Got a Godometer?

by David Evans

The Christian Science Monitor reports (April 7, 2008) that 400 drivers in Denver are having gizmos called accelerometers installed in their cars. Why? It’s a test program to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The accelerometers will track driving habits and point out ones that waste gas and lead to greater pollution. The hope is that drivers will change any bad habits when those habits and their effects are exposed.

Great idea. But here’s a greater one: having a Godometer.

A Godometer?

Yep. An accelerometer flags bad driving habits, but a Godometer flags any thoughts we have that aren’t Godlike—thoughts that could have some pretty nasty effects if we indulge them. It checks everything that flows through our consciousness and lets us know if it’s Godlike or not.

It’s an important distinction. As Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 462), “Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question.” And it’s what the Godometer lets us know. How does it do it? By determining the origin of each thought. Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: “How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions? By learning the origin of each” (Science and Health, p. 88). She then continues, “Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the so-called material senses . . . .”

Now here’s the really good news: Each one of us has a Godometer installed at the factory. It’s standard equipment for everyone; no one has to pay extra. As Paul puts it in the Bible, “. . . we have the mind of Christ” (I Cor. 1:16). The Christ—”the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness,” as Mrs. Eddy defines it at one point in Science and Health (p. 332)—is always present in our consciousness, letting us know what’s right, letting us know whether something is divine or based on erroneous material thinking. The Godometer is there. All we have to do is pay attention to it.

Oh, yeah—paying attention to it. That appears to be the hard part. Paul didn’t pay attention to it for quite a while; in fact, he hunted down and persecuted those who did. But the time came when even he couldn’t ignore the Godometer. Afterwards, he did his best to listen to it for the rest of his days. He accomplished some remarkable stuff as a result.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” Paul went on to write (Phil. 2:5). It’s ours, after all, so we might as well use it. And if Paul with his checkered past could, any of us can. “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love,” Mrs. Eddy writes (Pulpit and Press, p. 3), adding, “If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer?” Absolutely nothing. What it takes is the humility to stick with “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Paul again [Phil 4:8]). Then, with the mind of Christ as our Godometer, we can accomplish some remarkable stuff too.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 2:03 pm and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.