A few years ago, I joined a recreational rowing organization, and discovered most of my teammates to be extremely friendly, sincere and supportive.
Since the sport of rowing requires close-contact team work, it’s imperative that all crew-members mentally and physically harmonize with one another. And I felt we did, with one exception.
One of our most seasoned rowers often appeared to be extremely critical, unfriendly, and mentally intimidating. And it seemed that most crew-members maintained minimal contact with this gentleman, including me. It was rumored that this man earned an advanced engineering degree from an extremely elite England university. And while many of my teammates were either working or retired professionals, it seemed there were only a select few intellectually capable, where this gentlemen would engage in conversation. And since I didn’t maintain the academic standard, I figured there was no way I would be considered good enough to have dialogue with this accomplished fellow-rower.
During this time while making these intimidating observations, I was struggling to truly love this guy as God made him, and not see him as sometimes being difficult, critical and unsocial.
Later that year, I realized that if things were going to change, I needed to change my thought about how I was seeing this man. Christian Science teaches us that Love (another name for God) heals, and when understood correctly, can heal all ill-will feelings. Mary Baker Eddy states in her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 454, that “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way.” I also prayed with a statement she makes on page 467. She writes, (quoting the Bible) ‘ “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.’
During the next several months, every time I thought of this gentleman, I loved him as God made him, and I just loved, loved, loved this man to the point where all unsettled feelings and negative observations towards his criticalness and unfriendliness had completely vanished. And to my surprise, within a few weeks this rower started saying good morning, and calling me by name. He also began engaging me in conversation with technical questions on how we could improve our rowing practices. As our rowing relationship continued, I could vividly feel the love of divine Love being reciprocated during each and every practice. While the outward manifestation of the changed relationship was wonderful, the spiritual growth attained has given me the confidence that God’s Love shows that all of His children express infinite intelligence. Therefore, we can be certain that we don’t have to match someone’s IQ, but rather, just letting go, and letting God bring out the true sense of who we are brings healing.
Jeff
Burien, WA
