Unity's power
It's a small thing really, and yet such a monumental thing, when people spontaneously, without any verbal communication or other outward signals, act in absolute accord.
It recently happened to me in a very simple way. I was singing around a campfire with a group of about a dozen people. None of us knew one another very well. We came from all parts of the country. We were together for just a few days in this setting on a lake. We'd been singing for several hours that night, and the fire was down to embers.
It was time for bed, but we kept holding on to the beauty and serenity of the moment - just one more song. Then finally we agreed that this one would indeed be the last song; yet when we finished singing the words, someone quietly called, "Now let's hum it through," which we did. Then something glorious occurred.
Without any words of direction, we all knew instinctively to break back into the words of the chorus. It was perfect - tight harmonies, pure inspiration, utter oneness of thought. No chorus on earth could have been more in unison.
I've had other significant moments of this powerful unity. One came some years ago when I was serving as president of a board for a nonprofit organization. We had a crucial decision to make about the future steps of this organization, but there was no consensus among the board members about our direction. There was a lot at stake for potentially thousands of people, so our decision needed to be right.
Accordingly, we decided after a fruitless discussion to adjourn our meeting and reconvene in two weeks, not to discuss, but only to vote. All of us agreed to pray in the interim.
I remember that my prayers were based on the oneness and allness of God. I resisted rehashing pros and cons of the many sides of the issue and instead trusted the one Mind, God.
Two days before the meeting, though I'd not been thinking about this matter, I felt certain that the vote would be unanimous. The reason for this vote was also clear to me. And, sure enough, at the meeting, without a word spoken, the vote was cast and was unanimous. We were amazed at this unity, and as the members shared their reasoning, it was exactly what I'd felt would be the reasoning behind the vote. It was a powerful moment for us all.
Though I've had other similar moments, Christ Jesus lived his whole life with such powerful unity of thought. He declared to the people of his time, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Then the Apostle Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).
To me, those two passages say: "Let the oneness of Mind that embraced Christ Jesus be what you embrace, too. Let your thinking be in accord with the one divine Mind."
By letting the divine Mind be his viewpoint, Jesus could see things the way God sees them. He let the divine Mind be his lens of perception.
It allowed him to raise the dead, walk on the water, calm storms, and heal every manner of disease and deformity. And it wasn't just some special power that Jesus had. The second chapter of Acts records how Jesus' apostles were "with one accord in one place" when they were suddenly filled with such oneness of thought that they found themselves speaking in tongues, and the people who were listening were able to understand in their own languages.
Mary Baker Eddy saw our capacity to reflect this divine power, and she explained this quality of Christly consciousness in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science" (pages 469-470).
I see so much potential for governments, communities, families, and all humanity to be of one Mind and to experience the healing and redeeming power of such unity. It takes practice - moments of "letting this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus." It takes the willingness to surrender willful, fearful, proud, or discouraged thinking. But each of us is capable of being willing. And the effect of such oneness of Mind can transform the world.
