A good plan represents a demonstration of intelligence. It is specific proof that man is inseparable from God's wisdom and efficiency. Through Christian Science we learn that good planning results from the understanding that God, divine Mind, is one infinite intelligence and that man is the idea through which intelligence is unfailingly expressed; that man exists in a spiritual universe, where each idea is acting at the absolute apex of its spiritual usefulness and capability. In His great universal plan of heaven, His outline of order, God, impartial Love, bestows the ability to express wisdom, resourcefulness, and intelligence equally upon all His children.

John refutes the belief that man is a mortal when he declares in the first chapter of his Gospel that those who receive the Christ have power to prove themselves the sons of God; and he describes those sons as being born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, uses this passage as a text in a Bible Lesson recorded in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 180–185), and she says (p. 182), "The apostle indicates no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite; but the possibility of all finding their place in God's great love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and daughters."

Here one sees that good planning in human affairs does not imply that God knows human problems or that He communicates definite personal directions to mortals. It does show that someone has awakened sufficiently from the dream of being a mortal in need of a human plan to prove his true activity in Mind's economy as its individual expression of intelligence and good judgment. It shows that human will has been subordinated to the divine and that God's will has been demonstrated as the controlling force "in earth, as it is in heaven."

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy defines Mind in part on page 591thus: "Deity, which outlines but is not outlined." God determines the identity, individuality, and purpose of each of His ideas; but no human being can outline God's intention. This must be left to demonstration, and human will must forsake its determination to control personal affairs according to human wishfulness, and yield to God.

To let God's will be done means to let good be accomplished in its fullness and perfection. To let God's will govern one is to lay the foundation of a good plan, since this demonstrates the omnipresence of infinite intelligence. To know His will as the only governing agency of man destroys false impulses of thought that would interpose themselves and suggest ways and means that are less than wise and perhaps tinged with fear and self-interest.

If one who needs to plan some constructive human endeavor should feel overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy, indecision, and limitation of intelligent judgment, he may overcome these negativing elements through Christian Science by affirming his unity with God as actually Mind's perfect expression of ability, certainty, and comprehension. He may put the whole matter in the hands of God through his understanding of God's supremacy over man and all his activities.

To rid oneself of fear and a burdened sense of responsibility by deep trust in the truth of Love's allness is a great step in the demonstration of intelligence in planning. But to believe fatalistically that everything will turn out well without our bringing to view the spiritual forces of Mind that make the actual exercise of intelligence certain is the very opposite of Christian Science demonstration. Men remain in the mortal dream, where stupidity and poor judgment and labored effort seem to control their affairs, until they rouse themselves to prove that their real individuality is Spirit's expression of its own purposeful intelligence and wisdom.

No example in human history excels the Master's successful demonstration of God's outlining. So fully did he exemplify the will of Love that every thought and act in his task as Saviour of mankind was intelligent and expressive of the highest good possible and needed at the moment. His certainty that his purpose was in accord with the Father's will, that it was wholly spiritual and good, was a determining factor in his success. God's plan is for man's perfection; and as this plan appeared through the life of Christ Jesus, it had to include not only correct conceptions of God and man, but the working out of these conceptions in the destruction of sickness, sin, and death, as well as other aspects of discord. Indeed, the redemptive activity of the Christ was preponderant in God's plan as the Master unfolded it.

In her sermon "The People's Idea of God" Mrs. Eddy mentions this point, and she says (p. 12), "As our ideas of Deity advance to truer conceptions, we shall take in the remaining two thirds of God's plan of redemption,—namely, man's salvation from sickness and death." And she adds, "Our blessed Master demonstrated this great truth of healing the sick and raising the dead as God's whole plan, and proved the application of its Principle to human wants."

Shall we plan? Surely, in our work as Christian Scientists we must apply divine Principle to every human need. Advancing in our understanding of God and man, we shall find our human planning more and more in accord with the will of the Father. Our affairs will express order and usefulness, and our divine destiny, as God's manifestation of goodness and harmony, will unfold faultlessly. Our plans will represent the demonstration of the one infinite intelligence, which embraces and governs all.

Helen Wood Bauman