How can I repay some of the good God has given? How can I show my love for Him more?" takes hold of our thinking, we have arrived at an unusually holy place in spiritual development. We and our neighbors are in for unimagined blessings--once you and I learn the answer to this crucial question and start to act on it.
"Heavy topic!" some of you might be thinking. Not really! After all, our relationship to our Creator eclipses all others. And the sooner we begin thinking of how we can more fully express our love and gratitude to Him, the happier and healthier life is going to be for us and for those whom our lives will increasingly touch.
The Psalmist's question, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" is a lofty one. (116:12) And it deserves sublime counsel on how best to achieve such giving--counsel that the above command of Christ, together with the one immediately following provides us. "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself", Jesus said.
These two commandments are as one, for to obey the first ensures obedience to the second. Love of our fellow beings has to be active; it must take form. It is an expression, not merely a feeling. It is an active service, as Jesus' life showed. Actually, we can't love God without this unselfed activity. As a New Testament writer points out, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (I John 4:20)
As most of us can attest, the human mind is not inclined to do this, not for any length of time that is. Obviously something more than good intent is needed for one to carry out Jesus' command successfully. And speaking for myself, my religion has provided this help by giving me a spiritual, scientific basis for developing enriched affections, a greater love for others.
As the teachings of Christian Science reveal, man is one with God, divine Love; he is the expression, or idea, of the only Mind there actually is. And so, love for God includes love for His idea, man. God's love for man is expressed in our love for others. Looking at ourselves in this spiritually enlightened way, claiming our divinely derived ability to manifest warmth, compassion, kindness, unselfishness, we feel lifted up, spiritually strengthened to reach the high goal of loving our neighbor as ourselves. Instead of striving in a merely human way for something we may not feel qualified to do and which may not seem attainable, we see that God is actually our Mind--that we have the Mind which spontaneously loves and is Love. We awake to a a capacity to love that is already spiritually natural for us since it is our God-given right and present endowment as divine Love's reflection. Learning to love as Jesus did--consciously reflecting the Mind that is Love--moves us beyond the human mind's inhibitions, its frustrations and failures. Our caring becomes more effective and healing, more rewarding for all concerned. And best of all, we experience the special joy that comes from doing what is pleasing to our heavenly Father.
"But still, I wouldn't know where to begin expressing the love Jesus is talking about," someone might be thinking right now. Let's not forget that our fellow beings aren't a species different from us! The hopes and fears and struggle and the consequent need for warmth and support that we feel at times, they feel too. The emotions that stir our hearts, stir others' as well.
The Old Testament offers some help in seeing how we can begin to love more. Proverbs enjoins us, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." (3:27) What a world of difference a sincere thank-you or just a smile that indicates we appreciate what another is doing can make! Most of us, every single day, fail to take advantage of opportunities to reach out to our neighbor in simple but highly effective ways. Yet whenever we take the time to let others know we recognize the contribution they are making and really care about their well-being, this magnifies the good they are doing and it honors them as sons and daughers of God.
Many people have a genuinely warm nature and could be reaching out much more than they do to bless others. But affections are being bottled up for what they consider valid reasons. Perhaps they fear looking foolish if they show concern. It is true that all who express love need to have courage and resolve. But even if their efforts to love are misunderstood and elicit no response (and this happens to all of us at times) Christ's followers will go right on expressing divine Love as much as they can.
Some might be holding back on living Christly love because their conscience won't allow them to heap what they feel is unearned praise on people just to be nice to them. We don't have to compromise our integrity to help others. Nor do we have to resort to flattery. But if we are seeing others as God knows and loves them, we can in all good conscience rejoice in the goodness of the man God created and love even when it may humanly be undeserved.
The good we can do through a God-inspired kindness is many time greater than the time and effort it costs us. The right sentiment expressed at the right moment ahs been known to positively light up another's life with joy, even transform it forever. And loving is always timely when God impels it. When we align ourselves with the source of all uplift and comfort and healing and are willing to be used by God, divine Love, there is no limit to the blessings He will bestow through us.
Loving and blessing those that come into our experience are an answer to one of society's more pervasive problems, and that problem is the terrible loneliness so many are feeling today. Christlike interest in others is an unfailing antidote for too much self. Even if one has spent a lifetime being self-centered, now is not too late to start being God-centered. When the thought comes, "What am I really living for?", this could be an indication that one is beginning to reach out for a higher, more spiritual sense of purpose, a more selfless, truly satisfying way of life than absorption in self can ever bring. The ways we can live Love are endless. Living Love will give anyone all the purpose he or she can handle.
Mary Baker Eddy points out: "As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing." (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165)
You and I are in the world to bless the world, as our Master showed. Jesus went all out for God in a life filled with the loving and healing others. As we follow his example, we see with out own eyes how many today need all the Christly warmth and compassion they can get. How can we not do this for our infinitely loving God?
