Let Love shape your view
Letting God inform our perspective of ourselves and others frees us from unhelpful rumination over perceived flaws and opens the door to joy and progress.
How frequently the morning’s bright prospects for our day seem diminished by nightfall. From goals not met to things we wish we’d done differently or didn’t do that we wish we had, so many little failings can leave us feeling discouraged and defeated. Yet, as we gain a right concept of God, we begin to glimpse a new, reliable reality.
The author of First John in the Bible gives a boundless, thought-provoking concept of God as Love (see 4:8). This broadens our perspective of life and ourselves – moving us out of the weariness that comes from being all too aware of our shortcomings.
John the Baptist proclaimed about Jesus, the individual who exemplified the idea of God as Love, “Look, there is the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29, J.B. Phillips, “The New Testament in Modern English”). These “sins” might not be intentional choices to do or think wrongly. Sometimes they are just the cumulative effects of holding on to a conventional view of life as material, which could foster a harshness in us or make us entertain a subtle but routine self-condemnation – a chronic worry that we won’t ever become better.
Jesus showed humanity the Christ, the true idea of God. And if Christ is able to take away the sins of the world, then how natural it is that it would also be able to eliminate the little failings that seem so prevalent in our own daily lives. Turning our thought to God, we gain an understanding of the power of divine, all-pervasive Love. And we begin to think and act from a foundation of compassion and pure affection toward ourselves and others.
Such a commitment lifts our experience above everyday annoyances and irritations, no matter how legitimate they seem, that tend to render us unhappy and unsatisfied. As we begin to discern the truth of God as Love, we feel more dominion and joy in our lives and a grander sense of purpose in our daily activities. We discover the reality of ever-present spiritual good and lose a false sense of life as anything less.
Our idea of God determines our grasp of what is real and true. The fact that God is Love is shown in the life and prolific healing work of Christ Jesus. He not only taught the reality of God but showed how understanding God and trusting in divine Love change thought and experience from discouragement and struggle to joy and freedom. Christian Science shows that our individual selfhood belongs entirely to God – that God, Mind, is the source of all good. Understanding this, we learn to trust in the higher order of things – to accept the reality of universal, God-directed harmony as surely as we recognize the harmony and order of the planets orbiting in the solar system.
This is more than just a comforting thought. As we realize that our selfhood is wholly in and of God, we lose any sense that letting go of limiting patterns of thought or outgrown ways of thinking and living is an arduous or sometimes fruitless human effort. Through Christ, we find that joy is our reality.
The human mind tends to rehearse hardships and failures, as if giving them more thought will somehow help overcome them. But recently, when I found myself enmeshed in rumination about a rough start to the new year, in turning Godward, I was reminded of a moment of true joy. Something lovely and good had occurred, yet been promptly forgotten. And I felt transformed by the reminder. I’d been analyzing many little failings, but this touch of Christ made starkly clear that the things I’d been rehearsing weren’t at all the reality. That moment of joy was the reality – not just for that moment but for always.
As thought turns wholeheartedly to God, we see the spiritual good that is always present. We gain a true idea of the allness of God as Love and stop giving attention to any opposite story. God, as divine Mind, is recognized as the source of all the intelligent and fulfilling activity in the universe. The power of Love rescues us, reminding us of what is real and showing us the unreality of anything less than God’s expansive love and goodness.
Adapted from an editorial published in the Feb. 26, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.