Article July 9, 2012 Issue

Showers of goodness

Channing Walker

Come mid-July , summer downpours dwindle to almost nothing at all in our sparsely populated mountain community. But when they do break loose overhead, when they drench us—as one did not long before this went to press—the risk of a forest fire becomes wonderfully less. Perhaps that symbolizes the good now. Of course, some portion of the downpour gradually works its way into underground aquifers. Another portion may even seep its way to the far end of the valley, and, given enough rainy days, replenish the lake there. Perhaps that symbolizes the good ahead. 

Think of good as the outcome of a thousand different material factors—good investments, good connections, good luck—and your life may seem pretty good. Or not. Limited resources, burned through today, may leave little fuel to expend tomorrow. Hoarding for tomorrow might erode the promise of today. But see goodness as flooding out from an inexhaustible spiritual source, and the good in your life multiplies. The true goodness of now doesn’t appear at the expense of the true goodness ahead. And the true goodness ahead never really steals away the goodness of now. The one forwards the other. Neither time nor space is a barrier to good and its impact. They don’t distance good from you, don’t wall you off from the goodness of God that is at hand to bless you, renew you, and maintain you. This goodness is the inevitable effect of an inevitably good God. 

Another point in the full nature of good: Good isn’t just effect. Good is also cause, the one and only divine cause, the one infinite power, the one supreme presence, the sole source of action. God is good. Good is God. That’s right. When a person turns in prayer to the good that is God, the good that is cause, troubles begin to sort out, and to recede. Good effects, whether in a person’s finances, relationships, or health, grow more apparent. Healing begins. In the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the Science of the Christ, gives metaphysical definitions to Bible-based terms. She defined good as: “God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; omnipresence; omni-action” (p. 587).