Article November 1, 1975 Issue

Motivation for Change

JOYCE D. WETHE

Change can be happy and progressive depending on one's motivations and attitudes toward it. If change is viewed as an end in itself, any sense of satisfaction it may bring could be short-lived. On the other hand, when change takes place as a natural outcome of spiritual progress, it can be understood as a more expansive view of the changeless, infinite good that is always at hand.

Sometimes we find ourselves longing for some outward change. We yearn for another job, or a vacation, or perhaps a different environment. But these longings of themselves are not the right motivation for change. A better motive would be the desire to open our thought to spiritual good. Such a motive inevitably brings genuine satisfaction and joy, whether or not it is evidenced immediately in outward change.

Christian Science shows us that even when our motives are unselfish, it is necessary to let go of human will and personal outlining in order to see the spiritual fact of man—his wholeness and completeness—which, in its perfection, needs no change. Moses anguished over the plight of his people, who were in bondage to the Egyptians, and he even made one futile personal attempt to change their lot. But eventually he had to come to the burning bush where God said to him, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."^{Ex. 3:5;}

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