Article March 30, 1981 Issue

Timidity versus spiritual determination

JENIFER C. WECHSLER

In the biblical account of the travels of the children of Israel, a team of twelve men, one from each of the tribes, was sent to search out Canaan as a prospective homeland.^{See Num. 13 and 14 .} Two of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, were all for going right ahead into this good land, "which floweth with milk and honey." But the other ten "brought up an evil report of the land" and described the inhabitants as giants. The ten fearful explorers related: "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight."

Each time we back away from a challenge to our health or Well being—as if it were too formidable to cope with—we are forgetting the power and ever-availability of our tender Father-Mother God. When we look to mortal personality for influence or to materialistic means for improvement of our lives, we are turning away from the one source of all good. This is not to say that good health, more satisfying employment, improved relationships, are undesirable. Divine wholeness, activity, and joy are ours now, and only as we discover this do improvements in our human condition have meaning. The regenerative process that underlies all true healing is basic and vital. It gives us divine strength.

The main mental flaw of the ten Israelites was not apparent to those timid souls. They had forgotten that their ability to win lay in the incorporeal realm—in the faithfulness of their trust in God as the source of all good. They owed their existence and preservation to Him who had, through Moses' prayer and obedience, released them from Egyptian slavery. In this episode they were deprived of a home and supply because they allowed fear to overwhelm them. Interestingly, their infidelity to God in this instance kept these "grasshoppers" from ever seeing the Promised Land. Only the faithful and their heirs were accorded this privilege, the Bible relates.

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