Mary Baker Eddy tells us, “Every step of progress is a step more spiritual.” * That’s instructive. Progress that really moves our lives forward will always include some experiences that alert us to clean up our thoughts and acts; become more pure, more kind, compassionate, christly; forgive, make amends, apologize, so gaining the mental and spiritual freedom for is to move onward and upward in our lives.
Mrs. Eddy’s statement correlates with instruction from the Bible which, although not easy, is a worthy goal for progress and for gaining those steps more spiritual, which give us lives more in tune with complete harmony, health, abundant good.
Bible guidance is very specific. “….fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” II Corinthians 10:6 The Message Bible
One grateful experience comes to mind as I recalled a “hot button” moment, where I had an emotionally charged response to an individual at a church where we belonged. Looking back now it seems so silly, but at the time a meeting got out of kind control and a bit of strong willfulness took charge of several of us. I felt an anger well up in m that I didn’t recognize as me. I reacted way too vehemently, and some of us left the meeting. Absolutely immediately I was, to say the least, chagrinned. Embarrassed, yes, but that wasn’t at all the point. It simply wasn’t me. Or how I should have responded. But now what to do.
Was I right in reacting? Technically yes. The others had been incorrect. But I knew I was more than incorrect, I was ashamed.
Now what? As the meeting dispersed, I made the difficult decision to immediately track down those to whom I had reacted and apologize. Nothing was worth the possible animosity that might follow the event. But again, most importantly, nothing could hang out in front of me to cause me to act or react in such an unchristian, unkind manner.
More clear strong guidance from our Leader: “None but the pure in heart shall see God, shall be able to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle of Christian Science.” **
I knew the deep desire in my day was to grow spiritually, to feel God’s presence and to keep my thought as uncorrupted as I could from opinions, judgments, self- righteousness. I wanted less personal “me” present and more individual good expressed.
I wanted to feel what Jesus had felt: “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.” John. 5:30. I knew that as Jesus had his life purpose, we have ours as well, and I wanrrted to let Love remove the stones of personal stuff that would get in the way. Where divine Love was, there wasn’t any place for reacting like that.
This was a milestone for me, because I realized I had some humble praying to do to be all that God, divine Mind, knew me to be, to recognize that the grace and power of divine Mind, divine Love, was and always is, governing its ideas, and to know myself as one with that Mind.
Recognizing that individual man is spiritual, the very expression of God, good, protects us from believing we can slip and slide around in mortality and get lost there. We will never be less than the man God knows. And our love for God, good, provides us with all we are, to be all we need to be.
*People’s Idea of God, p 2 **Miscellaneous Writings, p. 184