Are there questions you'd like to explore with other readers and with the editorial staff of the Christian Science Sentinel? This column offers a place for that exchange to happen. What's here isn't intended to give a definitive answer. The queries and the ideas spring from the heart, as we are walking side by side.

Q. How can you know that you are getting inspiration from God and not just making up what you'd like to believe?—from a reader in Massachusetts

A. Motive is important. So are honesty and humility. If one is honestly turning to God, humble enough to set aside one's most cherished plans, and wanting more than anything else to hear what God has to say, then one knows deep inside whether what is heard is one's own will or God's inspiration. A person who is deeply praying begins to distinguish the voice of God from the voices of the world. Also, God's answers are not fearful, do not harm another, and do not have a personal timetable attached. Such an answer would be a mixed message and indicates the need to remove through Christly love and obedience such mental static as fear, resentment, willful outlining, and so on.—from a reader in Tennessee

Q. I don't want to be thought of as belonging to any religion. I was very committed to a church where I formerly lived, but the longer I was there the less I believed or was satisfied. So I've been visiting many different faiths. ... I don't want to be seen as a religious man. I want to be seen as a spiritual man.—from an inquirer in Nevada

A. Your desire to be identified as "a spiritual man" is basic to true worship; it is prayer taking shape in your life. Christ Jesus said, "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23). Learning more of God as ever-present Spirit means also knowing His creation, including man, as completely spiritual and wholly good. To pray, reason, and live from this basis is to go from religiosity to divine Science; it is to begin to understand the allness of Truth. Mary Baker Eddy writes: "God has no opposite in Science. To Truth there is no error" (No and Yes, p. 5). Expressing genuine spirituality in one's life surely doesn't preclude an active and devoted involvement in church but enriches such commitment.

True spirituality is neither human nor mortal—it is Godlikeness. The example Jesus gave of Godlikeness reveals the living way. It shows each of us how to bring out in our daily experience—at church and elsewhere—the effects of true worship: healing and regeneration. With humility and love Jesus said to all searchers, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). You might enjoy these further references from Mrs. Eddy's writings: Science and Health 140:16—141:21; 136:1—138:16; The People's Idea of God 2:20–25; Message to The Mother Church for 1902 6:20–4.—from a reader in Nevada

Q. How tolerant is your religion of other religions?—from a high-school student in a comparative religion class in Illinois

A. With some Christians still battling each other and with religious and cultural persecution killing thousands today, I try to measure my thoughts, speech, and action by these words of Christ Jesus: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). To achieve the greatest possible religious tolerance is a desirable and progressive step, but Jesus taught us something deeper, to love each other. Love includes respect, patience, kindness, courtesy, and sincerity.

Mrs. Eddy wrote these words that bring light to this question of what Christian Scientists are taught about tolerance: "Students are advised by the author to be charitable and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion and medicine, but to those who hold these differing opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing the way through Christ, as we understand it, but let us also be careful always to 'judge righteous judgment,' and never to condemn rashly" (Science and Health, p. 444).

To follow these admonitions is to take religion beyond the form and outline of words to the realm of spiritual truth and love lived. It calls for a love born of the brother- and sisterhood of God's spiritual creation, in which all have not only one Father and Mother but one divine Mind. This is a family in which each member is actually the spiritual reflection of divine Love. Each individual's sincere effort to express such love will do much toward bringing peace to a troubled world.—from a reader in Illinois

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