Good has no ending
If you've watched a special project you've nurtured get rejected, or a cherished phase of your life fade out, you might think all the good it held went with it. But the Bible says, referring to Christ Jesus, ''Of his kingdom there shall be no end.''n1 The heavenly kingdom Jesus revealed is eternal, because God is its source. And since God is good, as the Bible clearly shows, we have authority to say, ''Of God's goodness there shall be no end.'' Of His joy and love there shall be no end. The good that springs from God (and there is no other kind) appears in different ways, comes in a variety of packages. But regardless of its current form, good itself is of God and so has no ending. This is spiritual fact, and as such is a concrete, provable reality. We see this in proportion to our understanding and living of the fact.
n1 Luke 1:33.
In this connection, our viewpoint is significant. If we view a rainbow from ground level, we find it beautiful, but it has a beginning and an ending. If we view it from a higher vantage point, a jet at 30,000 feet, the rainbow comes full circle. It has no ending. If we view good from the ground level of materiality we'll see it apparently mixed with evil - one of the chief evils being that all things good come to an end eventually. If we move to a higher, spiritual vantage point, we'll see the lasting, all-pervading nature of good. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ''Divest your thought, then, of the mortal and material view which contradicts the ever-presence and all-power of good; take in only the immortal facts which include these, and where will you see or feel evil, or find its existence necessary either to the origin or ultimate of good?''n2 The more we discern of the ever-presence of good, the less we'll be threatened by the thought of some cherished program or friendship ending.
n2 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 14.
My wife and I took part in a community project. It aimed to reduce crime, eliminate pornography in the area, improve the neighborhood. The results were good. A massage parlor was closed down, and a shop opened in its place. People spoke of feeling safer on the streets. But then, inexplicably, the project was terminated. We felt the good it was doing would now be lost.
Shortly after, my wife received a letter from a friend who had also been involved in the project. This friend wrote that at first she was deeply resentful toward those who had condemned the project but had never taken part in it or attended any of the meetings. She couldn't understand how they could put a halt to something that was doing so much good. But then she said she asked God to remove these feelings. As a result of her prayer she was healed of the resentment. Further, she realized she could continue to make a positive contribution by expressing love - divinely impelled love - toward the community and the world. And she saw that nothing had been truly taken away, but much had been given.
When my wife shared this letter with me, I realized that I too had been harboring bitterness toward those who had stopped the project. These negative traits were really weighty baggage with which I'd grounded my own thinking - and that's where the obstacle to good existed. Dumping these heavy negatives and replacing them with the lighter, brighter, God-bestowed qualities of forgiveness and love and joy has had the same effect as dropping extra ballast from a balloon. In proportion as I've done this, I've been able to see new paths for reaching the same neighborhood goals. I've witnessed, to a degree, the ongoing nature of good.
God is always being and doing good. Nothing of His has been or can be taken away. The obstacle to seeing this may be a private one, what we call grief or anger. Or it may be a more universal one, the common but false notion that evil and good mix and that good is finite. Either way, we can rout it and gain the winning view. Perhaps these words from a hymn say it best: ''For all of good the past hath had/Remains to make our own time glad.'' 3 The more we gain in spiritual altitude, the more we'll see this, not merely as poetry, but as plain, undeniable fact.
n3 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 238.
DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord shall give that which is good. Psalms 85:12
