Free to see progress through public service

For the past seven years, I have served in local government in a lovely seaside town in England. When, much to my surprise, I was elected as a District Councilor, I took up the job with great enthusiasm and expectation. I saw an opportunity to help preserve the heritage of my community, while sharing new ideas with members of the Council and my constituents.

Not surprisingly, my idealized concept of government and the working reality were two entirely different things. Government seems to move at its slowest when you are trying to establish an agenda in which you wholeheartedly believe, yet it moves with the speed of light when the agenda is something you oppose vehemently! On top of that, you have to deal with pressure groups, critical press, opposition members, officers of the Council, and sometimes your own supporters, who each have their own ideas and concerns.

Political office can begin to feel rather stressful and unpleasant, sometimes within only a few months, and you begin to wonder why you bothered seeking office in the first place. Sometimes it’s not long before discouragement and self-pity set in.

I was in just such a state one Wednesday evening, when I sat down in my local Christian Science branch church to attend the weekly testimony meeting. The readings from the Bible and from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy stressed how Love, used in its spiritual context as a synonym for God, leads us away from temptation and gives us the freedom to accept our oneness with God. The very last citation that was read came from Science and Health: “Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free!” (p. 227 ).

As I sat there, that statement made an immediate and powerful impression on my thinking. I saw suddenly that I was free to see all citizens of the world as God’s children. I was free to see us, everyone, as sons and daughters of God, not as critical or uncooperative mortals. I was free to see our spiritual qualities expressed: cooperation, harmony, unity of purpose, morality, honesty, integrity, and lovingkindness. What was I going to dwell on and claim as dominant: hatred and contempt, or love and appreciation; criticism and separation, or agreement and unity of purpose? I could see that the choice of how to approach the situation was mine.

In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy talks about “moulding and chiseling thought” into an image that is either spiritual or material, that either touches on God’s qualities or presents an incomplete, unappealing mortal. Being free to see spiritually allows you to remove an “imperfect model” from your thoughts, claiming instead the completeness of God’s expression (see p. 248 ). This freedom to see others spiritually also frees you to see yourself in the same way. Your spiritual identity is without guilt, self-condemnation, or any other discordant quality. Your spiritual identity correlates to God, Spirit, and rests upon you as a perfect reflection of your Father-Mother God.

We had a Council Meeting coming up, and I had not been looking forward to it at all. I was afraid that it would resemble the last meeting, which had been singularly unpleasant and most probably the nadir of my entire Council experience. But now, after the testimony meeting, I realized that I didn’t have to accept a discordant picture. I could expect to see God in action.

Mrs. Eddy’s description of what eyes signify Biblically, found in the Glossary of Science and Health, contains the term “spiritual discernment.” And I realized that in being free to see mankind spiritually, I could be discerning, and cherish an uplifting and positive picture of a Council Meeting experience; I could also choose to see the officers and members of the Council as the offspring of Spirit, manifesting the qualities of Spirit.

The Council Meeting ran smoothly, efficiently, effectively, and with unity of purpose and goodwill. Whereas the last meeting had been heated and difficult, people left this one happily, talking and joking with one another. And though there were still rough patches, the District Councilorship was overall a smoother experience from then on. What a difference, when you are free to see things differently—to change the perspective!

This freedom is not restricted to events in our own lives. We are free to see all mankind, in all circumstances, as spiritual ideas, reflecting divine qualities. The more we can focus our thoughts in this direction, the more likely we are to be free to see spiritual possibilities -- the ideas which will lead to the solutions that we need in our world today. The “glorious liberty of the children of God” is available right now, for all mankind, in every situation. And you are free to see it!