FROM THE EDITORS January 19, 2009 Issue

NO HOPELESS NUMBERS

ANYONE CAN PLAY A PART IN HELPING THE BILLIONS IN NEED OF COMFORT AND HEALING.

Editor

1.4 BILLION. According to the World Bank, that is now the number of people in the world who live in poverty. It's a number that was revised upward last year—by close to 50 percent.

That statistic may seem beyond human comprehension; how does the average person possibly reference a number so big? But the significance becomes apparent as soon as news video or a face-to-face encounter provides some glimpse into the actual lives that make up that number. Big as it is, it represents individuals—real people who, just like everyone, want a better existence for themselves and the people they love.

Oxford professor Paul Collier recently made an important observation in The New York Times about prospects for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. Writing from Zambia, one of the world's poorest nations, where the average per capita annual income is about $921, Collier noted that, although the number of poor people in China and India actually far exceeds that of Africa, a greater increase in Chinese and Indian incomes is providing people with more of a very important ingredient: hope. He observed that "hope makes a difference in people's ability to tolerate poverty; parents are willing to sacrifice as long as their children have a future." He concluded, "Our top priority should be to provide credible hope where it has been lacking" ("A measure of hope," September 22, 2008).

In times of adversity, even slight improvements in income or health do indeed brighten a person's outlook. But note that Collier makes an important qualification. For hope to be meaningful, it must be credible. Real hope rests on something more solid than just increased income or economic development, important as they are. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy addressed the vital hope that Collier speaks of as grounded in something that never fluctuates. It's actually a moral quality that people progressively recognize within themselves, as they learn more about their nature as God's very expression of Himself. Along with other important qualities such as humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, faith, and meekness, hope resonates with spiritual power, and is capable of transitioning humans out of the depths of deprivation and into the conviction of God's powerful healing love (see pp. 115-116).

Some readers may feel far removed from those around the globe suffering abject poverty, and think there's little they can do to kindle a life-transforming hope in people who seem far removed from the ability to access such spiritual concepts. But anyone who sincerely wants to can, in the precincts of his or her own spiritualized thoughts, play a part in helping those billions who are in dire need of comfort and healing. This involves nurturing one's own understanding of God's presence and willingness to aid, an understanding that won't give up because the hunger or the homelessness looks overwhelming. Whenever a neighbor across the street, or even a country across the globe, seems sunk in despair, that's when they most need the balm of prayer acknowledging that God never abandons His children.

We can't give the world a reason to hope—not in and of ourselves. But God can. Prayer that recognizes God's impartial supply of hope and inspiration can help open mental doors in those seeking a better life, and in those hungering for new solutions to poverty at home and abroad. At poverty's core is the belief that there can be a dearth of ideas and the courage to pursue them—and only an all-nurturing divine Mind can remove that want and supply the human heart's deepest needs.

Through Christian Science, the saving hope that Jesus preached—the Christ-message that promises we can heal as he did—is here today. Surely this includes the ability to help lift humanity out of despair, as we come to understand what he taught. Everyone has a spiritual identity as God's perfect creation—healthy, whole, nourished, satisfied.

This divine blessing rests on both parent and child, in all generations; not one son or daughter of God must sacrifice his or her life for the future good of another. "In the scientific relation of God to man," wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply" (Science and Health, p. 206).

The Bible says that Jesus encountered staggering numbers of people in need—"multitudes"—and was "moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." And through this Christly compassion, he went about "healing every sickness and every disease among the people" (Matt. 9:36, 35). Could it be that our own compassionate prayer to express Christly love will be enough to precipitate that much-needed "credible hope" in the hearts of today's multitudes? That's our hope, our conviction. |CSS

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