It’s not how much you know of God but how faithful you are to what you do know that brings the healing power of God into your experience.]]> Barbara Vining | from The Christian Science Journal

People often think it takes lots of faith to heal through prayer. Apparently the first Christian apostles even thought so. When they implored Jesus, “Increase our faith,” he told them that with faith as small as a tiny seed they could command a tree to uproot itself and jump into the sea, and it would do it (see Luke 17:5, 6). With this deft response, Jesus completely dismissed the notion that their faith would have to come in large quantities. He directed their thought away from the amount of faith they possessed to the power that lay behind it.

The power of prayer, Jesus taught, is not so much in the faith of the one who prays, but in what one has faith in. He placed absolute faith in God, omnipotent Truth, as the healing power, and so does Christian Science. Jesus made clear that divine Truth can be known, understood, so that one’s faith is not blind, but enlightened—and that this understanding comes through faithfully following his teachings. He said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32).

Note that Jesus said “the truth shall make you free,” not that one’s knowing of the truth makes one free.

I find it very freeing to think in terms of being faithful, rather than struggling for more faith. This kind of focus directs my attention to seeking to understand God as Truth, and then to be faithful to what I am learning. Each one of us has the spiritual sense, the God-given capacity, to perceive and understand the divine Science of Truth that lay behind Jesus’ healing power.

Being faithful to what we are learning of Truth brings Truth’s omnipotent healing power into our present experience today.

Certainly no one can ever say they have reached the point where they know divine Truth so completely that they have no more to learn. Gaining a true understanding of God is a lifetime learning activity. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of the Science of Christ, Truth, made this point when she said, “A grain of Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnipotent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be gained in order to continue in well doing” (Science and Health, p. 449). The beautiful thing is, though, that being faithful to what we are learning of Truth brings Truth’s omnipotent healing power into our present experience today. And that makes the necessary self-discipline well worth the effort.

For example, I’ve been a student of Christian Science for over 50 years. Each of the many healings I have experienced has come in the same way—by my learning what’s true of God, and being faithful to Truth by acknowledging the consequent untruth of some discord. That’s where the discipline comes in.

It’s very easy to unquestioningly accept the plethora of diseases and disturbing scenes before us as real and true, especially those that hit home in our own lives. To be faithful to God, and thus to bring healing to these situations, we need to be keenly aware of God as Truth. I’ve found no better way to do this than through an openhearted daily study of Christian Science, accompanied by moments of prayerful communion with God.

Let me share a few of the things the textbooks of Christian Science, the Bible and Science and Health, teach me about God as Truth.

Truth heals by liberating the human mind from ignorantly believing in what is untrue of God and His creation.

God is Truth because God is the only Cause, the only Creator. Immortal Truth is the Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Life of all God creates. Truth is unchanging, divine Love, permitting no error—no limitation, corruption, disease—neither in itself or in its creation. By reason of its all-presence and all-power, Truth precludes the existence of error; therefore, whatever is unlike God is untrue, unreal, nothing more than an illusion of the human mind. Truth heals by liberating the human mind from ignorantly believing in what is untrue of God and His creation.

Now that’s a lot to take in, for sure. That’s why it’s so important to give God our full attention in our moments of study and prayer—and to keep whatever we know to be true of God before our thought during the day. We’re so used to judging what’s real and what’s unreal through what our eyes and ears tell us, whereas divine Truth is understood through spiritual sense. Faithful attention to living the spiritual qualities put forth in Jesus’ teachings—the Beatitudes (see Matt. 5:3–12), as one example—spiritualize the quality of our thinking. This sharpens our spiritual sense and enables us to reason clearly that Truth is indeed the only reality despite what the five senses tell us.

It’s not how much you know of God but how faithful you are to what you do know that brings the healing power of God into your experience. A recent healing of mine illustrates this point. One morning, my alarm rang. I started to move my leg to the side of the bed. My leg was stiff and sore. I went to move my arm. Same thing. Every bit of me was stiff and sore. I thought, What! Did I turn into an old lady overnight? I laughed at that a little. Then I started to pray.

As I proceeded rather slowly to get out of bed and get ready for the day, I turned my thoughts to God as the only Cause. I saw how necessary it was for me to love God thoroughly, and not to be made to believe anything that is not true about Him. So whenever a suggestion of another cause besides God came to my thought, such as time, or age, or overexertion, I would mentally reason that since God is the only Cause, the stiffness didn’t have any cause at all.

I limbered up as the day went on, but the next morning it was the same story, and the same prayer. Then after I had dressed and was walking out of my bedroom, I suddenly stood still for a moment. I thought, Well, if this stiffness doesn’t have a cause, then it just plain isn’t! And it wasn’t! Every hint of stiffness and soreness was gone just like that—and never returned. Divine Truth liberated my thought and healed me.

What I really needed was less faith in error.

Did this healing come because I suddenly had a greater quantity of faith in Truth than I had had a moment earlier? No. It came because my faith in Truth as the only Cause overtook my mistaken faith in material causes and destroyed it. As Science and Health states, “When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error … then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error” (Science and Health, p. 368). What I really needed was less faith in error.

It’s not hard to have faith in what you know to be true, unless you can be made to believe a lie. So bring your openhearted, receptive thought to a daily study of Christian Science and engage in moments of precious communion with God. Ponder Truth. Love it. Explore the diversity of beautiful spiritual qualities that make up God’s being and that pervade man’s (everyone’s) true being as His spiritual reflection. Then, be faithful to Truth. Don’t let the spiritual ignorance floating around in the general atmosphere of human thought talk you into believing what you know is not true.

No matter how small you think your faith in Truth is, be faithful to it, and you will experience Truth’s liberating, healing power.

Contributing Editor Barbara Vining is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. She lives in Toledo, Ohio.

Limitation has been with humanity from the get-go, and now the limits of fossil fuels are in the spotlight. But with his practice of Christian Science as a basis, physicist Michael Antal is challenging those limits. His research could lead to a cost-effective and ultraefficient source of renewable energy.]]> from The Christian Science Journal

Jeffrey Hildner talks with physicist Michael Antal

Jeffrey Hildner: The convergence of waning global oil production and what many see as waxing global warming has intensified the scientific community’s focus on renewable energy research here in the opening chapter of the 21st century. But you’ve focused on renewable energy for over 35 years now. Why did you get interested in renewable energy so early?

Michael Antal: There are two answers to that. The first answer revolves around issues of physics, and the second answer revolves around issues of metaphysics.

As to the physics side of the equation, my interest goes back to my time at Dartmouth, where there’s a tradition of interest in global energy. Dartmouth was a magnet for people who were concerned about the environment and the future of energy. And then in 1973–74 the energy crisis surfaced, echoing the predictions of limits to growth. I was at Los Alamos at that point, and the scientists at Los Alamos had a big interest in energy and different ways of satisfying our country’s energy needs. I was encouraged to devote some of my time to the renewable energy area even though I was in a group concerned with thermonuclear weapons physics.

