Article February 18, 1980 Issue

Work and the demand for excellence

RICHARD C. BERGENHEIM

If you're in high school or college, one thing that is probably growing steadily is the amount of work you're being asked to do. It often seems teachers assign projects and homework as though theirs is the only course. As many of you also have some sort of job or family responsibilities, the question "How do I deal with all this work?" is significant.

The real answer is metaphysical. It requires us to reach beyond what we touch and see materially to the real, spiritual universe and man—our true being—created and governed by intelligent and loving Principle. This Principle is divine Mind, Love. The more I ponder this, the clearer it becomes to me that perfect intelligence, or divine Love, never demands the impossible. If divine Principle is the universal cause of all existence, then all effect must come from this one good and perfect cause. As we grasp this fact, we see that nothing can enter our experience—our God-created being—that is unintelligent, unwise, unjust, or downright impossible. All real activity occurs in Mind. All true demand is the activity of Principle and is fulfilled by Love. On this basis we can claim with confidence that if activity or thought is demanded of us, the unfathomable reservoirs of Mind give us the wisdom and means to fulfill it.

Humanly speaking, education demands growth and development. However, through prayer and the study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings we're able to go beyond this and recognize the spiritual facts. The faculties of Mind don't need honing or improving. Divine Mind is complete. Mind is all-knowing, and this Mind is our Mind. An acknowledgment of the ability and mental strength that Mind generates in man enables us to perform our work with confidence and excellence. We know we're not dependent on the lobes of the brain or on human aptitude but on the resources of creative Mind, which exists forever at the peak of completeness and power. From a spiritual viewpoint, education isn't so much the improvement of personal ability as the increasing acceptance of the ability God gives us to know and express Him.

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