Enlarging the prayer tent

Fred Andresen | from the Christian Science Sentinel

This is a time in history when we badly need each other. People constantly read and see graphic evidence of cruelty inflicted on the innocent. They are shocked at tribal warfare, ethnic cleansing, earthquakes, storms, and drought, along with innumerable local and national issues relating to corruption and crime. Granted, as individuals our reach is limited, on a human level. But we cannot allow our thinking to quarantine those events as something we can’t help with or shouldn’t touch. We can include those people—victims and victimizers—in our prayers.

For me, a sentence from the book of Isaiah points toward a healing solution: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes” (Isa. 54:2). While the Bible context, depending on the translation, encourages the barren widow to broaden her concept of motherhood, the instruction has an even greater metaphorical application for everyone today.

As I see it, there are more or less three parts to this Biblical admonition. The first applies to the opportunity—the obligation, even—to move out of our confining mental tent, that small circle of self, and embrace in prayer not just family, but our neighborhood, community, nation, the world. Why hold back?

Understanding all-inclusive Love, we can’t accept destructive evil anywhere.

The Bible and Science and Health expand the individual’s understanding of God as infinite, all-inclusive Love, Spirit, Life, Mind. With this understanding, we can no more accept destructive evil in the streets of foreign lands than we admit its invasion of our own homes or neighborhoods. And when we ask, “What can one person do when the noise of evil’s rant is so overwhelming?” there’s a firm answer: “It’s not about numbers or volume. It’s about trust in God, and about divinely directed thinking that knows no limitations.”

We can enlarge our thought to bless the world, even when faced all around with compelling reasons to divide, to exclude, to point the finger, to accuse others.

Of course, intelligent and sincere discussion is needed to understand pertinent facts and come to fair decisions in fulfilling personal or civic responsibility. But in the process of seeking truth on the human level, it’s all too easy to separate it from Truth on the spiritual level—from what is said, from who is saying it and why. “Enlarging our tent” means including everyone in our expression of Love, often with sealed lips.

There’s also the need to take into account the ropes and the stakes of that prayer tent. In my young camping days, we learned that before the brewing storm hit, we should loosen the tent ropes and drive in more stakes, maybe at a different angle, depending on the soil. These days tent ropes are mostly made of nylon and don’t shrink. But in Isaiah’s day, and even in my day, they were made of cotton or hemp. When the rain soaked them, they always shrank, ripping the canvas, pulling the stakes out of the ground—then there went your tent, and everyone got wet! Even now, this metaphor alerts you to be mentally prepared as you go forward, so you can withstand the storm of challenging adversity, regardless of its noise and apparent power—giving some slack as necessary to absorb the change, and driving the stakes of your understanding into firmer spiritual ground.

The outreach of one’s consciousness knows no limits.

Finally, there’s the tent itself. In the Science of the Christ, the outreach of one’s consciousness knows no limits. It’s important to include all men, women, and children. And it’s helpful to challenge yourself boldly. Am I being selective as to race, gender, religion, or even political identity? Am I following Peter’s observation that “God is no respecter of persons,” and Paul’s declaration, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Acts 10:34, Col. 3:11)? Also, am I, as a Christian Scientist, embracing this thought from the Daily Prayer in the Church Manual, “… and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 41)?

I might have to secure my enlarged tent, ready for the storms of error, but I cannot pass up this opportunity to bless others daily, to do my part in this contest of ideas, and to recognize the omnipotence of Love to reach out and heal. It’s an opportunity. A privilege.

Fred Andresen, an international businessman and writer, lives in Corona del Mar, California.