Surrendering to divine justice
When wrong has been done, a genuine desire to love God and love our neighbor is a powerful starting point for healing and solutions.
The news these days is spotlighting a number of high-profile lawsuits. They address lightning-rod issues that call forth feelings or opinions of varying degrees of intensity. Feelings around such issues can be seen as trail markers that invite us to climb higher spiritually.
Perhaps everything that happens in human life is an invitation, dressed up in the work clothes of a challenge, to awaken thought more fully to what is eternally true and real. Such awakening is like being “born again,” in the words of Jesus (John 3:3).
As I’ve prayed about divine justice, I’ve found it helpful to begin with a few things pointed out in an article by Mary Baker Eddy titled “The New Birth” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 15). It highlights the two great commandments identified by Jesus: to wholeheartedly love God and to love our neighbor as ourself. The article calls them “the prominent laws which forward birth in the divine order of Science” (p. 18).
When I pray, I begin by centering myself with love for God from the depths of my being. When Mother-Father God’s love for all Her creation feels more present, we naturally turn toward the light that is Love and become more aware of that which is loving and lovable. We are now traveling the higher trail. We begin to lean more fully into the understanding of the wholeness and loveliness of God and God’s compound idea, man.
In her seminal work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy offers this guidance for all: “Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s own way, and let human justice pattern the divine” (p. 542).
I’ve found these guiding ideas useful, as they have inspired me to trust human outcomes to divine justice and to pray to stay connected to an abiding sense of God as present and the only Life and power in operation.
Some years ago I was beginning a new real estate business. A client hired me, and I spent six months organizing, searching, and locating property for him. Several months later, my client went around me and purchased the property directly from the seller without compensating me for my extensive work.
Colleagues suggested seeking counsel from an attorney specializing in real estate matters. The lawyer told me that my case was so strong that he would charge me nothing up front and only a percentage of any settlement awarded to me by a judge. He believed what had been done to me was a clear violation of real estate contract laws and ethics.
It was tempting to go with this lawyer’s confident recommendation, as what had been done to me felt wrong, and I needed the money. However, I hit the pause button.
Instead of focusing on an outcome that seemed on the surface humanly fair, I just kept going deeper into my love for God and desire to be obedient to the highest justice there could be. In this way I became less and less attached to a specific outcome and trusted divine justice, which would include care for all in a way that served each individual’s higher purpose.
As we pray to know the best course to take, we may feel guided to pursue legal action. In my case, though, it seemed that I was being gently guided toward not taking the case to trial.
A year later, completely at peace about it all, I happened to see the client who hadn’t compensated me. I greeted him, feeling genuine kindness in my heart. Not long after this, through an extraordinary turn of events, a different client emerged, and in a very short time my work for him brought substantial payment. This payment was double what I could have normally expected and the second half was the exact amount the previous client would have paid me.
By investing in deep longing to learn more about unconditional love that is godly, which is the Christ light, I felt like a changed person. My capacity to feel God’s love and see more of God’s – divine Spirit’s – beautiful expression had expanded significantly.
This Christ light is what we can bring to headline news of lawsuits and court cases. We can lean into the two great laws that bring forward new birth in us and trust the welfare of all to the hands of divine justice.
It can take courage to do so. But the peace, holiness, and sacredness we feel from loving God with all we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves brings joyful surrender and a trust that divine Love “has got this.”
Adapted from an article published on sentinel.christianscience.com, Aug. 10, 2023.