Speaking to human consciousness

The Bible is my primary source of information about the Christ. I also get important insights from a book called Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Mrs. Eddy was a devoted student of the Bible and a life-long seeker for spiritual truth. She didn't just write about her discoveries though, she proved them by healing thousands of people.

Here is one idea about the Christ from her book that I have found useful in my explorations:

"Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." (p. 332)

In the preface to her book, Eddy describes this divine message as "a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised." (p. xi)

I have found that when I am alert to this divine influence ever present in my consciousness and acknowledge that this influence is repeating itself in everyone else's consciousness as well, that people respond to this Christ message.

For example, I used to coach a soccer team of middle-school kids. One day on the practice field one of the players while going for the ball kicked a team mate. The kicked player didn't think this was an accident and a fight broke out between the two. I separated them and told one of the players to go sit on the bench while I talked to the other. This kid was almost as big as I was and I struggled to hold him as I tried to reason with him. He kept saying "I want to fight him!" while I gave him all my coaching platitudes like "Hey, it was an accident. You're teammates. Save your energy for the game". None of this calmed him down.

Then I noticed that this player was wearing a chain with a cross. I don't know what this meant to him - whether it was a gang symbol, a religious symbol, or just a piece of jewelry, but it reminded me that the Christ is a divine influence ever present in everyone's consciousness and repeating itself. Immediately I relaxed and these words popped out of my mouth - "I know you're brave enough to fight him. But I think you're even braver then that. I think you're brave enough to go over there, tell him you're sorry this incident happened, and shake his hand."

The player stopped struggling with me and looked at me in surprise. Then, without another word he walked across the field to the bench, spoke to his teammate, and shook his hand. That was the end of it.

I'm convinced that it was the recognition of the Christ present in the consciousness of all three of us that resolved this confrontation. This recognition opened my thought to the right words to say and allowed both players to respond to the spirit of those words. Now whenever I deal with other people, whether family, friends, or strangers, or whenever I think about our leaders or other world leaders, I remind myself that the Christ is speaking to every human consciousness - and repeating itself!