When you say “predictions of limits to growth,” what do you mean? Could you unpack that?

Well, the term limits to growth goes back to the big interest in renewable energy that emerged from research at MIT, specifically from Donella Meadows, a pioneer in environmental science who later taught at Dartmouth. In 1972, when I was a graduate student at Harvard, Meadows published Limits to Growth, a classic book modeling the impact of a rapidly growing world population and finite resources. She and her husband, who collaborated on the book, used very sophisticated numerical models to predict the future. And 36 years ago they predicted that around the turn of the century, right now, there were going to be real problems, difficult times.

And the second answer as to why you got interested in renewable energy so early—the metaphysical factor in the equation?

I don’t accept the general concept of limits to growth.

As a metaphysicist, I don’t accept the general concept of limits to growth, even though as a physicist I know that these limits with respect to fossil fuels are very real. It seems to me that innovation and creativity—even radical scientific breakthroughs—will be required to circumvent those limits.

You know there’s this Adam-and-Eve curse that we have on us that says we must till the ground from whence we are taken. At least that’s the belief. And one aspect of tilling the ground is mining the earth for coal and oil and natural gas, so I see this process as part of the curse. Another aspect of the curse is this sense of limitation that comes from it. In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy defined serpent as “the first lie of limitation” (p. 594). So the sense of limitation has been with humanity from the get-go.

Look also at Mrs. Eddy’s line in her definition of Eve: “that which does not last forever” (Science and Health, p. 585). So again you get this sense of limitation associated with a false, Adam-and-Eve account of creation. You get this sense of material things ending, which is what is approaching as far as our fossil fuel resources are concerned. That which does not last forever. They are running out. We will live to see it.

I also like Mrs. Eddy’s definition of Euphrates. It’s a long definition, but toward the middle of it there’s this: “a state of mortal thought, the only error of which is limitation” (Science and Health, p. 585).

Limitation is the very first error that appears in mortal consciousness.

So this sense of limitation is the very first error that appears in mortal consciousness. It’s the root error that is the source of all the other errors. And to me, it seems like events are forcing us to escape from this Adam curse. I’ve always seen my research into energy sources, which take the lid off this limitation, as potentially contributing to this escape.

Mrs. Eddy has a wonderful quote, “Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, never causing man to till the ground, but making him superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious spiritual harmony and eternal being” (Science and Health, pp. 520–521). Christian Science naturally causes us, I think, to look elsewhere than the soil for our resources and our well-being.

It sounds to me that maybe you see yourself as a kind of servant-scientist. How has your study of Christian Science helped you in your research and your quest for innovation and breakthroughs that will help the world?

Well first, I think divine Mind has shaped my career and guided me to wonderful opportunities to fulfill my sense of purpose of, as you say, being a servant-scientist. Take my being here in Hawaii. It turns out that Hawaii is an excellent place to conduct my research because Hawaii has no fossil fuel resources. It’s entirely dependent on imports of fuel, so the mentality in Hawaii is to naturally look for sustainability and independence, because the moment there’s any global energy problem, Hawaii is the first to feel it. Also, global warming is causing the sea level to rise. The rise has been measured, and there are predictions about how much rise will occur. This is a great concern to the islands in the Pacific because some islands that are inhabited will completely disappear. Others will lose shoreline. In our case, 50 years from now Waikiki will be quite different than it is today. We will lose a lot of our shoreline. So this is another reason that in Hawaii there’s an outlook similar to Europe’s.

Christian Science has helped me break through various limitations along the way.

Second, Christian Science has helped me break through various limitations along the way. For example, my work is extremely interdisciplinary. It not only involves many engineering and science fields but also involves economics, because our energy research needs to be competitive in the marketplace. Christian Science has helped me cut through resistance among university departments to their having faculty do this kind of work, and has helped me push past limitations that the ordinary educational establishment might impose.

And, of course, my whole area of research, Flash Carbonization, involves breaking through limitations, for the very reason that the research is still considered radical.

What is the Flash Carbonization process?

I have to give you a bit of a primer on fossil fuels to answer that question. The world uses three types of fuels: solid, liquid, gaseous. The big three are coal, oil (gasoline), and natural gas.

For each of these fossil fuels there is a renewable equivalent. The renewable equivalent of natural gas is hydrogen. The renewable equivalent of gasoline is ethanol and biodiesel. The renewable equivalent of coal is charcoal. These fuels are viewed as renewable because they’re obtained from a renewable biomass, such as agricultural crops or trees.

My research focuses on charcoal, the renewable energy substitute for coal. Now coal is basically carbon, and charcoal is a very pure form of carbon. Charcoal has no mercury. It has no sulfur. It’s virtually a pure carbon. So charcoal is very environmentally friendly.

We use charcoal for barbecue, and for us it seems cute. It seems fun. We can’t imagine it being an important fuel, but we appreciate its qualities because we enjoy cooking over it. Why do we cook over it? It’s clean. It’s clean for cooking, and it imparts a special flavor. Now it turns out that charcoal is used for cooking by more people in the world than any other fuel. And in Hawaii, all of the water we drink is treated using activated charcoal.

Until recently, the viewpoint about charcoal has been that it’s inefficient and slow to produce. So nobody ever took charcoal seriously. Basically, in my work we learned how to make charcoal very efficiently and very quickly. We can make charcoal much more efficiently and quickly than you can make ethanol from wood or grain. So our breakthrough was learning how to make charcoal efficiently and quickly.

How has Christian Science helped sustain your maverick research?

Christian Science has helped me trust that my research is valid and to expect that answers to renewable energy might well come in unexpected forms.

You know when Moses supplied the manna to the Israelites on their Exodus from Egypt, the people were starving [see Ex. 16:2–15]. Did they expect to receive manna as their food when they prayed? In other words, when they looked at the manna, did they know immediately that this was bread they could eat? As I recall, they didn’t know what it was; it wasn’t familiar to them. It came in a form they didn’t expect, and at first they doubted what it was. But they discovered that this manna was nutritious, and they were able to eat it. And it sustained them.

One needs to have a flexible thought, an open thought, an expectant thought.

All I’m getting at is that we’ve been enculturated to expect that our fuel will be a liquid or a gas. So if someone comes forward and says, “No, the fuel that will be the best for you is solid charcoal,” people might respond, “That makes no sense” just as the Israelites said about the manna, “We don’t know what this is. It doesn’t make sense.” So one needs to have a flexible thought, an open thought, an expectant thought—a thought that doesn’t outline how our supply will come.

