Who doesn't want to progress? In spite of roadblocks, we still cherish a desire to develop, to fulfill our loftiest aspirations. As we understand the spiritual basis of man's potential, we can do just that.

A key to understanding our potential is the fact that, as God's spiritual image and likeness, man is already complete. God, the one, creative Mind, doesn't hatch us as some embryo idea and gradually add to us until we're all there. We do make step-by-step progress humanly, but such progress is actually evidence of the eternal unfoldment, or opening out into view, of man's spiritual completeness and perfection.

In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis" (p. 258). But does development mean getting better from some limited beginning? No, man doesn't start from finite beginnings. Indeed, man in the image of God, eternal Life, doesn't start at all, but has always existed as the complete reflection of God. Spiritual development must involve the revealing to human thought of what is already there. God is forever expressing in man the divine nature. Human progress needs to be built on the rock of this relation of God and man. There's no need to feel that we don't have much ability or that life has dealt us a bad hand. There's no call for thrashing about in a willful attempt to "make it." Instead, we can grow in the understanding of our relation to the divine Mind, which is our source and the source of all ideas.

This true growth includes practicing what we are learning, as Christ Jesus taught. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Mankind's concept of Jesus was a babe in a manager, even while the divine and ideal Christ was the Son of God, spiritual and eternal. In human conception God's offspring had to grow, develop; but in Science his divine nature and manhood had were forever complete, and dwelt forever in the Father" (No and Yes, pp. 36-37). This spiritual manhood Jesus showed us is our true nature. Human progress is secure when anchored in an understanding of this nature, complete in God. In fact, progress depends on our working to establish in thought a stable sense that the Father is responsible for our development. The old "do it yourself" notions of progress sometimes seem very persistent; we need to do the work of rooting bad habits out of consciousness.

One old notion to get rid of is that we have a long road ahead of us before we reach full development. How much time will it take before we amount to something? Ask God that question, and listen for His answer. He forever sees our completeness. And each of our unfolding steps is but a new view of this completeness. When we know this, we look ahead with joy to open our thoughts to new views of God and man with each experience.

Another notion to be rid of is that reaching the lofty heights of full development will be an agonizing struggle. This notion melts under the sunlight of God's assurance that we're not putting on, but bringing out, our true nature. Jesus' familiar command "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48) expresses such an assurance. The Saviour, seeing his students as always sustained and guided by God, was not hesitant to tell them to live out their true nature as God's children. It would require plenty of work, but this perfection could be demonstrated in the present. As Mrs. Eddy comments in Miscellaneous Writings: "The purification or baptismals that come from Spirit, develop, step by step, the original likeness of perfect man, and efface the mark of the beast. 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;' therefore rejoice in tribulation, and welcome these spiritual signs of the new birth under the law and gospel of Christ, Truth" (p. 18).

An example from my experience illustrates to a degree some of these elements of progress. There was a time when reaching decisions in a group was hard for me and hard on me. I would get committed to one particular alternative and have a difficult time accepting any other choice. Sometimes my choice was adopted by the group, but not without willful argument on my part. Whether my position prevailed or not, there seemed to be inner tension and turmoil that left me feeling drained.

More than a single bad habit needed healing here. First, there was the mistaken feeling that the group couldn't reach a valid decision without my personal insight and guidance. A second need was to see that a different outcome from the one I had espoused could be perfectly all right. I needed to acknowledge that each individual, as God's man, possesses by reflection from God all that he needs. In fact, a false sense of self had to be gotten out of the way in order to see the operation of the Mind that is God. Bit by bit, the realization dawned on me that what is actually going on is not one mortal personality asserting its own insights, but the divine source of every right thought impelling the thoughts of each member of the group.

In recent years, participating in decisionmaking groups has become more serene for me. The key has been to trust divine Mind's operation, replacing a sense of human willfulness with greater assurance that the one Mind actually is infinite, actively expressing the intelligence reflected by man. I have not stopped articulating my views, but it doesn't bend me out of shape to hear contrasting ones. I would never have made this step of progress by pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.

The deep-down desire to be all God made us to be, cherished and nurtured, frees thought to recognize what we already are. This in turn leads to human progress and development beyond what we can imagine—not the acquisition of things or status, but the transforming of character. This progress is impelled not by human will but by divine grace. We respond to the urging in Second Peter 3:18, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen."