Article February 19, 1979 Issue

Ability through reflection

MERRILYN BISHOP HAWKE

An active phrase among performing artists is "Good luck!" Can our success or failure really be the outcome of chance? On the level of human thought and experience we may sometimes think that it can. But when we lift our view above what is going on around us and ponder the spiritual reality underlying all things, we find only one power governing, directing, and determining the outcome of our activity—the power of good, to which there is no contrary force.

Christian Science teaches us the practicality of all that we learn of God and His ideas. Spiritual truths are ours not merely to love but to prove. The proving ground is human consciousness, where God's laws, recognized, reign supreme over so-called material laws and limitations. The effectiveness of these laws maintains order, and they govern our activity even in the so-called human realm.

"He performeth the thing that is appointed for me."
 Job 23:14;  As a musician I have relied on this biblical passage to give me a clearer perception of my abilities. Pondering its message, one can see God as the only source of ability and activity. What man does is the expression of divinely inherited abilities—his through reflection, and therefore effortless, infinite, and eternal. Man's ability to express God's infinite creativity is a natural aspect of his being. Reflection and expression, being wholly spiritual, are independent of material circumstance and conditions. To the degree that we understand these spiritual truths, we can work out the harmonious unfoldment of the secondary concepts—physical coordination, instructional costs, time processes, and the cultivation of talent.

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