Editorial February 6, 1989 Issue

The power in doing and being good

William E. Moody

As I was sitting in my favorite "writing chair" the other day, thinking about the next subject for an editorial, at first I started out with a very simple kind of prayer. It was really just a turning to God, acknowledging that whatever the subject might be, whatever the particular words, the fundamental goal of the writing should be to bring some measure of comfort, inspiration, or healing to the reader. There should be a strengthening of faith and spiritual understanding, both in the actual work of doing the writing and, hopefully, then in the reading of what finally appears on the printed page.

I realized that writing for the Christian Science magazines is really not unlike what every follower of Christ Jesus is called upon to bring into daily life. And it all centers on something so basic that at first glance it could almost seem too simplistic. Yet it is actually the thing that adds the deepest dimension and purpose to one's experience. The work of a Christian —whatever that individual's work might be—is essentially about being and doing good.

I recalled a rather remarkable conclusion drawn in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable."^{Science and Health, p. 192.} The only power? one might reasonably wonder. And what kind of power is it?