Editorial February 24, 1992 Issue

God's quickening

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

The word quicken in the Bible is a wonderful word. It means far more than just doing something faster. It signifies coming alive, vivifying, reinvigorating.

Yet none of this brightening up and new life comes about through merely human effort. In fact, the ambition of the mortal, human mind to be bright, quick, and sharp frequently leads simply to arrogance, miscalculation, and outdatedness. The Psalmist intelligently prays, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way."

This prayer of the Psalmist is a great deal more than a religious hope; it expresses his recognition of the way things really work. He had obviously experienced God's quickening. Christian Science explains that because man is spiritual, the outcome of God, Spirit—and not material—to think constantly in terms of being imprisoned in material existence results in our not functioning very well. It produces a feeling of sluggishness and purposelessness. Or, on the other hand, it may induce the sheer delusion of accomplishing great things at a terrific pace, when in fact very little that is genuinely fresh and effective is actually happening.

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