Editorial June 8, 1981 Issue

"How can I better serve?"

NATHAN A. TALBOT

It's a question all of us should ask ourselves from time to time. A certain unselfishness, perhaps even a nobility, is surfacing when we feel an honest desire to be employed where we can best contribute our talents; prove our willingness to participate actively in church work; find additional ways to express humanitarian qualities. There is not an individual who can't increase his capacity to serve.

While the above may be a few of the factors that run through one's mind, the question should force us to consider a deeper issue—one that embraces even nobler implications because this question actually has to do with the entire attitude we hold toward others. Specifically, the issue is the contrast between an ego that is assumed to evolve as a material consciousness, and what Christian Science refers to as the divine Ego. The limited ego, or so-called finite selfhood, that each of us is supposed to possess carries an inherent resistance to an attitude of genuine service. By nature, the mortal ego's tendency is to rule rather than to serve.

Sooner or later we will all learn that there is only one Ego. It is God, the one immortal Mind; and man reflects this Ego. He expresses Mind's infinite wisdom; he represents perfect consciousness, the divine Ego. When we are willing more fully to admit these facts and relinquish the belief that man has a personal, material ego, separate from Mind, we will find far deeper significance in serving.

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