24/7 CONNECTIVITY OUR ONENESS WITH GOD

YOU COULD SAY that Jesus prefigured and outperformed today's technological wonders.

For all its impressive capabilities, 21st-century technology cannot compete with Jesus' record of instant access to needed knowledge, nonlocal interactivity, and being a ceaseless source of creative problem-solving. For instance, respectively, he discerned the personal history of a woman he'd just met at a well in Samaria, healed a man's son without seeing the boy face to face, and fed thousands from a handful of loaves and fishes.

What was his secret? It was the Christ, our constant, conscious connectivity to the divine Mind, God. As Jesus said: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). What is the nature of such Christly connectivity? It has to be everywhere at once, provide all needed knowledge, and be instantly accessible, 24/7.

Some folks might claim that sounds like the Internet! Except the divine Mind is infinite Spirit, all good, while the World Wide Web is in some ways aptly named for its sometimes ensnaring material allures. However, technological connectivity and Mind are not mutually exclusive. Technology is a tool that can be useful, as well as sometimes derailing us or distracting us. Finding the right balance between engaging with technology and remaining aloof from it is imperative in today's world. Like all things temporal, though, our interaction with technological resources can be God-guided, not just an expression of human preference. It can be divinely tempered (if we're too immersed) and divinely nudged (if we have a too-hesitant toe in the water).

How can we strike the balance? The following are some ideas that have helped me weigh up my interaction with today's 24/7 connectivity.

If it doesn't leave space for quiet communion, it's demanding too much.

Time alone with God is precious. It was for Jesus. Despite multiple demands on his time, he would go into the mountains to feel his oneness with the Father. Maintaining appropriate space for spiritual communion is a vital part of Christian discipleship. It cannot wisely be sacrificed in the rush of daily obligations and opportunities, whether online or offline. If our techno-time is elbowing out our space to nurture the consciousness of our oneness with God, we should probably reassess our priorities. The ability to multitask is a great skill, but God requires some daily time for our undistracted attention. That's done for our own sake, not for His!

Prayer leads to action, and today's fields of action can include cyberspace.

Is it also possible for too much quiet time to elbow out appropriate actions we should be taking, including online interactions? It is certainly important to replicate the results of Jesus listening for God's reassurance and guidance. He did come down from the mountains to be available to crowds in need of healing.

The Apostle Paul followed Jesus' precedent. Instead of isolating himself in Athens, while awaiting two colleagues, Paul went public with his Christianity. He bravely stated its case in the synagogues, injected its ideas into the hustle and bustle of the market, shared his thoughts with philosophers and answered probing questions from the Council on Mars Hill (see Acts 17).

Who was Paul's audience? The Bible describes the "Athenians and strangers" Paul was moved to engage with as people who "spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21 ). That sounds like many of today's bloggers, Twitter-ers, and YouTube viewers. It describes much of the dialogue among Facebook's 500 million users. But if Paul were alive today, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't be connecting with this global conversation, exploring social media for its potential as a tool for those "ready to distribute, willing to communicate" (see I Tim. 6:18 ).

The good news of scientific Christianity needs to be found online, too.

It could be argued that Paul's unswerving commitment made him one of a kind. Yet everyone has a spiritual purpose, a holy reason for their being. And Jesus made that purpose plain: to love God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself (see Mark 12:30, 31). For those who have experienced the healing potential of Christian Science, a natural part of that neighborly love is sharing the good news of what has benefitted them. As we strive to honor the call of Jesus to "freely give" of what we freely receive (Matt. 10:8 ), we can listen for whether that sharing should include using technological means in addition to face-to-face interactions.

In particular, those who value Christian Science should know there are those who feel impelled to discredit Christianity generally, and/or Christian Science specifically, who actively use technology to further their goals. Why shouldn't that same technology also magnify the "cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12:1 ) that exists to speak to the healing effectiveness of scientifically Christian prayer?

Am I "connected" for the right reasons?

If our prayers do lead us to play a role in today's technology-enabled global conversation, it is helpful to consider why Paul engaged in the public dialogue of his day. He wasn't there for self-promotion or self-fulfillment but because "his spirit was stirred ib him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry" (Acts 17:16). It tugged at his heart to see people misguided about the nature of God and blinded to God's love for them. He dearly wanted them to see the value in focusing on "new things," and this included an understanding of the primitive Christianity that made "the Unknown God" knowable.

Why shouldn't the buzz among today's wired "Athenians and strangers" likewise include news of the restoration of primitive Christianity, articulated in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and proved practical by its readers? The book includes Mary Baker Eddy's evaluation that "millions of unprejudiced minds—simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert—are waiting and watching for rest and drink." And it counsels: "Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear the consequences" (p. 570 ). Why wouldn't technology be one of the ways to meet this demand?

The mixed nature of Web discourse doesn't have to throw us off course.

One reason technology might be considered unsuitable for a holy purpose is the sometimes uncivil nature of its discourse, especially in regards to religion. However, such tirades shouldn't necessarily surprise us. In fact, Mrs. Eddy described Truth's reception this way: "What if the old dragon should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea?" (p. 570). Yet she also said of this puffed-up version of what the Bible calls the carnal mind, the materialistic hatred of Truth, that it "can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night" (p. 570).

One way this "dragon" would try to stifle the voice primed to highlight Truth is by intimidating it into silence. That's true in communal spaces around the corner from our home, and it's true in the electronic community connecting the corners of the globe. It isn't comfortable to be subjected to some of the harsh digital dialogue that can occur, but it probably wasn't comfortable to be Paul on Mars Hill, either. That didn't deter his love, nor can it deter the love that would voice Truth today.

Do I have a part to play?

At one point, Science and Health states: "The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man" (p. 284 ). All true communication, then, is independent of matter, and is the divine Mind manifesting exactly what we need to know, directly to each of us. Every spiritual thinker can humbly pray to bear witness to this universal and eternal reality as even being applicable where communications appear to come through the complex and evolving digital infrastructure.

Like Jesus and Paul, our conscious oneness with Love is the best thing we have to offer. That's true whether we convey Christly love in person or by the Internet, cellphone, or Skype; whether we befriend a neighbor on our street or become a friend on Facebook, whisper a spiritual truth into someone's ear or send it to them by e-mail, hug them or text them. And from our oneness with the all-knowing Mind will come the spiritual intuition to discern when we've had enough tech time and when we haven't. By our obedience to the direction Love points out in each situation, healing will happen.