Christian Science has also helped me to make hard choices. The hardest choice that I had to make was around the year 2000. My laboratory had published the highest yields of hydrogen from biomass ever obtained in the literature. And with Professor Lee Lynd at Dartmouth College, we published the highest yields of ethanol ever obtained in the literature. We also had published the highest yields of charcoal ever obtained in the literature. So at that point I could have given emphasis to any one of these areas. But I chose this charcoal route, the path less traveled. And I think it was the right choice.

How would you define renewable energy as seen through the lens of Christian Science?

Mary Baker Eddy wrote about the vitality and the vigor of Mind, echoing the Bible passage, “They that wait upon the Lord [Mind] shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31). Mind doesn’t feel any sense of exhaustion, any sense of depletion, any sense of limitation. And I think the desire of the renewable energy community is to somehow get closer to that in our immediate experience.

Jeffrey Hildner is a senior writer for the Journal and creative director of the Journal and Christian Science Sentinel.

Although a lot of advice on how to be a successful leader and manager fills the business section of bookstores, this executive resolved business problems and developed a successful, rewarding career through the lessons that came from prayer and from leaning unreservedly on God, divine Principle.]]> Kelly Michaels | from The Christian Science Journal

My decision was expected within 24 hours. I had just been offered the position of regional president of the commercial real estate management company I worked for. While flattered by the offer, I also felt overwhelmed—and a bit scared.

This job offer came to me after the two previous presidents had left the company, each after less than a year. I had worked as a senior manager for both of these people, but as president I would be responsible for overseeing a staff of 25 (most of whom were older and more experienced than I), and I would be managing two commercial buildings with over 200 tenants—companies ranging from small businesses to international corporations. Ultimately, it would be my responsibility to keep everyone happy.

We always have ‘the room’ or the time we need to see what God’s will includes.

I had a big decision to make. I’ve always trusted my prayers, but because the offer weighed heavily on me, I called a Christian Science practitioner for support. I was grateful that he immediately addressed my fears by pointing out that in reality I had, as the phrase from a favorite hymn says, “radiant room” in which to make this decision (see Christian Science Hymnal, No. 298). The practitioner wasn’t actually suggesting I ignore the 24-hour deadline, but his point was that God’s will for us is good and that we always have “the room” or the time we need to see what God’s will includes. That spiritual truth gave me instant relief.

Then a friend mentioned that this new job would be an opportunity for me to move beyond my comfort level. When she said that, it reminded me of what the Bible says about comfort, specifically the Comforter. For example, Jesus said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). I realized that the Comforter is here today, comforting me, giving me the courage and strength to take whatever progressive step I needed.

The next day I accepted the job. I set my goal to make it past the one-year mark. The company had a lot of problems. In one building, the tenants were very unhappy and causing unrest. The whole staff had low morale and were frustrated, and many were not supportive of my new role. They made subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to undermine my efforts.

It soon became clear that it was critical to start out on the right foot. I felt that my job description included not only the task of running the company but, more importantly to me, I knew that before I did anything else, I had to put God first. The thought came to me to lay the foundation for this new role by understanding that God is Principle, and to pray for myself and for my job performance from that standpoint. I began by recognizing that divine Principle was the motivating and supporting force in my company and with everyone associated with it. God was both governor and manager, the ultimate authority in every aspect of life.

I could rely on Principle for the intelligence to create wise policies and then let Principle enforce these ideas through its compassionate law.

I also went back to my notes from Christian Science class instruction and looked up the many references to divine Principle. I considered two ways Principle was operating in relation to my company: First, I considered what God was doing as Principle, and second, what God’s image—including me and everyone—was doing as the reflection of Principle. Since Principle is the only cause, then it is constantly originating and creating and is the source of every thought and action. I then saw that I could rely on Principle for the intelligence to create wise policies and then let Principle enforce these ideas through its compassionate law. I could let Principle coordinate every plan, focus every thought, maintain order in every meeting, and thereby best direct the course of the company. Principle mentors us and gently corrects us, never allowing harsh or unfair measures. Principle unites everyone in a common cause and links us to the right resources. Principle correlates, relating one idea to another in perfect harmony. Principle stabilizes, providing a sure foundation for every aspect of our lives.

As I prayed with these ideas, it became obvious to me that divine Principle, not I, was doing all the work. My only job was to be a witness to this holy fact. These and many more ideas helped me as I began new tasks to restructure the company, such as writing an employee handbook. I had never done such a thing before, but found all of the resources I needed to do it successfully.

While supervising my peers, I attended meetings where discussions went on concerning areas of the company I’d had little to do with before, such as accounting and finance. In one meeting, an attendee carelessly passed out the accounting reports as though he were dealing a stack of cards. After quickly presenting the oral reports, almost everyone left the room before I could gather my wits to ask a question. Although I was tempted to commiserate with a couple of my staff who were “on my side,” I thought about what I could do to better manage all of my co-workers.

All of us, as the reflection of Principle, had unity of purpose and a desire to work together in harmony for a common purpose.

Again, I went back to divine Principle. I affirmed to myself that Principle equalizes, providing balance and equity in relationships, giving all people and positions equal importance and mutual respect. I saw that all of us, as the reflection of Principle, had unity of purpose and a desire to work together in harmony for a common purpose. I knew that innately we desired cooperation rather than competition and would naturally want to follow the highest standards of ethics. I realized that we didn’t have to be reduced to political wrangling, pitting those in support of me against those who weren’t supportive. I affirmed that as the individual ideas of divine Principle, we all expressed freedom from favoritism. And because we all shared equally in our divine Parent’s love and care, we could rise to see only the best—the expression of the Christ—in everyone. We could expect to be loyal to each other, since, as the reflection of Principle, we were all trusting, humble, and dignified.

Gradually my co-workers’ cynicism of my role faded, and simultaneously my confidence grew. I was no longer hesitant to ask questions when I needed clarification, and my co-workers became eager to explain what I didn’t understand. Good humor and a more relaxed tone became the norm in our office. And exactly one year after I accepted the job, I received a lovely gift of recognition at the Christmas party. I was thrilled to pass the one-year mark!

During what turned out to be 16 years in this job, I returned to the study of Principle many times. As a result, I witnessed many wonderful examples of growth and harmony, including national recognition of one of our buildings for its groundbreaking marketing programs, and achievement of the real estate industry’s highest recognition of success: full building occupancy and significantly increased value.

Although a lot of advice on how to be a successful leader and manager fills the business section of bookstores, what led to my successful and rewarding career were the lessons that came from prayer and from leaning unreservedly on divine Principle.

Kelly Michaels lives in Bellevue, Washington.

