Defeating Disappointment

W. Stuart Booth

Who has not tasted the bitterness of disappointment when high hopes have been dashed or pet plans have been frustrated? And who would not welcome a teaching which would enable men to defeat disappointment, take away its sting, and erase its scars? Now, Christian Science promises to do this and even more, that is, to preclude disappointment; and it fulfills the promise by practical proof. Those who have felt the healing touch of this Science know that it is the Comforter, of which Christ Jesus in his promise and prophecy, as recorded in John's Gospel, said, "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

The Master's work for himself and mankind was complete. He understood that God, good, is the all-providing and all-protecting Father of man and the universe; and he knew that divine Love's abundant provision for man includes unmarred happiness and unvarying health, adequate ability and eternal life. He also knew the falsity of human beliefs in limitation and lack of joy, freedom, dominion, health, intelligence, and life; and so he demonstrated God's good will for men by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, forgiving and freeing the sin-bound, and raising the dead. Disappointment and discouragement, like disease, discord, and death, regarded by Christ Jesus in the light of spiritual understanding, were proved by him to be negative and insubstantial, as are fleeting shadows.

Since Christ Jesus is our Way-shower, in whose way of thinking, healing, serving, and living we are to follow, it is evident that we can and must defeat disappointment and that which occasions it by the same means which were employed by him. Although the Master "was in all points tempted like as we are," and although his followers' failure to measure up to what might have been expected of them must have been deeply regretted by him, we may be certain that his trust in God kept him out of the slough of despond into which unaided men easily slip. The question, "How was this accomplished?" finds answer in the fact that Jesus consistently prayed that God's will, not human will or fleshly desires, might be expressed by, to, and through him.

Judging by the speech and actions of most men, their prayers or desires are antipodal to those of the humble and wise Nazarene. Those who lack spiritual understanding believe that substance, good, pleasure, health, and life are in matter, and therefore that the degree of their wealth, peace, success, and satisfaction is determined by the measuring rod of materiality. Those who hold to such material beliefs, and sharpen their aims, ambitions, and plans accordingly, are foredoomed to disillusionment and disappointment as certainly as would be one who turns his telescope to the earth when he wishes to study the stars. Christian Science reveals the fact that consciousness and reality, health and wealth, power and peace, substance and satisfaction—yes, and life itself—are in God, divine Mind, alone. And Christ Jesus stated plainly that if we seek first the kingdom or government of God in our thinking and living, all needful human things will be added unto us.

To those who are disappointed and downcast because material means have failed them in their search for health, to those who have had the sentence of incurability pronounced upon them by physicians, to them and to all Christian Science sounds a divinely sustained note of hope in its message of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. With God at hand, with the understanding that His law of harmony and perfect activity is ever operative on behalf of men, there can be no legitimate occasion for hopelessness. It is never too late for the Christ, Truth, to heal and save. As Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 322): "The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science."

Even after we have learned through Christian Science to look to God for guidance and protection, we may see evidences of the tendency to outline willfully for ourselves and others and then to try to force things into line with our plans. To be sure, there are legitimate human ambitions, but these should always be kept subservient to God's plan; and when this is done a sense of disappointment is precluded, even though the object of our ambitions may not be gained.

Our happiness is from God and is not dependent upon our having a particular position or certain work to do. Christian Scientists, understanding, loving, and obeying God's law, always have the comforting assurance of Paul's words to the Christians at Rome, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Thus will disappointment be defeated and precluded through grateful remembrance of God's goodness, power, and love.

W. Stuart Booth

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