FROM THE EDITOR September 25, 2006 Issue

TIME FOR A THOUGHT-SHIFT

ACCORDING TO THE CURRENT edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, time tops the list of the 25 most commonly used nouns. That the commodity known as time has become one of society's chief obsessions is not news. What's worth greater attention is the fact that the perceived lack of time in our lives— "too much to do and not enough hours to do it in"—increasingly claims to stifle our productivity and peace of mind.

As with other finite commodities, having more time is proverbially no guarantee of happiness or productivity. Viewed as a finite interval in which to live and work, a span of time is forever illusive, fleeting, irretrievable. But the dictionary also offers a definition of time as "continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future, regarded as a whole." And this points in a new direction. Consider the uplifting effect of a thought-shift that focuses our attention on "continued progress" instead of just more hours. That could mean great things for the world. If more of us approached each moment as an opportunity to advance the good in individual lives, stress and competition would naturally give way to greater calm and truer productivity.

Christian Science takes such a thought-shift even farther, asserting that time has no divine source and is therefore actually powerless to bring good or evil. According to Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy, "The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind [God] measures time according to the good that is unfolded" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 584). This marks a sea change from clock-watching and fear-filled planning to trusting that God fills our existence with intelligent purpose. Individually and collectively, we can shift consciousness to see that God, not personal capability, is the source of all true joy and accomplishment. We can expect to see our reliance on "spiritual understanding" remove whatever barrier or limitations block the path forward.