If evil gets the last word on determining reality, then it would hardly be surprising to find people abandoning the idea of God altogether. But our spiritual sense—an unshakeable conviction of God’s goodness and all-power—gives us a basis for exposing evil as invalid and vulnerable, which lets us see and feel the actuality of God everywhere.]]> Scott Preller | from The Christian Science Journal

How do we know God exists? The question has been very much in public thought lately, with several books on the bestseller list arguing against the existence of God. So how is it that in the face of so much turmoil and suffering in the world, Christian Science can insist not only that God exists supreme, all-powerful, always present, but that there is a way for the yearning heart to prove it?

There is an old joke about a sidewalk preacher giving a sermon in a downtown park. He is loudly praising God as he describes the biblical account of Moses parting the Red Sea, leading the children of Israel through it, and finally seeing Pharaoh’s army destroyed in the deluge. The preacher is interrupted by an atheist who tells him that he’s done a lot of research and come to the conclusion that the events described must have happened at a place called the “Reed Sea,” where the water was only six inches deep and could easily have been divided by a naturally occurring steady wind. Having stated his case, the atheist leaves for lunch satisfied that he has debunked the preacher’s ill-placed faith. But when he returns sometime later, the preacher is thanking God even more loudly than before for His miracle in saving the children of Israel. The atheist pulls him aside and says, “I thought I told you this didn’t happen at the Red Sea.” The preacher says, “Yes, I know, I’m not testifying about the miracle of parting the water anymore. I’m praising God for the fact that He managed to drown the entire army of Pharaoh in just six inches of water.”

One’s perspective makes all the difference! The same is true in thinking through the issue of whether God exists. If you start with the questioning words, “Is there?” you arrive at a very different place than if you start with the affirming words, “There is.”

Christian Science champions intelligent exploration.

The fact is, Christian Science champions intelligent exploration, a right sort of questioning, and the doubting of unsustainable assumptions. But Christian Science is also careful not to accept the one-sided questioning that isn’t really a question at all, but is actually a narrow insistence that all thinking be done from the basis that matter is the only substance and source of everything that exists.

The material view: forever limited

We can know, feel, and prove the actuality of God, but we will never be able to do so by reasoning from the basis of the physical senses. To arrive at an understanding of God requires us to be brave enough to approach God on God’s terms—from the standpoint that Spirit is the actual Life, Mind, and substance of all that exists. This is a far cry from demanding that we have a blind faith in God. It is simply a recognition of the fact that a material sense of things is literally incapable of knowing God, who is Spirit. To know God, therefore, requires a willingness to trust the weight of one’s thought to the spiritual idea of being—an understanding that the substance and intelligence of reality is spiritual.

Several years ago when I was an Air Force chaplain, I was sent to a conference on God and religion. In the course of preparing to go, I developed an extremely painful ear infection. Even though I was praying for healing, the situation was only getting worse. In fact, by the time my taxi dropped me off at the conference center, my whole sense of equilibrium had been so disrupted that I literally fell out of the cab into the gutter.

Evil could not exist where God is present.

After I eventually checked in to the hotel, I made my way to a telephone where I called the Christian Science practitioner who had been helping me treat this problem with prayer. I carefully told her my detailed story of suffering. She shared some ideas about God’s goodness and my genuine spiritual identity as a child of God. And then she said something I’ve never forgotten. As to the infection, she gently but emphatically said, “There’s nothing there. There is simply nothing there.” The only reality she was asking me to entertain was that of God’s supremacy and goodness. Evil could not exist where God is present.

I remember walking back to my hotel room with a feeling that this woman just didn’t get it. She just didn’t realize how much pain I was in. And then as I sat there on the edge of my bed, reaching out to God, I suddenly realized that if I really was going to heal this problem through prayer, then at some point, sooner or later, I was going to have to get to the point where I was willing to think of this problem as nothing, as having no validity, authority, or presence in the face of God’s goodness and power.

I lost track of time as I kept thinking more and more deeply about what the idea of God’s allness meant in terms of this evil having no power over me. The more I thought about this idea, the more real it felt. I felt enveloped in the reality of God’s presence. And when I finished praying, the pain in the ear was entirely gone. The actuality of God’s goodness and power had displaced the sense of suffering. I was healed. During that two-week conference I heard a lot of interesting talks about God from many of the most prominent theologians of the day. But nothing I heard compared to the reality of God I had felt in that healing experience.

Irreconcilable propositions

Only two of the following three statements can be true: 1. God is all-powerful. 2. God is wholly good. 3. Evil is real. Everyone has to sort through this issue. Throughout history there has been a lot of theological juggling going on, with thinkers and theologians trying to find a way to live with these irreconcilable propositions.

At times people have thought of evil as God’s way of punishing the unrighteous. Others have insisted that God has to allow evil to exist so that man can have free will. But if that is the case, then I could easily argue that I am a better parent than God. Why? Well, I would never, for example, leave my child in a room with a toy and a loaded gun, and then argue that I did so in order for my child to have the freedom to choose between good and evil. As a loving parent, I want my children to have the freedom to choose between an infinite variety of good, and I would do anything in my power to provide such options instead of tempting my child to self-destruct or harm him- or herself. Is it reasonable to expect less from a loving Father-Mother God, who is Love itself? Some years ago, yet another explanation for the problem of evil became popular, which basically stated that God is wholly good but evil exists because God isn’t quite finished with His work. The idea is that perhaps God isn’t all-powerful yet, but is in the process of becoming so, and until He is, we must endure evil in the world.

Jesus never doubted God’s goodness or God’s power. Instead, he challenged and destroyed evil.

This issue of theodicy, or the question of how to understand God in the face of evil, has an entirely different explanation in Christian Science. Christian Science examines the works and teachings of Christ Jesus and then shows how plainly evident it is that he never doubted God’s goodness or God’s power, never wondered if God were up to the task of healing, never wondered if someone’s sin had caused God to stop loving. Rather, in every instance of the Master’s healing ministry, it is the evil, the suffering, the disease, the effect of the sin that gets challenged and destroyed. Given his track record, no one could accuse Jesus of ignoring evil, yet he clearly disproved and disbelieved its validity in every healing he did.

What if we take Jesus’ view utterly seriously? What if we challenge evil rather than let it make us challenge our understanding of a loving and omnipotent God? Then we will find our lives animated by Christ to do good—and less willing to let evil go unchallenged. Mary Baker Eddy explained how Christian Scientists actively strive to follow Jesus’ example when she wrote that “our faith takes hold of the fact that evil cannot be made so real as to frighten us and so master us, or to make us love it and so hinder our way to holiness. We regard evil as a lie, an illusion, therefore as unreal as a mirage that misleads the traveler on his way home” (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 14). Spirit, God, is infinite, and hence the only true substance. It is that which we can concretely feel when our spiritual sense is alert and awake, whereas matter is actually only substantial to a material sense of things. This limited sense of life, while quite vivid and familiar, is actually seen to be merely a distorted, or shadow, version of what is actual.

