Changes in our roles – whether professional positions or organizational offices – are common. But it can be hard to adapt if we’ve so intensely identified with a position. My life and career have included plenty of position changes. What has helped me the most is keeping the focus on the fact that my life is ultimately about identifying more of the activity of God, Spirit, in myself and in everyone.
What’s the right approach to rotation in office? Christian Science brings much to the subject. Mary Baker Eddy’s contribution to the understanding of the role of divine Mind, or God, in advancing human affairs is paramount to success.
My experiences have pushed me to gain a stronger sense of how the divine Mind, or Spirit, works in everyone. God is the infinite consciousness, the source of all life and good. And to see this good expressed, it sure helps to be focused on finding the good that’s inherently there in each one of us as the spiritual offspring of God.
Our success in discerning God at work in all depends on prayer, on turning to God to better recognize the qualities that come forth from God. While the world can seem like billions of personalities each pursuing their own interests, the infinite consciousness, divine Mind, is always bringing forward in us qualities such as grace and intelligence. These qualities are here to see, and our desire to better see them helps bring them more clearly into view.
In discovering more of how the divine Mind moves us, we come to see more of how “rotation in office,” changes in positions of power or influence, is crucial to progress. Mrs. Eddy laid out the benefits of this concept specifically in relation to her Church, but the spirit of what she wrote is relevant to all our institutions and governments. She said: “Rotation in office promotes wisdom, quiets mad ambition, satisfies justice, and crowns honest endeavors” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 250).
Rotation in office certainly helps more people gain the benefits of new experiences. But more importantly, when we see how uniquely each person expresses God in countless ways, we are increasingly magnifying God, the source of all right action. This opens the way for fuller contributions from everyone, and individually and collectively we make the differences that are needed in the world.
The tamping down of unhealthy ambition supports a steady, irreversible progress in the broadest way. As we acknowledge divine Spirit as the influencer of everyone, no one can unhelpfully influence decisions or policies. Similarly, it’s harder for injustices to arise if our focus is on finding infinite God, good, working in everyone.
Honest endeavors are “crowned,” or fulfilled, by something broader and bigger than one person imposing a plan or implementing a set of ideas. The ultimate of Life in the universe is the beauty and grandeur of God expressed in all of His creation. It’s about feeling something is happening as the outcome of God.
In the path toward building and sustaining strong, healthy institutions and societies, we need to increasingly understand and express the love that enables the best practices of governing in the true spirit of honest service. Listening for Mind’s direction, we’ll naturally keep our hearts open to implementing changes that enable the right rotations in office at the right time that lead the way to fulfillment for everyone.
