Article March 27, 2017 Issue

Spiritual reasoning

Richard Schaberg

The book of Nehemiah in the Bible tells about Nehemiah bravely leading the effort to rebuild the destroyed wall around Jerusalem. As the book points out, there was a great deal of resistance to building the wall, much of it led by Sanballat and Geshem. At one point Nehemiah tells us: “Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, ‘Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.’ But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?’ But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner” (6:2–4, New King James Version).

Most of us have probably experienced times when, through our study and practice of Christian Science, we feel with absolute conviction that God is infinitely loving, good, and all-inclusive. During these moments of spiritual inspiration, God’s power fills our thought, and we know with a certainty that God is governing our experience. Like Nehemiah, we are confident in our direction.

But then from seemingly nowhere comes a resistant suggestion that would directly counteract the “great work” we have been doing, the uplifting thoughts we have been entertaining, and would try to pull us in a different direction. This resistance to spiritual progress may come in many guises, but fear is often at the top of the list. We may begin to try to reason with this downward-dragging suggestion of fear; and the more we try, the more confused we become. In these times I have found it helpful to remember the spirit of Nehemiah’s words and say directly to the suggestion of fear-based resistance, “Why should I come down to you—reason with you—while there is work to be done?”

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