The real question: asleep or awake?

It really isn’t a matter of deciding whether or not God exists, as though the human mind were adequate to objectively determine such a thing. The issue is whether or not we have enough self-knowledge to discern the difference between being awake to the actuality of God versus having been put to sleep to that actuality. There is a scene in one of C.S. Lewis’s classic Chronicles of Narnia series that captures the deadening, thought-dulling effect of a materialistic outlook on life. In Narnia, where there is an active sense of Christ (depicted by the Lion, Aslan), the children are able to live up to their greatest abilities. But at one point, the young prince and his friends find themselves in another world where they fall under the hypnotic influence of the evil queen. Through her enchantments, she tries to persuade them that her world is the only world there is and that Narnia doesn’t exist except as a dream.

The children fight hard to rouse themselves to some clarity of thought by remembering some aspects of Narnia. At one point, the queen says, “What is this sun that you all speak of? Do you mean anything by the word?” The children explain that it is like a lamp “only far greater and brighter.” After casting doubts on everything they thought they knew about the sun, the queen insists that there is no such thing. She says, “You have seen lamps, and so you imagined a bigger and better lamp and called it the sun …. And look how you can put nothing into your make-believe without copying it from the real world, this world of mine, which is the only world” (The Silver Chair, pp. 178–180).

Finally, their companion Puddleglum is able to disrupt the queen’s hypnotic control and challenge her assertion that Narnia is only a dream. He says (and he might as well be the voice of spirituality speaking to the world of material sense), “Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things—trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one” (p. 182). The effect is immediate. The evil queen drops her pretense of being a benign human and takes her true serpent form, whereupon she is destroyed, and the travelers return to Narnia where life and goodness are real.

Christian Science explains how to know God exists.

Christian Science shifts the question from “how do we know?” to an encouraging explanation of “how to know” God exists. And at a time when words like Darfur, Iraq, 9/11, Afghanistan, disease, poverty, and injustice bring images of evil into sharp relief, no one can afford to be indifferent. If the conclusion is that evil gets the last word on determining reality, then it would hardly be surprising to find people abandoning the idea of God altogether. But if our spiritual sense—an unshakeable conviction of God’s goodness and all-power—gives us a basis for exposing evil as invalid and vulnerable, then we will see and feel the actuality of God everywhere. We will find our understanding of the power of God, who is entirely good, will prove practical in making a healing difference in our world.

Scott Preller is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. He lives in Andover, Massachusetts.

Looking at longstanding conflicts, we may doubt that they’ll ever end. But when we realize that it isn’t necessarily helpful to dive deeper into human perspectives and that we can instead turn away from the material narrative to our own essential spiritual identity and that of others, we see that resolutions are possible.]]> Scott Davis | from The Christian Science Journal

Peace will much more likely result when we turn to our own and others’ essential spiritual identity.

A few weeks after the September 11 attacks in the United States, I was talking to my friend Jamal Gabobe in a cafe in Seattle. We were trying to understand the implications of these attacks for ordinary people in the United States. Jamal is a black East African born in Somaliland, and grew up in the Middle East. And he’s Muslim. He has a broad world perspective. Still, his most pointed remark was domestic.

“Just like that!” Jamal said. “The public dialogue has shifted. For the last 50 years in the US, we have been talking about race and equal rights. Our primary focus has been on African-Americans. Now, however, we are starting a new conversation. And the spotlight is on Arabs and Muslims.”

What was Jamal talking about? Within a society, as with individuals, most of our work is devoted to accomplishing tasks—activities that are practical in nature. To succeed, we need to be more efficient, more precise, more energetic. We need to be “self-starters,” and we also need to be “team players.” The tasks themselves are assumed to be of value, because we have been assured by our employers, our supervisors, or our clients that accomplishing these tasks will lead directly to what are, without doubt, valuable objectives.

Spiritual concerns trump small-scale human work.

We are like the Bible figure Martha, who put all her efforts into the hard work of preparing for guests (see Luke 10:38–42). And like Martha, we, too, are often self-righteous in our furious, though small-scale, efforts. When Jesus arrived at the gathering, Martha’s sister, Mary, sat at his feet and listened as he spoke. Martha complained and asked Jesus to send Mary back to help with the preparations for the meal. He rebuked Martha for her complaining and noted that Mary’s attention to the spiritual message was more important than busywork. In so doing, he showed that spiritual concerns trump small-scale human work, however demanding, worthwhile, or well-executed.

My friend Jamal recognized that the 9/11 attacks had challenged citizens of the United States to rethink priorities and move beyond an attitude of “business as usual.” Many living in the US had been lulled into thinking that turmoil and violence abroad could not touch us at home. Although the World Trade Center had been attacked in the 1990s, an attack by a foreign enemy of the magnitude of which happened on 9/11 had not been made on the continental United States for nearly 200 years. Jamal argued that the 9/11 attacks required a complete rethinking of American concepts of who we are, our place in the world, and our obligations and responsibilities toward other human beings on this planet. Jamal felt that public dialogue, soul-searching, earnest debate, and thoughtful probing would be necessary. We had been called to pursue something deeper, larger, and perhaps not so easy to define. Really, he was talking about the need for healing.

All of us at one time or another face difficulties in our personal lives that require special insight and probing. The same is true of societies. Recent news from the Balkans (the independence of Kosovo) and from Africa (violence following the elections in Kenya) shows that ethnic, class, racial, and tribal conflicts can’t be overcome when participants and even good-hearted observers simply pursue their normal everyday activities without a radical change in thinking.

We need to spiritualize our concept of identity.

Imagine two tribes who are still fighting, years, even decades—centuries?—following an insult or provocation of some kind. What needs to happen here? Not more fighting, certainly. Rather, the long-standing emotions of fear, pride, anger, and revenge on both sides need to be dropped from everyone’s thinking. Likewise, if we are involved in or even if we’re just bystanders to a conflict, we need to let go of our conception of the individuals involved as fighting, contentious mortals. We need to spiritualize our concept of identity and rise above the belief that all of us are relegated forever to a material world where life is one struggle after another to secure material existence, to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. We need to see beyond commonly held perceptions that we’re imprisoned or oppressed by strong opinions and overwhelming emotions, such as bitterness, regret, and revenge.

Specifically, we need to lift our thinking to spiritual reality, which is no part of the material world. Stated another way, instead of reasoning from the imperfect human scene up to spiritual truth, we need to understand that our source is the one infinite, perfect, and all-powerful God. Further, we need to see that God’s perfect creation lives and functions in total harmony.

