Article September 20, 1969 Issue

Preparation

GLEN C. LIVEZEY

In nearly every facet of our lives preparation is requisite for excellence. We prepare for examinations, condition ourselves for sports, ready ourselves for graduation, marriage, and all the other et ceteras of human experience. Preparation is basic to right performance. It is basic to the practice of Christian Science.

Imagine, for a moment, standing in the brilliant sunlight. Light is everywhere. Everything is immersed in it. It fills all space. Then a faint voice says, "Here I am. I'm darkness!" Would you accept the presence of darkness in the face of all this light, its magnitude and brilliance? Obviously not. Just so, as we recognize the whole of true being as God's creation and see everything as entirely of Him, bathed in His light, His atmosphere of health and goodness, we are prepared to reject any suggestions of evil, no matter how plausible their arguments try to be.

Through preparedness we establish in our thought the present infinite good of God's creating. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Man shines by borrowed light. He reflects God as his Mind, and this reflection is substance,—the substance of good."^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 57;} The fact of this good is our very thought and experience in the proportion that we have successfully prepared.