Fresh year, fresh ideas

It happened every January when I was a kid: I’d inevitably date a school assignment with the year that had just ended. It would take some conscious effort to start writing the correct digits; it didn’t just happen automatically.

It was a small thing, but for me it has served as a metaphor for a larger lesson: It’s on us to bring a spirit of freshness into our experience. The flipping of a calendar page can’t do that by itself!

When it comes to overcoming stagnation in any area of life – such as health, relationships, finances, work, or sense of purpose – an openness to new ideas is key. I’ve found that the most meaningful progress comes from a receptivity to God as the source of unlimited inspiration that invigorates, guides, and heals.

This kind of receptivity requires a willingness to see ourselves and the world around us from a radically different perspective than what we may be used to – from God’s perspective. Mary Baker Eddy, the Monitor’s founder, writes of this shift to a more spiritual way of seeing things: “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” pp. 323-324).

This “advanced idea” includes how God, divine Spirit, knows us: as His own reflection, the very image of the Divine. In other words, God didn’t create us as mortals, susceptible to illness or inertia or misery. We are the dynamic, pure, spiritual offspring of God, good. We’re purpose-built to radiate divine goodness, joy, health, intelligence, peace.

How’s that for a fresh idea?

Yet it’s a timeless truth. The fact of our true nature as God’s wholly spiritual sons and daughters is a foundational point in Christian Science, which Mrs. Eddy discovered in the 19th century and is based on Christ Jesus’ healing ministry.

And it never gets old! As long as we’re honestly yearning to understand our God-given identity more deeply, to live it more fully, and to let the goodness of that nature hold increasing sway on everything we think and say and do, the spiritual facts of existence become more real to us. Our thought is transformed.

And then each day becomes a new opportunity to discern healing, guiding divine inspiration. To feel God’s love and care more tangibly. To bring a more genuine compassion and unselfishness to our interactions, and fresh wisdom and innovation to our activities. As Science and Health explains, “Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, – this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony” (p. 324).

At any time of year, we can make an active effort to identify and reject limited, material-based ways of thinking, and consciously seek out a fresh understanding of God and our nature as His children. And then we’ll experience something of what’s described in these lines from the “Christian Science Hymnal”:

In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new.
(William Cowper, No. 313)