Cleaning up our ‘issues’ through Christ

Drawing on her experience as a teacher in an educational program for migrants, today’s contributor shares how self-righteousness, pride, and other elements that would keep us from helping to better the world can be healed.

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
Loading the player...

Ann Atwater, an African American grassroots activist and subject of the movie “The Best of Enemies,” found herself in 1971 as the co-chair of a 10-day series of meetings in Durham, North Carolina, with the goal of reducing school violence and ensuring peaceful school desegregation. Her partner in doing this would be none other than the local president of the Ku Klux Klan, C.P. Ellis.

As you might expect, at first both Atwater and Ellis were pitted against each other, each openly expressing their contempt and hatred for the other’s race. But as they realized what they each had in common – mainly a deep desire for a school system that was safe and peaceful for children – they learned how to put their differences aside and work together. The unlikely duo became lasting friends, bringing the beginnings of reconciliation to their community while at the same time experiencing a softening of their own hearts.

In an interview, Ann, a devout Christian, referred to the healing of the woman with “an issue of blood” in the Bible: “The lady with the issue of blood, she said if she could just touch but the hem of [Jesus’] garment, she believed she would be made whole, and she was made whole. And so many of us have different issues, and if we could just clean up our issues, then we’d be better off” (“Meet the Real Ann Atwater from ‘The Best of Enemies,’” youtube.com/watch?v=emR_N7yLVbU).

What are the issues humanity faces today? Hatred, pride, division, immorality, selfishness, etc., to name a few. How do we clean them up? For the woman with an issue of blood who had been ill for 12 years and whose life seemed hopeless, the healing of her condition was gained by seeking out Jesus. Her deep desire to be healed impelled her to push through the crowds surrounding Jesus and touch his garment. The Bible says that “immediately her issue of blood stanched.” Her thought had been touched by the Christ, and she became a new person, completely healed (see Luke 8:43–48).

While our issues might not be as debilitating as the woman’s in the Bible and while we might not find ourselves in as dramatic a situation as Ann Atwater’s, none of us are without a need to push through the “crowds” of resistance that would keep us out of reach of the Christ and from being an influence for good in the world. We find Christ as we love our neighbor more, express more compassion and understanding, and assimilate more of the Christliness that is so needed in order for healing to take place in the world. “He that touches the hem of Christ’s robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, – in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love” writes the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 569).

Many years ago I was teaching high school English to migrant students in a rural part of Oregon. The program was growing at an outstanding pace, but a new principal became increasingly afraid of potential gang activity. He implemented regulations to exclude from the program those students who did not live with their legal parents. Some of my students who lived in the stable homes of aunts and uncles while their parents migrated were asked to leave school. I tried reasoning with the principal, but he refused to budge. I had to struggle with my own issue of self-righteousness as I viewed this man as racist and narrow-minded.

One day, alone in my classroom, I turned to God with my whole heart for an answer. I needed to feel the power of Christ breaking through my resistance to loving this man who seemed so unlovable. As I reached out humbly, I felt the presence of peace. My “issue” of pride washed away. I knew this man was a child of God – fearless, honest, good, and sincere. I also knew that the Christ-influence opens our eyes to divine possibilities of good that can meet all needs.

I felt led to open the drawer of my desk, and there I saw the business card of someone who worked with migrant students. I never noticed the card before and called the person to ask some questions. This person ended up reaching out to the principal. The next day when I went into work, I was told that the regulations were reversed, as the principal was offered effective alternative ways to curb gang activity and happily implemented those instead. There weren’t any bad feelings. Later, when a dispute came up with one of my students about grades, the principal backed me up 100 percent.

No one is excluded from discovering Christ and entering into his or her own spiritual ministry for good. Fear, indifference, anger, impatience, stubborn narrow-mindedness, intolerance, opinionated beliefs – all of these issues melt as we seek and embrace the tender presence of Christ.

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 Cleaning up our ‘issues’ through Christ
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2019/0605/Cleaning-up-our-issues-through-Christ
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe