'To this end was I born'

A Christian Science perspective: No matter how difficult our lot in life may be, God's guiding hand is always accessible.

Many of us wonder, “Why am I here? What does God want from me?”

Jesus provides an answer. When he stood before Pontius Pilate prior to his crucifixion, the Roman ruler asked him, “Art thou a king then?” The Master replied, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (John 18:37).

Some of us squint at the world through jaded eyes. Perhaps our childhood was stunted by poverty or the loss of a parent. Maybe we feel we aren’t smart enough or attractive, or that we had less than other kids. Some even shout their blues to the world with a tattoo, “Born to Lose.”

But however hateful our lot in life seems to be, the Bible assures us worldly woe is not the truth of our being. “The Lord is good to all,” says a psalm (145:9).

The good news of the Gospel is what Jesus told Pilate. We are here to bear witness to the truth. God’s truth. That means we share the Master’s momentous mission to witness God’s perfect rule. Each of us is a unique expression of God, showing Him forth as rays of light show the sun. We are His most cherished creation. Without us, God would reign alone, unexpressed and unknown in His own kingdom.

As His beloved spiritual ideas, made in His image and likeness (see Genesis 1:26-27), we are His very self-expression. This identity, or eternal unfoldment of good, is the only true reality. In a sense, we make God complete. The Bible says, “[Y]e are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God” (Isaiah 43:12).

These ideas freed me from the grip I felt from my own beginnings. Things didn’t look so bright when I was born in the worst year of the Great Depression. My grandfather, a jobless tool and die maker, sold apples near his shuttered factory in Newark, N.J. His son (my father), an engineer, passed on at age 25.

After Dad passed, my maternal grandmother moved in with us to care for my baby sister and me while Mom went to work and later remarried. I attended eight schools as a boy, went broke in college, and enlisted in the Air Force with $2 in my pocket. Without a college degree, my dream of becoming a jet pilot was over. To this end was I born?

I’m grateful the answer was no! The Bible showed me how fear and anger melt in the sunlight of truth as we witness the Christ. I’ve come to know the Christ as “the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 332). I’ve learned that mortal life is not the truth of being. We are not made in the image and likeness of a suffering God. That realization lit the way for me amid the earthly gloom trying to hide the divine good already present.

I found reassurance in this statement from Isaiah: “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee” (41:13).

As I moved forward in my study of Christian Science, a new world of life, joy, and freedom opened to me. My college English major, although cut short after two years, got me a reporter’s job on an Air Force newspaper, hatching a half-century career in journalism that had me chasing stories from Bikini Atoll to the frozen vastness of Alaska, and across the fruited plains of Iowa and Nebraska.

At every crossroad, divine Love was there to help me choose the right path. While in the Air Force, I met my future wife, and Judi and I have been married 54 years.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, says, “Divine Love alone governs man” (“Church Manual,” p. 40). And these words of hers helped chart my path in life: “As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 165).

To this glorious end were you and I born.

To receive Christian Science perspectives daily or weekly in your inbox, sign up today.

 To learn more about Christian Science, visit ChristianScience.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'To this end was I born'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2012/0516/To-this-end-was-I-born
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe