Article September 18, 1978 Issue

No room for ghosts

ROBIN ENGEL HAINES

While entertaining mental ghosts from times past, I realized that if my thought were truly focused on God, the now of His overflowing goodness would so fill me with gratitude that there would be no room for ghosts. "Beloved Christian Scientists," writes Mrs. Eddy, "keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210;}

Does this kind of thinking merely block out an unhappy event? No. When thought is filled with Truth and Love, the power of God is at work, destroying whatever would oppose itself to His perfect control, to the goodness of the one infinite Mind. Our job is to be willing to turn to the light of divine Love if haunting memories occur.

Past mistakes or regrets about past ignorance have never, in fact, touched our real, spiritual selfhood. If we desire to follow Christ Jesus, we need to acknowledge this, firmly refusing to drag along any pet ghosts! "Follow me," Jesus admonished a disciple; "and let the dead bury their dead."^{Matt. 8:22;} He also said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."^{Luke 9:62;}