FROM THE ADS I sometimes see on TV and the books being sold in bookstores, it would appear that there's a lot of stress around these days. Millions of people attribute their insomnia and headaches to tension and pressure. People are under stress trying to pay their bills on time. Parents taking their children to school, after-school activities, and seemingly endless sports events get weary and stressed out trying to manage their schedules. Sometimes, so do the kids. And, I hardly ever see a commuter train come through my little town but someone is running from the parking lot to be the last person on board.

Sometimes we make our own tension and don't even recognize what we're doing to ourselves. I thought of this when I was recovering from a physical difficulty that had made me especially careful about traveling for a while. After my first trip in some months, I remember waiting for my luggage in the baggage handling area and feeling quietly grateful just that I had been able to complete the trip. At about the same time, another man was pacing frantically back and forth, telling everyone within shouting distance that it was taking longer to get his luggage off the plane than the trip itself had taken. I could see in that individual some of the same attitudes I myself had shown after other trips.

Such experiences can awaken people to the possibilities of handling themselves, and their emotions, better. I am often helped by praying with some of the words from one of my favorite hymns—in fact, one that we sang in the church I attended even before I was a student of Christian Science. It's by the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier:

Prayers like that lead us to the realization that what is pressuring us is often an inner turmoil over our own shortcomings and self-doubts. If you know the Bible story of Jacob and his brother, Esau, you may recall how Jacob found his peace during a stressful, restless night by surrendering to God's peace. Years before, Jacob had been persuaded by his mother to deceive his father, Isaac. The result was that he received Isaac's blessing, cheating Esau out of his inheritance. With Isaac about to die, Jacob's mother had Jacob leave home to escape Esau's revenge (see Gen. chaps. 27-33).

Years later, Jacob set out for home, not knowing what to expect from Esau. Jacob prepared all sorts of gifts for his brother, and even planned how his caravan might approach him. But this alone didn't give him peace, and it was that night that he prayed over the next day's events.

It doesn't require much imagination to picture the strain Jacob must have felt that night, as the deadline drew near and he faced those unresolved issues. The Bible narrative tells us only that Jacob was alone—from which one can assume he was alone with his thoughts. In his turmoil, he felt the presence of a man who wrestled with him "until the breaking of the day." But out of this inner struggle, he gained a new sense of peace.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote about this incident in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit and of spiritual power. This changed the man. He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel,—a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children of earth who followed his example were to be called the children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them" (p. 309).

Out of a night that must surely have included battling remorse over the harm he had done his brother some 20 years earlier, Jacob gained some sense of God's protection, which gave him the courage to continue on the next day to what proved to be a happy, healing reunion with Esau.

Stress of the kind Jacob experienced can express itself in many ways. Sometimes we are transfixed by it. It affects our ability to think and act quickly and appropriately. It can leave us feeling exhausted and defenseless.

During my own career, I was able, through prayer, to meet challenging investment goals as a banker, and, at another time, cope with newspaper deadlines as a writer and editor. But there were occasions when I couldn't so easily leave the day's events behind me and get a good night's rest.

Some people find their night's rest in a sleeping pill. There are others—as President Harry Truman is reputed to have done—who can "turn off" whatever challenges they are facing and simply fall asleep.

But I have found that it's not always sleep that one needs. It's a different kind of rest that actually puts to rest the sense of stress. This rest is like a gift from God. And it comes most easily when, like Jacob, we understand the power of Spirit over the material senses—finding peace and assurance in our true identity as children of God. Nothing short of this spiritual conviction can guarantee us freedom from the many pressures and worries we face in life.

A memorable phrase in Science and Health refers to each one of us as "the humble servant of the restful Mind." The entire section reads: "As astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar system, so Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems otherwise to finite sense" (pp. 119–120).

To think of oneself as this "servant" includes doing away with any sense of egotism or self-importance. Christian Science, in fact, calls God the one Ego. Man—each one of us—is the reflection of this Ego, and by reflection includes all of the qualities of God. But claiming this identity as our own allows us to let go of the burdensome idea that we can or should rely on our own intellect or strong will to accomplish anything.

Sometimes stress is self-created, either by a belief that we are doing something in isolation, or that we are being imposed upon by others. The solution to this is to recognize that God, the divine Mind, is constantly expressing Himself through this Mind's ideas—you and me, and everyone else, too. We cannot be overworked if we are mentally at peace in the understanding of this truth—reflecting the activity of Mind.

Science and Health states: "God rests in action. ... No exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science" (p. 519). If this fact is true, and it is, then no exhaustion or sense of stress can follow any right human activity—that is, any activity that is motivated by honesty and unselfishness. Nor can other people impose on us, and thereby put us under stress. Thinking spiritually requires us to include them in our prayers—to take the position that Mind also governs their thoughts, motives, and actions, and that, because of this fact, our associations with one another will be characterized by mutual respect, and even love.

This process involves our seeing more good in others by recognizing that they are also God's children. It means making one's own aims and ambitions as unselfish as possible. It means seeing, more and more, that all creation is the expression of God's fullness, and rejoicing that we can be a part of that fullness every day. It sometimes calls for a complete revision of what may have seemed most important to us in the past. That is part of what being "born again" means to many Christians, and especially students of Christian Science (see John 3:1–15).

And along the way, most of what seems to cause strain, stress, or anxiety, will melt away.

Whittier's poem ends with a plea that "our ordered lives confess / The beauty of Thy peace." There's a wealth of reassurance in accepting that we all possess the ability to begin each day appreciating that it is God alone who orders our activities. And there are no conflicts in such a schedule.

But, for most of us, whatever our present station in life, and whatever our responsibilities, we have to start acting as "servants of the restful Mind." Reflecting the unlimited intelligence of Mind and the caring and compassion of Love, will help free us from any sense of being put upon, or pressured to perform beyond our God-endowed capacity. |css