Article April 9, 1927 Issue

Knowing versus Wishing

MILDRED L. HANNAFORD

Although the Bible says, "Son, ... all that I have is thine," how often we hear the expression, "Oh, how I wish I had," applied to time, money, home, friends, health, or harmony! How hard it seems to be for mankind to look beyond the evidence of the material senses and see God's bountiful provision for man! Christ Jesus, the great Metaphysician, perceived the truth of man so clearly that he was never daunted by a seeming difficulty confronting him. What humanity has regarded as miracles were but the natural result of his ability to see through material sense testimony, whether the suggestions were of sin, sickness, death, lack, or limitation. On beholding the multitude on the shore of Galilee he asked Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" And John tells us that he said this to prove Philip, "for he himself knew what he would do." Jesus refused to believe the suggestion of limitation, to such an extent that although there were but five loaves and two fishes he fed five thousand people, and twelve baskets of the fragments remained.

At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus wasted no time in useless repining; nor did he say, "Oh, how I wish I had been here before!" He refused to regard sense-testimony as final, but lifted his thought in gratitude to the infinite, ever present divine Principle, saying: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always." His understanding of Life itself enabled him to repudiate the belief in death, and Lazarus was restored. Even as in feeding the five thousand, he knew in advance just what his demonstration was to be, and no element of doubt entered that his expectation would be fully realized. What a marvelous understanding he had; and yet, to what a limited extent do we obey him and "go, and do ... likewise"!

Not infrequently we hear the words, "Oh, I wish I had time," applied to things we know we should do, such as studying the Lesson-Sermon each day, engaging in church activities, reading the Monitor, and even to little human courtesies and attentions. But do we not find time to do what we want to do, thus gratifying human will? If we could but learn to say, "Not my will, but thine, be done," the desire to do the right thing would unfold the necessary time, delivering us from the belief of procrastination, and relieving us of a hurried, worried sense. Our Leader's definition of "time," in the Glossary of our textbook, is a wonderful help in overcoming the belief of limitation in this direction; and we never suffer deprivation by doing the right things, but are blessed. The slothful habit of leaving things to be done at the last minute, of wasting moments in idle thoughts, conjecture, speculation, or gossip, is not the result of the understanding of infinity, but a means by which mortal mind inveigles us into its false claim of inaction. Precision, order, and purpose precede achievement, and show the utter fallacy of wishing for time when eternity is ours.

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