This way of spiritual thinking is not simply blind denial of the sometimes grim human situations in which no good outcome appears possible. Rather, healing requires something more. While we must show compassion for those suffering, we also need to look beyond the human picture to keep our thinking focused on spiritual truth.

Until this change in perspective happens, we won’t be able to find a clear path for action among the many human possibilities. Until we spiritualize our concepts about true identity and the God-inspired purpose for every individual, even talented, energetic, and fair-minded human work is unlikely to bear lasting fruit.

Jacob had a past that he needed to heal.

One illustration of the power that a change in consciousness can bring occurs in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Jacob spent many years away from home, among “the people of the east,” working with his uncle to raise and sell livestock. This was a complex business that forced Jacob to master the intricacies of sheep breeding and animal husbandry. Eventually, he became successful and prosperous. In all of these years, however, he never came to terms with a more profound and complex problem that blocked his spiritual progress. He had a past that he needed to heal.

According to the Scriptures, Jacob was a twin to Esau, who was older by a few moments. As the two brothers grew up, their differing natures became apparent. Esau excelled as a hunter and outdoorsman, favored by his father Isaac. On the other hand, Jacob was “a plain man, dwelling in tents,” which perhaps points to the contemplative and profoundly spiritual character that the Scripture reveals in Jacob later on. Jacob became his mother’s favorite (see Gen. 25:27–28).

Yet both Jacob and his mother, Rebecca, resented Esau’s status because in those days it was the custom for a father to give a blessing to the eldest son. This blessing not only passed along a material inheritance, but also anointed the eldest son with special advantages (see Gen. 27:28–29). This seemed unfair to Jacob and especially to Rebecca, because during her pregnancy with the twins, she had received a revelation from God that the elder would serve the younger (see Gen. 25:23).

Jacob had to wrestle with his own sense of right and wrong.

The problem Jacob faced was of a different sort than the ordinary challenges posed by his semi-nomadic life. And it demanded interior dialogue and soul-searching. It required that Jacob stretch himself and wrestle with his own sense of right and wrong.

Jacob needed to grasp the fact that it was his own inability to understand his spiritual identity as God’s beloved son—rather than his brother’s position as the eldest—that prevented Jacob from assuming his own unique role in history. Instead of relying on his spiritual intuition to lift his prayers to heaven and to listen for God’s instruction, Jacob used his limited human reasoning, and at his mother’s urging carried out a duplicitous solution to his problem. He deceived his father into granting the blessing to Jacob that by tradition rightfully belonged to his elder brother. Jacob’s scheme, however, gave little attention to the consequences. When Esau realized that he had been deprived of the blessing, he was angry, and therefore Jacob feared the wrath of his brother and had to flee for his life.

We then read that two decades later Jacob—knowing he must finally face his brother—retraced his steps, traveling from east to west, from Mesopotamia to the Jordan River and into Canaan, to face his destiny with Esau. Would Jacob’s life end in an act of vengeance on the desert? As Jacob neared his childhood home, a messenger told him that Esau approached with 400 men. Jacob feared for the lives of his large, defenseless family—the children and the flocks with young—who traveled with him. So he divided them into bands, in the hope that one group would survive if the other were attacked. Also, he sent messengers ahead with gifts of cattle for his brother. These precautions complete, Jacob went forth alone.

For a long night Jacob waited in the desert, wrestling with “a man” until daylight (see Gen. 32:24). As the early morning light began to appear, Jacob’s opponent begged to leave. But Jacob insisted that he not leave until he had given Jacob a blessing. At last, the man pronounced: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen. 32:28).

Jacob called the place Peniel, which means, “the face of God,” for, as he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30).

Science and Health explains the spiritual meaning of this great struggle: “Jacob was alone, wrestling with error,—struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains ….

“The result of Jacob’s struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit and of spiritual power. This changed the man” (Science and Health, pp. 308–309).

When the day dawned and Esau approached, Jacob bowed to the ground against the oncoming forces. Rather than facing an angry brother seeking revenge, Jacob found that Esau had been transformed as well. The two embraced and shed tears. Jacob rejoiced, saying, “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me” (Gen. 33:10).

These same issues and the need for forgiveness can divide whole nations.

The story of Jacob and Esau is a memorable tale of reconciliation between brothers. But the Bible suggests that the conflict between Jacob and Esau also mirrored later conflicts between nations. According to the Scripture, just before their birth, Jacob and Esau “struggled together” in their mother’s womb. In response, Jacob’s mother prayed and received the answer, “Two nations are in thy womb” (Gen. 25:23). When Esau grew up, one of his wives was a daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham by his maidservant Hagar. Traditionally, Arabs trace their lineage to Abraham through Ishmael. And so Esau’s connection to Ishmael through marriage hints that the conflict with his brother may have foreshadowed larger issues than just their own personal conflict—that these same issues and the need for forgiveness can also divide whole nations.

In our contemporary world, we see the fragmentation suggested in the Bible text playing out. Since 1948, Christians, Jews, and Muslims have been fighting in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Within Islam there are divisions as well. For example, in contemporary Iraq, Sunni Muslim militia war against Shia militia. And there are also divisions within these two branches of Islam. Although Pakistan is predominantly occupied by Sunni Muslims, its inhabitants are divided by geographic regions. Each province has its own predominant ethnic and language group. It sometimes seems that Pakistan’s Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochs, Pastuns, and other social, regional, language, and tribal groups partition the country rather than unifying it as a single nation—an issue that has come to the fore since the recent Parliamentary elections.

The attacks in the US on 9/11 present a challenge for all of us to oppose the division and fragmentation that sets individuals, tribes, and nations against one another. My friend Jamal believed that 9/11 requires us to step outside the carefully defined boundaries of our busy lives of work and family. He felt that we needed to “struggle” within ourselves for right answers and to engage in dialogue with others, especially those of other nations, religions, and races. I listened to this Muslim’s clear, perceptive words because I knew that Jamal had experienced many languages and cultures, including those of the area where Jacob made peace with his brother Esau.

Later, I took Jamal’s words to heart and asked myself how each of us can heal ingrained materialistic thinking. I realized that it isn’t necessarily helpful to dive deeper and deeper into human thought. Instead, healing will much more likely result when we turn away from the material narrative—to our own essential spiritual identity and to that of others.

We are all ideas that exist in the one divine Mind.

Viewed spiritually, we are all ideas that exist in the one divine Mind. Our identity and actions are governed by divine intelligence. Our tribe? We belong to God. Our brothers and sisters are spiritual children of the same Father and Mother. There is one tribe and one nation—a vast universe of spiritual beings governed by a single Principle, embraced and upheld in Love. This is the Truth, presented in the Bible and explained fully in Science and Health that lifts us out of emotions and perspectives rooted in material assumptions—the light that links us forever to our spiritual source and universal harmony.

