, joyously singing as they brought tenderly grown fruits and loved treasures to place at the altar.
Christian Science does not require ritual of any kind, but it does require prayerful efforts to come to a spiritual altar. We can search our heart and ask ourselves what false, limiting beliefs and assumptions we are truly willing to give up. We may need to leave at the altar a material sense of ourselves. We may need to leave pride or personal will as we yield to divine Love’s good will for us. We may need to leave at the altar resentments or fears as we yield to God and accept the infinite, divine Mind as the only Mind.
The effects of yielding should never be underestimated. They are worth the mental wrestling.
Though yielding to God ultimately opens the way for healing, the even more gratifying reward is the inner security and joy we are sure to feel from gaining clearer insights into our true, spiritual identity as Love’s cherished expression. This yielding engenders a spiritual transformation that results in a more loving attitude toward others, a more healing approach to challenges, or even a more refined demeanor.
The aftereffects of yielding include comfort and the impulsion to get off our mental sofas, based on the sweet assurance, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Adapted from an article published in the June 20, 2022, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.