Article January 3, 1983 Issue

What are the present facts?

JEANNE STEELY LAITNER

"There is irony in all of human experience and no less in the solutions to the problem of disappointment. The deepest irony of all is to discover that one has been mourning losses that were never sustained, and yearning for a past that never existed, while ignoring one's own real capabilities for shaping the present."^{"Management of Disappointment," Developing Executive Leaders, eds. Edward C. Bursk and Timothy B. Blodgett (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 34 .} So Abraham Zaleznik concludes his psychologically oriented article "Management of Disappointment." What is the solution Christian Science offers to such ironies of human experience?

First we may need to acknowledge that real peace and lasting happiness cannot be found in a fleshly view of life. Only a scientific, practical understanding of God assures us of true satisfaction. Mrs. Eddy writes from her own experience before her discovery of Christian Science: "The trend of human life was too eventful to leave me undisturbed in the illusion that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest. All things earthly must ultimately yield to the irony of fate, or else be merged into the one infinite Love."^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 23.}

The importance of living in the present, in the nowness of God's goodness, is made clear when we study Christ Jesus' teachings in the light of Mrs. Eddy's writings. God is eternal, and man is His eternal witness. Eternity is not measured by time, by past or future. Jesus said, "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."^{John 4:35.} And Mrs. Eddy explains: "Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized."^{Science and Health, p. 468.}