Chutes and ladders

Readers of this magazine may recall a children’s board game called “Chutes and Ladders.” Having two kids of my own, it was fun for me to rediscover the game I loved as a child because of its thrilling advances and jaw-dropping backslides that resulted in many moments of laughter. 

Briefly, each participant has an identity on the board controlled by the rolling of a dice. The board shows ladders that can propel you onward and upward. But it also features down-chutes that can randomly send you backward by a few or many levels, even all the way back to the beginning!

Recently, it occurred to me that the game is a nice analogy for what Christian Science teaches about monitoring consciousness. Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to consider whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind which is influencing one” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 82–83 ). This consideration might also be seen as determining how well we do in the parallel game of life in our analogy. 

In day-to-day affairs, the “ladders” might be seen as those thoughts that lead us spiritually higher, enabling us to bypass much suffering or random rolling of the dice to see what comes next. We might even equate these ladder-thoughts to the angels described in Science and Health that “deliver us from the depths” and that are “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality” (pp. 567 , 581 ).

Yet, there also appear to be “chute-like” thoughts that come to us begging for acceptance. If accepted, they lead downward toward reversal of the goodness that is God, rolling back days or even years of progress. Small moral evils lead to larger ones, and seedlings of fear take root in our experience. The materialism, greed, and immorality evident in some of today’s video games, pop music, and movies too easily lead to the acceptance of their standards, resulting in chutes of moral decline in everyday experience.

We have never fallen down the chute, or slide, of fear, ignorance, or sin.

So, how do we begin to stop these backslides and confine ourselves only to ladders? For me, the most helpful answers are given on pages 115 and 116 of Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy sets out her “Scientific Translation of Immortal Mind,” and then her “Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind” in which she identifies three degrees that characterize our spiritual journey out of error into the understanding of our spiritual nature as God’s perfect ideas, His loved children. The First Degree, which is physical, includes “fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, … sin, sickness, disease, death.” Just as light dissipates darkness, the destruction of these base evils occurs when they are exposed as unreal in the presence of God. In other words, when what Paul called the “carnal mind,” or limited, downward pulling thought, yields to the only true consciousness, which is God—including limitless and buoyant grace—the opposite of the First Degree list comes into view, including such qualities as confident dominion, unselfed love, meekness, and gratitude.

The Second Degree focuses on ways in which the destroyed evil beliefs of the First Degree give place to the transitional qualities of “affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.” These qualities are then improved as they’re embraced by God’s infinite harmony and supremacy discerned in the Third Degree. This includes the achievement of “wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.”

Yet, wherever we are on the ladder, and no matter how often we encounter chutes, I think most of us would agree that there is nothing more rewarding than the attainment of the game-winning understanding that marks that Third Degree.

At times, we may find our thinking scraping bottom at First Degree level, or trying awfully hard to speed up the Second Degree transition, yet we inevitably find that nothing speeds our progress like firm obedience to the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5 ). 

We find that in truth we have never left the kingdom of God’s creation; never fallen down the chute, or slide, of fear, ignorance, or sin. Rather, as we reverse our steps, we climb the ladder toward winning the awareness of our eternally present identity as God’s image and likeness. Then, we find not fear but the confidence and dominion inherently ours through divine Love; not ignorance, but the intelligence, wisdom, judgment, and perspicacity that come from divine Mind. We find not sin, but the purity and honor that come from divine Principle. 

How important it is to avoid the temptation to explore chute-like thoughts and instead cast the anchor of consciousness into the Third Degree each day. In so doing, we find dominion. And we are then awakened to the fact that a chute cannot lead to a ladder, just as no ladder can lead to a chute. No thought or action involving compromise of moral values or acknowledging any power other than God, will ever result in benefits or goodness of any sort. On the other hand, no angel thought from God can ever lead to anything less than good.

So, we can stop exploring any thought or action that is anything less than upward leading. Further, we can stop rolling the dice of chance altogether. Instead, we can trust in God’s omnipotent purpose and care to guide all of our steps in what seems like the board game of human life. In this trust, we will be always climbing higher ladders of consciousness to see ever expanding views of God’s perfect creation.