No curse there

Recognizing that God has created us to bless, not harm, uplifts our thoughts and actions toward others, which in turn benefits our interactions and relationships.

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
Loading the player...

Sometimes when something comes at us out of the blue, it can be hard to know how to respond. That happened to me recently with a surprising, harsh comment from a friend. I didn’t respond verbally, but I was surprised at my inner reaction, which wasn’t very kind or forgiving.

Later, I began to think about it. Though I’d been silent, my inner response didn’t follow the golden rule Christ Jesus emphasized to his followers, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This bothered me, because I try to live by that rule. I also knew that thoughts – not just words – about other people and situations are important.

So I prayed about this, and a Bible story came to mind – that of a prophet named Balaam. A king named Balak came to ask Balaam to curse the children of Israel so that he could defeat them. But God said to Balaam, in effect, “I’ve already blessed them, and you cannot curse them.”

Balaam and Balak went round about this question, as Balak was insistent. But obedience to God won the day and protected the children of Israel. There was no curse there.

I realized this was an opportunity to make more real in my own life the understanding that we are all blessed by God. And because God, who is Spirit, created all – including my friend and me – in His image and likeness, we are God’s spiritual creation. We show forth God’s nature, and thus can only bless, never curse, what God has already blessed.

Recognizing these spiritual facts uplifted the way I’d been thinking about my friend and myself. This resulted in a complete turnaround in the situation with my friend. And even more than that, I was so grateful to know that this lesson I’d been shown can be applied in other situations, too, to help and heal.

We are created to bless!

Adapted from the Aug. 25, 2022, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.

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 No curse there
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/A-Christian-Science-Perspective/2022/0923/No-curse-there
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe