Recently a friend reminisced with me about how, years ago, a deeply conservative Republican member of the United States Congress used to go on sailing excursions during congressional recesses with a prominent liberal Democratic senator. Even though their political views were diametrically opposed, the two enjoyed a close friendship.

Such friendships, my friend and I agreed, seem to be all too rare nowadays. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could become more normal again?

Many of us, including practically all the political pundits, have wondered how American politics has become so nasty. The current election season is perhaps the most negative in modern history. However, the ugly rhetoric on the campaign trail has not just suddenly emerged out of thin air. Such trends tend to emerge over time, and we need to recognize and help reverse the coarseness. The most effective way to reverse it is through prayer based on a higher understanding of God and of our true, spiritual relation to one another as His children—all of us members of the same harmonious family held together in God’s love.

I’ve found that gaining that spiritual understanding takes a good dose of humility, a willingness to yield my personal opinions to God’s ways and means, which are always right and good. Many times I’ve had to learn that human efforts to bring solutions, while often noble, are inherently limited because they are human. God, the infinite, divine Mind, is never limited and understands all things. Therefore, the best answers to our problems do not really come from the human mind; they come through our receptivity to divine Love. Through prayer we discover that God is always supplying the wisdom and creativity we need to overcome obstacles. Divine intelligence inspires us with wisdom, goodness, and courage, enabling us to take noble actions. In reality we all reflect God because we are God’s spiritual image, and we can pray to demonstrate the spiritual qualities of God in our lives. Happiness, health, and abundance have their source in God, Truth.

Human willpower, when exercised for a righteous and dignified cause, may seem justifiable and understandable. But righteous indignation, which may be tainted with self-righteousness, can only accomplish so much. On the other hand, God-inspired righteousness, the righteousness that brings true transformation and healing, is expressed in standing with and for God, not in justifying our own opinions. Truly helpful solutions can appear when we humbly listen for Mind’s guidance to come to light.

Being righteous includes being modest, willing to consider if we are in the wrong, to correct ourselves, and to change course as circumstances may demand. I’ve found this to be quite a discipline. It means striving to do God’s will—through constant consecration of thought to the divine, putting aside human ego and ambition, and letting divine Principle, Love, govern my thoughts and actions.

Being righteous includes being modest.

Christ Jesus is the highest model for how to live a righteous life. As the Son of God, he was always about the work of glorifying God, his heavenly Father, in his ministry. His noblest act of righteousness was demonstrated in his willingness to lay down his own life on the cross that he might prove, through his resurrection, the reality of spiritual life, undying, immortal, and forever complete in the Life that is God. His sublime sacrifice shows that he was never trying to glorify himself but instead living to do the will of divine Love. The Gospel of Mark records Jesus praying in Gethsemane: “Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (14:36). He knew his arrest and crucifixion were imminent, but he bowed to God’s holy purpose to prove for humanity that our life is in God, and is eternal.

The Jews, including even Jesus’ own disciples, did not understand his atonement. The image of a crucified Christ did not match the Jewish expectation that the Messiah would be a powerful warrior who would lead Israel in overthrowing Roman oppression of the Jewish people. But the Christ, God’s spiritual idea, could never be a self-righteous political hero. The Christ was and is a divine power, destroying mere human will and conquering matter, glorifying God and leading humanity to embrace what is spiritual and true. The human mind interpreted the crucifixion as an act of utter humiliation, but spiritual understanding would have foreseen in Jesus’ act of yielding to the divine will the highest example of righteousness, which enabled him to demonstrate eternal life.

Willingness to surrender to God’s love can do any one of us a world of good, and that is especially true as it relates to our politics, including our individual political persuasions. If we feel led to make a case for a certain political policy or ideology, it can be a good idea to bear in thought something Mary Baker Eddy wrote: “The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 206), and in that same book: “When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path” (p. 254).

As we honestly yield our human will and opinions to the government of God, we see that in reality this spiritual government is actually governing us all right now, and doing so with harmony, order, and love. Gaining this realization, we can begin to understand that in proportion as humanity yields to God’s control and order, then human government mirrors the divine, reflecting spiritual love, strength, and peace.

We each have a part to play in helping to bring about this higher sense of government in human affairs. Not only are our prayer and spiritual understanding essential to bring change in the human heart, but so are our actions. In our thoughts, words, and conversations with others, we can ask ourselves, “Am I aiming to express wisdom and love by letting my conversations be a respectful, open, and honest exchange of ideas, or am I manifesting human will, ego, and hate?” Our world needs more righteous thinking and living, not self-righteous tirades.

No matter where we live, the more we allow peace and humility—good, Godlike qualities—to be expressed in our thoughts and lives, the more we help others demonstrate the same spiritual qualities, which have their source in the divine Love that loves us all. As we express divine Love in our own individual way, it’s easier for us to recognize others as the children of God they truly are. Then it becomes all the more natural for us to work together harmoniously with one another, even when we hold opposing views.