Article September 22, 1986 Issue

The only true advantage

JEANNIE J. FERBER

Who has the advantage? The United States or the Soviet Union? A man or a woman? Toyota or Lee Iacocca? The Chicago Bears football team or the New England Patriots? It's a subject politicians and television anchormen debate, Hollywood dramatizes, Zurich assesses in international currencies, and newspapers headline. But who does have the advantage?

Do you have the advantage? Or are you fighting to get it, groping to hang on to it, or waiting helplessly while others determine it? The question implies a "one or the other" answer: you either have the advantage or you're at a disadvantage. The question is also typical of the way people often reason—from a strictly material basis, a basis devoid of God. There's little stability or reliability in such reasoning and very little peace or comfort!

But what happens if we ask the question from a strictly spiritual basis? (A basis that, as the articles in this magazine attest, is utterly practical, real, present, useful.) What happens is that we begin with God. God who is All. God who is good. Good that is all. Now ask the question beginning with God. Who has the advantage? It becomes an "unquestion." God, good, is simply All. Material circumstances cease to be either an advantage or a disadvantage. Neither condition is accurate. So to calculate one's well-being from this basis would not be safe. Ultimately, advantage must be seen in wholly spiritual terms—the advantage of divine Spirit over matter. And only as we understand this spiritual viewpoint can we be safe and secure.

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