Article October 20, 1980 Issue

The environment and the kingdom within us

ROSALIE E. DUNBAR

White drifts were all around as I turned the curve, and even the road was covered with the substance. I gripped the steering wheel tightly as my eyes told me: "Snow. Be careful." But then I would periodically relax as I remembered that the "snow" was actually the brilliant gypsum crystals of the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

This incident illustrated to me the unreliability of the five senses, an undependability that I was learning about through Christian Science. These senses are shoddy reporters because they tell us only what a material body and environment can show. Thus, one minute we find pleasure, the next discomfort, with each change rippling across our experience in a way that seems beyond our control. But understanding and living in obedience to the orderly and spiritual nature of reality give us dominion over our environment and allow us to discern the reliability and permanence of God in place of matter's confused instability.

Besides the personal benefits that accrue from living in obedience to God, such as better health and more productive lives, prayer based on this obedience reaches into the wider arena where social and environmental problems need a healing, Christlike touch. Learning of God's laws and how to put them into practice enhances our ability to discern our true identity and to live in accordance with the divine Mind, God, the source of all creation.

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