Is This All There Is?

THERE are a lot of us who might really wonder if we have much of anything. Some are forced to live alone, and feel isolated and passed by. Others are trying daily to meet the demands of family members in need. Then, too, there are the single parents and struggling families who are trying to build some quality of life but succeed only in just keeping ahead of the bills. Those who are burdened by such situations may well wonder if privation and care and frustration are all that God intends for them. Christ Jesus' healing works show clearly that the Master never thought it was right for anyone to be sick or to live in lack and sadness. His words to the disciples are full of promise: ``Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.''*

If you are settling for merely getting by in your life, as I was, and postponing your good for somewhere in the future, perhaps it is time to look away from a superficial assessment of things in order to gain a fuller understanding of the Divine Being Jesus calls ``our Father.''

The Master tells us, ``If ye... know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?''**

Rather than think of God as a superhuman being who helps or does not help on the basis of some mysterious plan, we can come to know Him as infinite, omnipresent Mind and everlasting Life. His omnipotence, power, and love fill all space and are always available to help us. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook: ``A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man.''

Settling for a limited view of God and a mortal, despairing view of ourselves is wrong. It's right and natural to yearn for something better. And we can find what is ``better, higher, holier'' in an understanding of our true nature as God's wholly spiritual offspring.

Experiencing more of the fullness of this spiritual birthright requires us to grow spiritually -- to look beyond a simply material view of existence. When we are willing to see something of man's true, sinless being, we are able to treat others more compassionately. And as we daily seek to know more about God, we begin to love Him and to be obedient to His will. Following the precepts of the Master is essential, and our lives take on new meaning only as in humility we allow God's healing Christ to transform our experience.

When we ``lift up [our] eyes'' to behold spiritual reality -- God's ever-present, imperishable abundance that sustains and satisfies us all -- I've found that we are blessed right here in practical, healing ways. We begin to see the fields that are ``white already to harvest,'' just as Jesus promised.

*John 4:35. **Luke 11:13. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 258.

You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine.