Well connected
It seems like nearly everyone worldwide is rushing to be technologically connected—especially since the rapid introduction in recent years of speedier Internet connections, smartphones, iPods, tablet computers, Twitter, Facebook, auto satellite guidance, and other services. The highest possible degree of connectedness is eagerly sought after and paid for—often with a significant part of one’s budget, a consideration that never existed a few years ago. And recently many useful “cloud storage” services have been introduced, allowing users to store data files that they can then access through the Internet from anywhere. This urgent push to be better connected certainly does allow people to be more up to date on what is going on in the world and able to connect quickly with those whom they care about.
It dawned on me recently that this striving to be well connected is a kind of parallel to effective prayer—that is, the kind of prayer that allows us to recognize our oneness, our instant connection to God, divine goodness itself.
One example of this parallel is shown in an account I heard several years ago of several Christian Scientists who were involved in a serious one-car accident. The young driver lost control of the car on a narrow road; it went off the highway and rolled over several times. A witness to the accident immediately set in motion the human help system when he used his cellphone to call 911 for an ambulance. The Christian Scientists in the car immediately had begun praying as the accident occurred, using citations familiar to them, such as this passage from Psalms 42:8 : “Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.” They also affirmed that “accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind …” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 424 ). Once the smashed-up car came to a rest, the occupants got out, with hardly a scratch, and calmly expressed their gratitude for God’s constant care with witnesses who were nearby. When the ambulance arrived later, it was sent away, unneeded. Once the accident reports were filled out, the Christian Scientists went to a nearby home to clean up, and everyone went home in good health.
The urge to be technologically connected is often an expression of the inherent urge to be loved, appreciated, relevant, included.
The human help for such an accident requires that a witness with a cellphone be available, and that an ambulance be able to get to the accident scene quickly to transport the people to the nearest hospital. There, the appropriate professionals would have to be able to provide the needed care. While we are grateful for this human help system in cases where it’s needed, we may often shudder to think of its cost and complexity.
On the other hand, God’s tender, constant care is available everywhere—maybe you’ve heard it said that “there is no spot where God is not.” Divine Love is instant in response to any need—there’s no time delay. God’s all-powerful help is available in the most challenging situations—there is no weak “signal strength” in the connection between God and His idea, man. This divine power is available to each of us—it is universal, and all have direct access at no cost. Finally, it is provided by the “… all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied” (Science and Health, p. 7 ).
The urge to be technologically connected is often an expression of the inherent urge to be loved, appreciated, relevant, included. And this urge, in turn, is perhaps an expression of the natural yearning each of us has to feel our oneness with God, good. On page 100 of Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mrs. Eddy writes of the “coincidence of the divine with the human” as “the acme of Christian Science”—asserting, in other words, that the apex of spiritual expression is to understand our at-one-ness with God.
Christian Science teaches that God is ever-active goodness, so He is always ready and able to help. Even though there is an urgent push to make technological connections faster and more available, these will never be able to match the divine connection system, in which “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (Science and Health, p. 494 ).