Scott Davis lives in Seattle, Washington.

Turning to God when he experiences pain, dizziness, and weakness, this Christian Scientist isn’t immediately healed. But as he learns more about his spiritual identity and relationship to God, his health is restored—and his character is changed too.]]> Jeffrey Hildner | from The Christian Science Journal

JEFFREY HILDNER: I’m struck by the story you e-mailed me the other day—how you were healed through Christian Science in less than a week of medically diagnosed rheumatic fever when you were three, a healing that brought your family into Christian Science. Your family and eventually you, as you grew up in a Christian Science household, must have caught some core insights—practical, healing insights—into God’s true identity and therefore everyone’s true identity.

DON GRIFFITH: That’s right. Through a study of Christian Science, we can all learn about who we really are! And this truth is practical. It heals all kinds of mortal, material troubles.

It’s simple, really: There is one God.

It’s simple, really: There is one God—one Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit (synonyms for God revealed or implied in the Bible and spelled out in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy). So naturally there can be only one image and likeness of the one God. The Bible calls this image and likeness “man” (see Gen. 1:26). The word man, as used in Christian Science, refers therefore to the complete, all-encompassing reflection (or expression) of God. So each of us—irrespective of our human gender—includes all that man includes: all of the infinite masculine and feminine qualities encompassed by the seven synonyms for God. And our son-daughter relationship with our Father-Mother—our unity with God—cannot be impaired, endangered, or broken.

Could you give an example that illustrates the practical value of this knowledge and makes these ideas concrete?

Not too long ago, a friend’s wife called to say that her husband was “down in his back” and that he couldn’t move out of bed. Apparently this had been going on for a few days. I asked that she take the phone to him. I told him he was loved by God and that his strength wasn’t in a physical body—that divine Principle, not matter, was his support and identity. When we got off the phone, I continued to pray. He called to thank me the next day because he was up and out of bed. All was well. I knew the claim that he was incapacitated was only a false belief—a lie about his real identity, about his perfect sonship as a spiritual child of God. God was continually seeing this man’s true identity, his perfect sonship. That’s how I saw him. He glimpsed it, too—and as a result, he was healed.

In addition to maintaining an ideal, Truth-grounded perspective, what else has experience taught you about how to effectively remedy any kind of trouble someone might face?

Healing is always most effective when I lose a sense of self and of responsibility (“let go and let God,” as the saying goes) and when I understand that all of God’s work is done and done perfectly—nothing can be added to it nor taken from it. My role is to affirm this truth and to deny any claim to the contrary. I’ve found that this process brings healing to any situation.

Christian Science teaches that healing isn’t a future event.

Christian Science teaches that healing isn’t a future event. Health is a quality of God’s constant presence—normal, natural, unchanging—right here, right now. The false beliefs that God isn’t omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent hide this fact. But through understanding the truth about God, we can master these false beliefs. Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Change the belief, and the sensation changes. Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears” (Science and Health, p. 491). Healing is realized by holding persistently and firmly to God’s reality. Then Christian Science destroys false belief. Purity, health, and life are restored, and their opposite “sensations”—sin, sickness, and death—disappear.

Each day I deny a false sense of self and personal responsibility. I reject the lying belief that God isn’t in control of His universe. I open my consciousness to what divine Mind reveals about the never-interrupted harmony of man’s real being. I declare that God provides the humility needed for me to help anyone who calls for assistance. And it works! Healings have been so numerous in my experience that often I look back with amazement at how God has cared for me and my family, and for all who call for help.

How about sharing another example, Don.

I got a call a few years ago from a mother who said that her teenage son was emaciated, had lost 50 pounds over the past year, and was suffering from a disease that couldn’t be diagnosed by the physicians. She said he was on the bathroom floor crying aloud in pain—which I could hear in the background. I had taught this mom years ago in Sunday School but had lost contact with her, and she was no longer actively practicing Christian Science. I told her I would pray for her and her son. In less than two hours she called to say, “My son is 100 percent better, and his father and I are 200 percent better.” She told me recently that this healing was a turning point for her son. They had another bout around a year later, but she refused to accept this picture as something outside of God’s control. And while she read the 91st Psalm to him, he became alert and calm and told her all was well. And all has continued to be well during the two years since. He is in college, where he is doing well scholastically and finishing his degree.

This is just one of so many examples that have taught me about another important factor in healing: Truth is so effective when the heart is receptive.

I’d like to shift our focus to a question about Christian Science healing that Mary Baker Eddy addressed in her book Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896. I revisited this question during a recent healing of my own, and I think it’s a basic question that a lot of people today can relate to: “What are the advantages of your system of healing, over the ordinary methods of healing disease?” (p. 33).

As I interpret this advantage of Christian Science over other systems, when you achieve healing through the Bible-based scientific system that Mary Baker Eddy discovered, you don’t end up the same person at the end of the healing as you were at the beginning. Something other than your body is different: You are different. You had to change for your body to change. You had to get in tune with your eternal incorporeal identity and see yourself as you really are: a spiritual concept. Thought! Mind’s idea, Soul’s expression, Life’s manifestation. You had to see your substance, in other words, as 100 percent Spirit, not matter. And you learn that the practical value of seeing yourself this way reverberates well beyond the specific healing triggered by this advanced viewpoint.

The only thing that stands in the way of the healing is the so-called reality we give to a false belief.

Yes, that’s right. And the need for moral improvement that Mrs. Eddy referred to and you’re calling attention to is often the reason some healings happen immediately and other problems (sometimes appearing identical) take more time and involve a struggle. But in fact, the only thing that stands in the way of the healing taking effect is the so-called reality we give to a false belief. The sooner we let go of the false belief that gives rise to a malady, the more quickly we will experience physical healing in Christian Science.

Matter-based methods, which differ entirely from the method used by Christ Jesus (as explained in Science and Health) may appear to bring about a healing, but I have found that such healings are ultimately temporary, no matter how much physical relief they provide in the short term. Getting physical relief through material means doesn’t destroy the underlying beliefs or fears that caused the trouble. Matter-based methods can’t bring about permanent healing, because they are not grounded in divine Truth. And unfortunately, patients often become prisoners of the matter-based system they turn to for help. They may experience misdiagnoses, adverse side effects, negative chemical reactions and interactions, long-term dependency, or mistakes in treatment. In effect, the person who chooses a material approach for healing might end up worse off than before the treatment began.

But when one adheres to Jesus’ method of healing—the divine Science that Mary Baker Eddy explained in Science and Health—one is transformed morally (taken to a higher level of thought). The body, which is a product of thought, responds positively, and health and harmony are revealed as the ongoing reality.

Let’s illustrate what we’re talking about. Can you recall a healing that required a real breakthrough—and therefore left the patient in a different place mentally (or morally) afterward?

