At times it seems that's just where life is—sort of in between the situation we want to leave behind and the place we want to reach.

For one person this might have to do with his job. He has outgrown his present one, but the next step just hasn't opened up yet. Another person's intermediate state may involve a relationship difficulty that has left him dangling between an unhappy past and an uncertain future. Still another condition of limbo could be represented by a chronic illness—things aren't really worse, but they aren't much better either.

There are lots of things we can blame if we're in such a state of drift. The economy. Disease. The wrongful action of a neighbor, employer, spouse. But none of this is where the blame truly lies. When we deal with the real culprit, we can begin breaking out of suspension. We need to deal with what Christian Science describes as "material sense."

Right through human experience, material sense would insist on minor and major stalls during a life of progress. It would place us in circumstances that oppose or obstruct full freedom; it would hold life's good aspects in periodic abeyance. And finally material sense—a corporeal or mortal perception of existence—would claim to bring us to an end. Mrs. Eddy says of the material senses, "They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom all things to decay." ^{Science and Health, p. 318.}

How can we take our life out of both the large and the little limbos? Our answer lies in the development of "spiritual sense." Material sense will always see existence from the standpoint of stoppage. But spiritual sense is our ability to perceive and feel and know the boundless, the unrestricted, presence of God.

This pure, God-given discernment knows reality from the view of the divine All. From this perspective we are not struggling mortals, moving (with interruptions and intermissions) from the limits of matter to the freedoms of Spirit. Through earnest spiritual striving we begin to discover that man is spiritual, existing within God's perfection, and that this is the truth of our real status and being right now. The Bible describes this natural state: "In him [Spirit] we live, and move, and have our being." ^{Acts 17:28.}

The material senses might label such a theory as irrelevant to our present sense of existence. But this theory is extremely relevant; it is Truth—right where the mortal view would claim to be. If the material senses seem to have trapped us in some kind of limbo, we don't need to languish there. On the other hand we can't just wait around for something to happen. Things don't change in and of themselves. They change because we rouse ourselves—or are aroused—into action.

Strengthened by the Christ, Truth, we begin challenging the beliefs of an inert or inactive state. For example, we might look more closely at the phrase "caught in limbo." This is no casual expression. The word "limbo" itself is a theological term. It denotes a region where "souls" are supposed to be kept from heaven because of a failure to fulfill such a requirement as the material rite associated with baptism.

If we ever find ourselves in a position where we seem unable to act, there may be wisdom in refuting this mistaken point of theology. Man is not placed between the discords of mortality and the joys of heaven. He lives in the harmony of God; there is no region outside God's allness.

Errors of theology are often at the root of mortal discords. We want to be sure we are fully practicing a proper sense of baptism— a deep and daily spiritual purification of thought. And we want to defend this baptism—see it as fully capable of developing our spiritual sense and dissolving material sense. With purified spiritual sense we recognize man's present activity in God. And this discernment has the effect of breaking the impasses of human experience.

If some issue in our church is lingering unresolved or if we see areas where our church or the Christian Science movement itself seems in a holding pattern, we can firmly overturn the false theological concept of being held in limbo by knowing the truth. The truth that gives us steady progress here is the realization that God's Church and His family of man are forever within His embrace.

All of us can take our life, our church—in fact every rightful activity—out of limbo and place it in God's care. Through spiritual sense we grow in our realization that God never places us somewhere out on the fringes of heaven. He holds us ever active in His presence.

NATHAN A. TALBOT

Thou art my lamp, O Lord:
and the Lord will lighten my darkness....
As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is tried:
he is a buckler to all them that trust in him....
God is my strength and power:
and he maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like hinds' feet:
and setteth me upon my high places.

II Samuel 22:29, 31, 33, 34