New Year reset button
The New Year reminds me of a reset button. Sometimes electronic equipment freezes up or makes repetitive errors. Instead of searching for cause/effect, a simple reset might solve the problem. The unit is turned off and on, or the battery is extracted and reinserted. The malfunction is erased. Then the unit is free to function properly.
Almost no time is required. No laborious retracing of footsteps to find the mistake. No extended study of advanced technology. It is simply the willingness to rid oneself of whatever is inhibiting progress by depriving it of power. With no power fueling the mistake, the error is erased. When power is restored, the unit starts fresh. The past is gone. The future is unburdened.
We might feel like our life could use a reset button. Grief, fear, pride might be freezing up our faith. These negative emotions can accumulate and slow down our thought process until we find ourselves feeling discouraged. Or perhaps it seems as if someone else is blocking our progress and preventing us from expressing our talents to the fullest. Reacting to injustice fuels the emotional fire. In either case, pressing the reset button of thought deprives negative emotions of power and resets thought to its natural trust in God’s goodness.
To me, the spiritual reset button is the Christ, which comes to comfort us in times of trouble and removes evil from our thought and lives. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, described Christ as the message from God to humankind (see “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 332). This message resets thought and restores our life to its original harmonious relation to God.
Christ is the spiritual message of comfort that comes continuously to each one. We don’t need to wait until we deserve this Christ consciousness. Christ comes whether we are ready or not, willing or not. Christ simply comes as Christ has always come, turning off doubts and fears, and turning on the divine energy of Spirit that makes us feel renewed.
When I was a kid, I used to battle negative emotions at night. Loneliness, pride, frustration, hurt feelings, anger would bubble up and overwhelm me. I could see no way out of injustice or misunderstandings. But in those moments of darkest night, the Christ would come and push the reset button. I would feel a tangible assurance that all would be well. I didn’t demand to know how. I trustingly accepted that God was governing and was able to redeem and restore. Sure enough, in the morning, the negative feelings would have fled. I would be happy and start the day feeling full of new possibilities. Hope and happiness had been restored. Sometimes the problems had been resolved as well, sometimes not. But my mental and emotional equilibrium had been reset.
Like a soft reset, Christ deprives emotions of the power that would keep negativity churning. Christ, or the spiritual message from God to His sons and daughters, gives power only to what is good, healthy, and progressive. This restores the balance of thought and enables us to move forward with hope and grace.
It is a New Year. It is a new day. It is a new moment. The comforting Christ is always present to reset our heart and mind, and make us new.
Listen to a podcast by the author on this topic.
For a Korean translation of this article, see The Herald of Christian Science.
To receive Christian Science perspectives daily or weekly in your inbox, sign up today.
Trust the Eternal when the shadows gather,
When joys of daylight seem so like a dream;
God the unchanging pities like a father;
Trust on and wait, the daystar yet shall gleam.Trust the Eternal, for the clouds that vanish
No more can move the mountains from their base
Than sin’s illusive wreaths of mist can banish
Light from His throne or loving from His face.Trust the Eternal, and repent in meekness
Of that heart’s pride which frowns and will not yield,
Then to thy child-heart shall come strength in weakness,
And thine immortal life shall be revealed.William P. McKenzie, “Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 359
