Article May 30, 2005 Issue

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEACHER EARLINE SHOEMAKE TALKED RECENTLY WITH THE SENTINEL ON THE SUBJECT OF IDENTITY

tapping into God's nature

with contributions from EARLINE SHOEMAKE

Earline, how can people protect themselves from the imposition of other people's views and labels? For example, a person's age, race, or marital status, the fact of being an only child, or of never having had children, can open up all kinds of opinions and assumptions about an individual's happiness, abilities, future possibilities. Even if people don't voice these opinions openly, their thoughts can have an impact.

All these opinions and assumptions are based on the ONE lie. The biggest lie—that man is a physical being, mortal. That he/she is an evil and good mixture. "Tough. But you have got to live with it. That's life."

But that is not life. That's a lie! Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this magazine, stated, "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin" (Science and Health, p. 262). So one's protection comes from the knowledge of his/her real identity. Man, a generic term for all humanity, is made in the image and likeness of God, Spirit (see Gen. 1:26, 27, 31). So man is spiritual—and is therefore ageless, eternal, without beginning and without end, just like his Cause and Creator.