We all measure up
As we go about our daily routines, sometimes we might find ourselves taken for granted or left out of someone else’s plans. For a lot of people, feelings of inadequacy account for too many nights spent ruminating or worrying that we truly aren’t important in this world. We might guess that we don’t measure up to other people, or to what we assume other people expect from us.
Recently I was reading one of my favorite books, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, that includes a definition of I, or Ego that refers to the name and nature of God: “Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incorporeal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.” Mrs. Eddy continues, “There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle” (p. 588 ). This tells us that we are not only inseparable from God—but that as His expressions, we are also inseparable from one another!
One day a few months ago, my husband and I went to our favorite Italian restaurant. We had waited all week to spend the day together, and we were grateful to be able to make the trip into the city to do some shopping and enjoy a well-deserved meal out. We arrived during the latter part of the lunch hour and the hostess took us to our table. But before our waiter arrived, we overheard him telling the hostess how disappointed he was that she had only brought him a table of two rather than a table of four or more. The restaurant was pretty empty, and it wasn’t hard for us to figure out that this young man was predicting bleak earnings for the day.
It became clear to me that divine Love was fully engaged in this experience.
Just when I started to feel as though we weren’t welcome, an inspiration came to me. If there is “one I, or Us,” all governed by one divine Mind, God, then this same Mind had to be governing all experience. My husband and I couldn’t be a disappointment to the waiter—we were needed right where we were. I began to look for ways I could see divine Mind in action. I prayed to know that my husband and I weren’t the cause of either joy or supply coming into our waiter’s life; that God, the Father of all, was sustaining and supplying this young man. It became clear to me that divine Love was fully engaged in this experience.
God satisfies the needs of His creation—and as His reflection, our job is simply to love. I could do that. I knew this was an opportunity to bear witness to divine Love in action. Love would never turn us toward feelings of inadequacy, or cause us to lose the joy we had brought through the doors of the restaurant.
As we conversed with our waiter—and I continued to silently cherish the spiritual fact that everyone in this experience was guided by God—I began to notice the tables in his section filling up quickly. There were groups of four people, groups of five people, and, yes, another couple or two. Not only was our waiter’s day opened up to activity and abundance, but his service was impeccable. Every time he went by he would place some item on the table that we’d requested. Swoosh. He’d come by with sugar, or sauce … and then gracefully circle around to the other tables. We had a wonderful time, and felt that our waiter deserved a generous tip.
I was so grateful to see the instant result of turning from an outward sense of things—an attitude of lack, self-pity, ingratitude—to a more spiritual view that included joy, abundance, and supply. I wasn’t made to feel inadequate or unwanted, and our waiter wasn’t made to feel underutilized or unappreciated. As my husband and I left the restaurant, it was easy to appreciate the steady flow of patrons, as smiles and lively conversations mingled with the wonderful aromas of Italian cuisine.
Personal sense is a term Mary Baker Eddy frequently used to describe a material sense of identity—a standpoint from which “it’s all about me.” By contrast, spiritual sense allows us to see the divine facts about any situation by adopting a spiritual, God-centered perspective. By turning thought away from a limited sense of ourselves and looking more at the picture of “one I, or Us”—God governing His creation—we can begin to let go of the limiting fears of inadequacy and valuelessness.
Elsewhere in Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things” (p. 281 ). This couldn’t have proved more true that afternoon, and I’ve since had many opportunities to practice recognizing the spiritual value and worth of myself and others. With this kind of prayer, divine qualities come to define our view, and feelings of inadequacy are totally erased. In short, prayer reveals that since we’re all children of one God, we all measure up!
