Remembering our notes – without the notebook!

If we’ve forgotten something important or feel afraid that we don’t know what to do, we can turn to God as divine Mind for clarity that illumines the way forward.

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
Loading the player...

Several years ago, I had just returned from a European business trip that had involved a few meetings with partners from multiple countries. The meetings were in regard to a large project, and at the last meeting I had discussed with a number of these colleagues some detailed items and actions required. I’d taken extensive notes and had agreed to email and confirm all the details upon my return home. I’m usually meticulous in keeping all my papers together, so I was horrified when I returned to find that I couldn’t locate my notes anywhere.

Relying on human memory to call up information just wasn’t working. But I’ve come to deeply appreciate what I’ve learned in Christian Science about an entirely different concept of mind. In the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy explains that, in fact, God is Mind – the all-knowing, ever-present intelligence. This Mind doesn’t need to “remember,” as it is infinite and forever includes every good and right idea. It is always at the point of perfect knowing.

What does this have to do with us? Science and Health explains that man (a term that includes each of us) is the “full and perfect expression” of Mind (p. 591). So as we acknowledge this, we all can expect to express this clarity of intelligence and knowing and to see this evidenced in our daily experience.

I started to really pray – acknowledging that right at that moment, divine Mind knew everything there was to know about its divine creation, and affirming that I could expect this fact to provide a tangible answer for me.

As I prayed, I felt a strong impulse to sit down and email my colleagues with all the details as promised. I sat down and started to type an email to my colleagues outlining what I thought we had agreed upon. As I kept typing, new points came to mind. When I reviewed the finished email before sending, I realized that everything we had discussed was now correctly recorded. And colleagues later confirmed that this was their understanding, too.

It was awe-inspiring to recognize that although I never did find my notes, I had indeed “found” the ideas I needed to communicate. The papers proved to be unnecessary in this case; I’d seen that I can trust divine Mind to reveal just what is needed.

By acknowledging divine Mind’s harmony and allness and letting its divine light into our consciousness, we naturally let go of foggy thinking or the fear that we don’t know what to think or do. We realize that we’re governed by God, divine Mind, not by a brain. It’s as though a light has been turned on in our thoughts that illumines the way forward.

There have been examples of this for millennia. Throughout the Bible – from the Hebrew Scriptures to the New Testament – countless individuals, including Christ Jesus and his faithful followers, acknowledged and experienced the great wisdom and knowledge of God. For example, the book of Daniel puts it this way: “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power” (2:20, New Living Translation). And the Apostle Paul marveled, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33, King James Version).

Now, that’s not to say that God knows everyday human details, such as what a specific phone number is, or even that we have phone numbers! But He does know us each moment as His complete, flawless expression. And when we turn to God and accept this spiritual fact, we find we have the clarity and receptivity to know what we need to know in our day-to-day lives.

I have quite some way to go before I can fully demonstrate the promise of acknowledging and mentally yielding to God as the only Mind. But the realization, even in a modest way, that the oneness of Mind and its fully known idea – which we each spiritually are – can never be unraveled, has often enabled me to find a clear way forward in both my personal life and my work.

It’s so freeing to know that rather than having to mentally dredge up information, we can consistently and calmly turn to God to know clearly whatever we need to know.

Adapted from an article published in the April 22, 2019, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.

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 Remembering our notes – without the notebook!
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2019/0925/Remembering-our-notes-without-the-notebook
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe