Man Includes All Right Ideas

Becoming conscious of what man, as the son of God, has and is, can change one's whole sense of living. The prophet must have glimpsed something of this when he said, "A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." ^{Isa. 32:2;} He did not say merely we shall have these things. What he did say was that we shall be them. Christ Jesus' statement "The kingdom of God is within you" ^{Luke 17:21;} points to this same mighty spiritual fact. It shows that good is not something way off. It is not "out there." It is right at hand. Within. The real you and me, God's reflection, includes every right, spiritual idea.

For instance, peace is ours to confront the continual pressures of daily living. We can express sufficient love to counteract hatred in the world. Claiming the privacy of our God-given individuality can counteract a frustrated feeling of constant invasion of our thought. The spiritual sense of including all good as ours does not interfere with the fullness of another's life. There is no limitation in the realm of real being. Infinity is the only measure in the spiritual realm. This is where man, God's child, dwells.

At one time I was confronted with hatred on the part of a colleague. For the moment I felt totally at a loss about it, overwhelmed. But then I became conscious more deeply than ever before that I could express sufficient love to counteract any hatred, however extreme and unwarranted. With this sense of relief I went on my way and forgot the whole thing. Before the day was over, however, this individual went out of his way to come face to face with me and to express genuine love and good fellowship.

A firm, sound awareness of what one includes as a compound idea of God can open to one's view the unlimited presence of love, goodness, peace, plenty, ability, intelligence. Man, the outcome of God, divine Mind, Soul, cannot be cut off from his origin, the continual source of spiritual ideas. "Know, then," Mary Baker Eddy tells us, "that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love." ^{Pulpit and Press, p. 3;} A growing awareness of our true spiritual identity is among the greatest treasures possible for us to have.

So much of the time the good one desires seems outside, far off, unattainable, separate—somewhere in a great unknown. This is but a smoke screen of evil to hide present good. But the realization that we include all spiritual ideas, all spiritual qualities, can change this false sense of things.

Everyone in his true identity includes health in abundance, joy without measure, overflowing goodness, ability without restriction, boundless purity. However, each of us needs to set to work within his own consciousness to activate these qualities. As he does, he will find the human need is increasingly met. Just as one goes to the bank and draws upon his savings account, he can draw upon an unlimited storehouse of spiritual ideas and qualities to put to work unselfishly, lovingly, in service to his fellowman.

The understanding that one includes health—that it is a present fact of his being—can counteract bodily suffering. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy, writes: "Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 393;}

The realization that one reflects infinite spiritual substance can outshine lack, whether of dollars, friends, opportunity, energy, or know-how. A sense that one includes joy and vitality can replace a lethargic approach to living. When we realize we include joy, that it is a present part of our spiritual identity, then we can become aware that our joy is not dependent upon persons, circumstances, places. So with ability, activity, grace: when we realize they are already ours, we begin to see we express these qualities whatever the circumstance or situation. We stop looking outside ourselves for good.

Christian Science prompts us to rid ourselves of the fictitious sense that good is outside us and begin to grasp that we already include all good and have been given complete dominion by our source, divine Mind. We can practice realizing this truth and accept it as law in our life. A whole new world will then open up for us.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its powerlessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit, and immortal." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 201.}

Every one of us in reality dwells in the realm of limitless Mind, not in a restrictive matter world. Each one of us embodies infinite spiritual good. True insight into this great fact of being can cause its clear manifestation to begin appearing right where we are today.