Profound Change Needed
THE need for a profound change in society was reinforced for me when I heard on the radio that mankind has a long history of trying chemically to alter consciousness. As someone who used marijuana some years ago as part of a search for happiness and peace, I feel a special concern that those who are now struggling with drug dependency find true freedom. I didn't know at the time what I really needed. I just wanted to feel that there was some significance to my life. What I found was an understanding of life that made sense. It included goodness and hope, and especially a feeling of being loved. And I realized that drugs were not a solution but had been part of the problem.
What I found was Christian Science. And it changed my life by showing me possibilities that I never before thought could really be. Don't we all want life to have real meaning? Maybe we have limited ourselves by teaching and accepting only a material explanation of what's going on. Maybe the message of the Bible and Christ Jesus' life are absolutely essential to our survival here and now.
Christ Jesus' example showed, without a doubt, that there is more to life than what meets the eye. What he did can't be explained without going beyond the ordinary sense of things. His healing work showed what it means to understand that life really is spiritual. And he said, according to the book of John in the Bible, ``He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.'' That can be rather a startling thought -- that we have access to the same power Jesus did; that we can help ourselves and others through prayer, through understanding that our lives are one with the absolute goodness and power that is God.
The physical senses can't take in the truth about reality. It's natural to want to discover our genuine being. But using drugs short-circuits this process of self-discovery because drugs only lead one deeper into materialism, which is the very root of our problems. Drugs can never lead to true spiritual discovery.
What we need to find is that our true being is spiritual, unlimited, free. If there is a God, a supreme power -- and there is -- then He isn't going to leave us in the dark about our relationship to Him. The Bible tells us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. We need to understand better what this means. I almost hesitate to use the word He (or She) in talking about God because that can bring up connotations of God's being a big person in the sky somewhere that somehow controls things but sometimes lets bad things happen. God isn't like this at all. Understanding that God is real power and purely spiritual brings goodness and power to our lives. It is natural that as we find out more about God, good, we learn to trust Him in our own lives.
Part of this enlivening, vitalizing process is to unlearn some of the ingrained ideas we've acquired that actually contradict the laws of God and to learn what is governing our lives. Spiritual reality is waiting to be discovered by each one of us!
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in the Preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, ``In the spirit of Christ's charity, -- as one who `hopeth all things, endureth all things,' and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, -- she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.''
It is natural, actually essential, to change consciousness from the material to the spiritual. Although it's not necessarily an easy task, it is one we all can do with God's help.
