"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
The term millennial is a pretty loaded one. Millennials, or Generation Y, are usually defined as those of us born sometime between the early ’80s and the early 2000s. That’s a wide range, and sometimes it feels as if “millennial” is a stereotype that encapsulates a lot of sometimes contradictory definitions.
Millennials are often seen as having a good knowledge of technology. We’re also thought of as activists, with a habit of speaking our minds about issues we feel passionate about. But, as with all labels, those positives tend to come with a downside: Many also associate our generation with always having our noses stuck in our phones, or see us as “bad listeners” or “too opinionated.”
How do we get past these kinds of stereotypes? Through my study of Christian Science I’ve learned that because God is one, the spiritual reality for every single one of us as His children must be that we are also one, because we are His expression. This means that our individuality isn’t stereotype-based, but God-based. And rather than creating divisions, this divine diversity is completely harmonious, because it’s sourced in God.
For me, a first step toward seeing more of this foundational spiritual unity was to redeem the word millennial. And recently, while reading the Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly, I noticed this marginal heading in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Millennial glory.” It was beside a paragraph that reads: “If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of his cup, they would have revolutionized the world. If all who seek his commemoration through material symbols will take up the cross, heal the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth, to the poor,—the receptive thought,—they will bring in the millennium” (p. 34).
Then, a couple of weeks later, I read a citation from Science and Health that says, “As material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially” (p. 96). The full paragraph in this section also has the marginal heading of, you guessed it, “Millennial glory.”
Even though Mrs. Eddy isn’t using millennial here in the way it’s been used to identify my generation, her words elevated my perspective on the term, and for the first time I could see how Millennials, just like everyone else, have a special part to play in bringing out “millennial glory.” For example, my generation is known for being active in causes we believe in and proactive about making a positive change in the world. What an opportunity that makes for channeling that energy into healing the sick, casting out evils, and preaching Christ—by tapping into our God-given spiritual understanding to perceive our world “mentally instead of materially”!
During my last couple of years of high school (a stage called Sixth Form in England), I discovered how powerful it is to make the shift from approaching life from a worldly perspective to approaching it from a spiritual one. I was starting to really enjoy my English Literature classes. However, I wasn’t doing very well at writing the big essays. When the results from the end-of-year exam came out, I was surprised to find I had achieved only an E (one letter grade above an F!).
Thankfully, a few months later, I had an opportunity to retake the exam. This time, though, I decided to take an hour each day to study the Christian Science Bible Lesson before I worked on preparing for the exam. Studying the Lesson shifted my thought away from a very limited goal of doing well or impressing my teachers to a more spiritual goal of understanding more clearly that God, divine Mind, is the source of all intelligence. When I retook the exam, I felt free and inspired. I knew the exam wasn’t about me, but about expressing this unlimited divine intelligence. When the results came in, I discovered I’d scored an A, just one mark off of 100 percent!
This started for me a habit of reading the Bible Lesson every day. Once I’d seen the positive effect it could have, how could I not? As I grew in my understanding of Christian Science, I realized something even more profound: Studying the Bible Lesson wasn’t just about making my life better, but about helping others, too. I saw that as I allowed the spiritual facts about God and creation to spiritualize my own thought, I would be prepared to think more spiritually about whatever situations I encountered—to approach them in a way that actually healed.
This healing effect is brought home in a passage I read in a 1916 issue of this magazine: “Mrs. Eddy once said to a student that she longed for the day to come when no one could enter a Christian Science church, no matter how sick or how sorrowing that one might be, without being healed, and that this day can come only when every member of the church studies and demonstrates the truth contained in the Lesson-Sermon, and takes with him to the service the consciousness thus prepared” (Florence Clerihew Boyd, “Healing the multitudes,” July 1, 1916). Now that felt like a cause I could get behind! I saw that I could bring all that inspiration I’d gained from my study of the Bible and Science and Health into both my daily life and the church service at the end of the week, and that could help and heal people. Consecrated study of the Lesson, and allowing that study to uplift my own thoughts, was a significant way of doing my part to “bring in the millennium.” And I have consistently seen how this has had an effect, whether I’m a member of the congregation during a Sunday service or working in a Christian Science Reading Room.
Today, I find joy in taking all of those qualities that make Millennials special, defining them more spiritually, and applying them to my own spiritual practice and to church work. And this focus on the spiritual qualities I’m expressing has not only helped remove generational divisions in churches I have attended, but it’s also allowed me to appreciate more of the uniqueness that we each have to offer.
Removing the negativity from the label “millennial” is a first step. But through my own prayer to see things more spiritually, I’ve also come to realize that the increased spiritual understanding that brings out the real “millennial glory” is what removes these sorts of labels altogether. As we discern everyone’s real nature as children of God, we come to appreciate each individual’s strengths, not as the product of a certain generation, but as sourced in God—genuine spiritual qualities that all of us are designed to express.