Divine solutions to life's puzzles

In solving puzzles, it's the starting point that counts most.

from the March 29, 2007 edition

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Mrs. Eddy identified seven prominent synonyms that help us understand God better: "Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (p. 465). If God is divine Life, God protects our life, including health. If God is infinite Love, His presence impels us to express compassion and to find evidences of Love all around us. If God is divine Mind, infinite intelligence, then we, as His spiritual reflection, possess all the intelligence, wisdom, and intuition we need.

When as a college student I first became interested in Christian Science, I would bring various problems to my Sunday School teacher for discussion. Invariably she would ask, "Well, what does God know about this?" She wasn't avoiding talking about a problem. Rather, it was only when I could accept into my own consciousness some aspect of the reality of God, of His attributes – much in the way that Jesus taught – that I found answers.

There's another analogy we can draw from Sudokus or actually any puzzle – you know in advance that there's a solution. It's up to you to work it out. If you didn't expect to solve the puzzle, you would hardly spend time working at it.

So, too, expectancy needs to accompany prayer. Knowing more about God and about how the action of the Christ-message in one's own thought brings healing to whatever is wrong in our affairs, we can expect that acknowledging God will be effective in enriching our lives.

I'm grateful to say that I've found my own prayers answered in the degree that my thinking has been anchored to its starting point – that God is governing each situation, and that what I most want is to see evidence of His power and presence.

Adapted from the Christian Science Sentinel.

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