An expectant outlook

Late to his advanced statistics class, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, noticed on the board two complicated statistics problems, which he assumed were a homework assignment.

He copied them down, and soon turned his solutions in. The professor was stunned! Because the student – George Dantzig – had missed the beginning of class that day, he hadn’t heard that those problems on the board were quite renowned but had never been solved. Mr. Dantzig’s solutions served as significant waymarks in the field.

“If I had known that the problems were not homework,” said Mr. Dantzig years later, “but were in fact two famous unsolved problems in statistics, I probably would not have thought positively, would have become discouraged, and would never have solved them.”

What a difference our perspective can make! It can be tempting to approach a task or problem weighed down with hopelessness, with results mirroring our low expectations. How can we shift our expectations and experience more progress?

This question reminds me of an account in the Bible of Jesus healing a boy with epilepsy (see Mark 9:17-27). I can’t imagine how the boy’s father must have felt after asking some of Jesus’ disciples to help his son. The boy’s symptoms were severe, perhaps causing the disciples to question the possibility of healing, as the father then explained to Jesus that they had been unable to heal his son.

Yet in the face of others’ doubtful expectations, Jesus explained, “All things are possible for one who believes” (English Standard Version), and then proceeded to heal the boy.

If you and I had been present to witness the events that day, would our expectations about the power of prayer have changed? Even today, we can find encouragement from Jesus’ definitive healing work and assurances that we, too, can follow in his path (see John 14:12).

“When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress,” observes the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy, in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 426). Jesus made clear that in order to help and heal, he turned humbly to God, his Father. This is more than just positive thinking. Prayer based on the all-presence and all-power of God – who Christian Science teaches is Love, Spirit, and Truth – fuels a genuine expectation of God’s present help.

God, being all good, brings out in His creation only goodness, intelligence, love, and even perfection. This creation, which is entirely spiritual, includes all of us as God’s children. A knowledge of this truth, when embraced wholeheartedly, transforms our perspective, helping us see that – no matter how much it may seem otherwise – problems are not unsolvable, that we can expect progress and healing.

During a baseball practice when I was at university, I damaged a muscle in my left arm. It might have seemed that there was little hope of recovering anytime soon. But over the years I had experienced so many healings through prayer that I jumped at the opportunity to go to God for inspiration.

This joyful expectancy gave my prayers such energy. As I listened to God with an open heart, it became clear to me that my view of competition could be a little more uplifted. This didn’t seem very relevant and was not what I was expecting, but I felt God’s love with this message, so I prayed about it.

I realized that no one – including teammates and players on other teams – could deprive me of anything good, because God has gifted all of us with limitless goodness. It then came to me that this applied to health, too. No accident can deprive us of our innate, God-given spiritual wholeness.

I woke up the next morning completely healed. In fact, the team had a three-game series starting that day, and I was able to play all three games in complete freedom. And the inspiration I’d gained about competition improved my interactions on the field moving forward, too. I can’t help but overflow with gratitude.

We are conditioned by our world to believe that we are flawed, with imperfections that are unsolvable – simply part of who we are. But we can expect better. For God, nothing is unsolvable. Instead of feeling intimidated by what may seem like a problem without remedy, through prayer we can cultivate more of an expectant outlook, which opens the way to healing. As the Bible encourages, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11).