Finding Common Ground

Commons in New England cities are everywhere and I appreciate how they are often designed as an important center of town. I remember being particularly taken by Waltham’s town common. It beautifies the community by providing a beautiful space for concerts, events or picnics.

Thinking about the town common led me to think about all the central ideas that exist in our lives, and God was one of them. And while a few people don’t believe in God, that’s OK!

Yet, what I still find it amazing is that across the world's seven major religions, there is a conscious and collective concept of a supreme being. And even though religions may differ on how to describe God, for me, it comes down to our individual relationship to God.

This is where I’ve ultimately learned about God as good, and I’ve seen how God is more than just a “church experience” but something that is real and central to my daily life and thought.

It even has a positive effect on my health.

I also find it very important that both the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures describe God as Love. Thinking about that single fact just feels good. More than that, I find that understanding God as Love, and acting out from it with compassion, is the key and core to humanity’s brotherhood and sisterhood.  

When people act out of mercy and take time to care for one another, these actions provide a better basis for understanding one another. Warmth and charity open the door to recognizing our similarities, while tenderly taking into account our differences.

And when God, or Love, is at the center of our lives, it provides a stronger basis from which we we are able to bridge divides, overcome fear and prejudices, and see each individual as worthy of God’s good graces which come to all, to bless all.