Article January 8, 2001 Issue

Present parent conclusions

It's where the answers to our problems are found.

By Zoë Landale

People have always struggled to reconcile what their heart tells them about a good higher power with what their eyes tell them about trouble. Trying to understand how there can be both good and evil leads to one of the following conclusions:
1. Busy parent conclusion: God means well but isn't reliable for day-to-day living. Too busy.
2. Absent (or dead) parent conclusion: God is somewhere that we can't get in touch with Him/Her.
3.Weakling parent conclusion: God means well, but evil (sigh) is just stronger.
4. Present parent conclusion: God is always available. S/He is reliable, is power and Light. You can experience God's powerful help, though you may have to change your perception of certain things.

What does it mean to change your perception? Well, none of us can believe in two opposite things at once. In Bible language, "No man can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24). This is common sense. For example, you can't believe that what you see in front of you is both a two-headed brown horse and a normal, dappled gray horse. It would take you only seconds to decide which horse you'd believe in. When our trust in God's good power conflicts with the evil we see before our eyes, we have to disbelieve our eyes because "perfection underlies reality" (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 353).

Why should we try to disbelieve the seemingly solid reality of trouble, major or minor? Well, you're either stuck with a really unpleasant situation, or you can reach for healing. At one point, Christian churches considered Jesus' healings miracles. Mary Baker Eddy had the insight that these so-called miracles were repeatable today, because they were governed by an actual law of goodness.

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