I know just the healing, because I am the one who experienced it!

A few years ago I awoke in the middle of the night in excruciating pain in my stomach and back. It felt as though I had been poisoned.

I prayed for myself through the night, finally found some relief, and fell asleep just as the sun was rising. I was immensely grateful for the physical relief, but after I slept a couple of hours, the pain came back. This pattern occurred for the next week or two, and now and then I felt dizzy and weak to the point that I was incapacitated. The pain in my stomach continued for more than a year—subsiding gradually through prayer until finally all the pain disappeared and didn’t recur. The dizziness, weakness, and related problems lasted longer (off and on, but decreasing in intensity) and eventually, in about three years, totally disappeared as the result of persistent prayer.

I wasn’t going to measure the success of Christian Science by the amount of time my healing would require.

Now it’s natural to wonder, I suppose, whether I would have relied on Christian Science for healing had I known that healing would have required such a long period of patience! But I’ll tell you, having grown up in Christian Science, I had always depended upon prayer to meet every need—including the healing of all physical problems. And so from the first moment of this discomfort I turned to God and never had any doubt about relying completely on divine Love for healing. I wasn’t going to measure the success of Christian Science—or the extent of God’s love for me—by the amount of time my healing would require.

And as we know, lots of people throughout the world who rely on material methods never gain relief or healing from the physical troubles that plague them. In fact, research shows that millions of people just here in the US desperately seek relief from chronic pain but are not getting that relief [see, for example, “The Right (and Wrong) Way to Treat Pain” by Claudia Wallis, Time, Feb. 20, 2005].

That’s right. So you see, given my steadfast trust in God’s power, my desire to honor divine Love for all the healings my family and I had experienced up to that point, I had no desire to try any other method of healing. Which is why I had no need to get a medical diagnosis of the problem.

So, even though my journey to healing might have taken longer than the route someone else might have chosen, it resulted in a complete, permanent healing and provided important spiritual insights and growth.

Like they say (paradoxically): The journey is the destination.

Yes, that was really true for me. The journey itself—all I learned of my spiritual identity and of my relationship to God—was rewarding beyond words.

Tell me about that journey. What happened?

Well, by the end of the second week of this “ordeal,” I still wasn’t able to stand, sit, or lie down without discomfort. On two occasions, the intensity of the pain became so forceful that it literally shook my body as if I were a rag doll. But my wife and I had planned to drive over 1,500 miles roundtrip to attend my annual Christian Science association meeting. And I wasn’t about to let anything stand in the way of that commitment.

So I asked a fellow practitioner to give me some prayerful support during the three-day trip, since I had been experiencing times when I couldn’t think clearly. I knew that being at my association was my right place. I looked forward to the wonderful inspiration I would receive, and I knew taking this trip would be a part of my healing. I loved my association—this family of dedicated Christian Scientists. This meeting would provide spiritual sustenance for me for the coming year, and I didn’t want to miss it. And it turned out that I was able to attend the meeting and be at my post as an usher. The Christ presence enabled me to do whatever I needed to do. It was a great experience.

The pain vanished?

Actually, the pain didn’t vanish during the travel or at the meeting. It continued, but I was able to do everything I needed to do without anyone noticing that I was having difficulty. As strange as it may seem, the pain was there, but it didn’t scare me or put me out of commission as it had done at home. I know the practitioner’s support helped me have the courage to embark upon the trip and gave me a resolve that I was going to be OK in spite of the discomfort. The association experience itself was a great experience. But the healing didn’t take place at that time.

It was a time to affirm every possible thing I had learned about my relationship with God.

When we returned home I felt I had made good spiritual progress, but I still had to contend with dizziness, weakness, periodic pain in my joints, and vision and elimination problems. But one thing I could do was walk. So I began walking up and down our half-mile-long driveway during sleepless nights, and during the days I roamed through our woods and along the lake shore—praying until I found peace. During those times, I simply “talked to God.” And what I mean by that is this: From studying Christian Science, I knew that God already knows all. So I didn’t have to tell Him about my problems and fears and beg Him to do away with them. Rather, it was a time to affirm every possible thing I had learned about my relationship with God—from my years as a Sunday School student until my most recent reading of the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson.

I thanked God for His marvelous love, for the beauty I felt around me, for the little animals, and the big trees. And for the magnificent moonlight, or the brilliant starlight on nights when the moon wasn’t full. I knew God was right with me and that my real identity was spiritual—right where this material, aching body seemed to be. I just longed to see myself as God always sees and loves me. And I thanked God even when I couldn’t tell whether the tears that ran down my face were from physical discomfort or tears of joy for what I knew I was gaining. I celebrated Spirit’s goodness, Love’s love, Soul’s peace and loveliness, and Principle’s devotion to me and to all humanity. And I sang. The beautiful hymns—many with words by Mary Baker Eddy that I had memorized as a child—were my best buddies. Lovely, supportive, healing friends.

There was no way I was going to give up.

The Bible explains that man is made in God’s image and likeness, so I knew God could know me only as perfect—just like Him. I knew that as I began to see this fact—this truth about my being—I would begin experiencing what I was persistently claiming to be true. I would understand more clearly what God was thinking about me as I lost the false, material view of my identity as a struggling human. There was no way I was going to give up. Prayer had always worked for me during my many years as a student of Christian Science. And the benefits had always exceeded what I could have imagined. So I expected the best possible outcome as a result of my turning everything over to infinite Love. And as I continued to affirm that I was only and absolutely a child of God—right there and then—I began to feel the fact of it. I held onto this passage from Psalms: “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (56:4). I started feeling so much gratitude for my healing—even though my body didn’t seem to have changed very much. And the fear began falling away. As I walked, my steps became lighter, expressing the energy I was thinking—God is living and loving me!

For many months, there were days when I thought I had seen my last sunrise. But I wasn’t about to give up on life! Even though the frightening thought would come to me: What will your family do if you aren’t around anymore? I knew that God was supporting me and I would be healed. I didn’t discuss this with anyone because my conversations were between God and me. And as I listened, He told me that nobody was left out of His care. I began to see more clearly that God and His infinite ideas are my only family, and that Love had always cared and would continue to care for all of us magnificently without my “help.” None of us could lose Love or anything else! So that particular fear disappeared. Another passage in Psalms spoke directly to me: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death” (Ps. 118:17, 18). And the fear of dying vanished.

I began going over my thinking with a fine-tooth comb—to let precious Soul flow into my house of thought and rid me of the “unclean spirits” I was allowing to live in my consciousness. I knew no error could go undetected, and I promised my Father I wouldn’t hang on to any thought that could stain my purity! Finally, I got my marching instructions loud and clear in the final passages of Psalm 118, which begin, “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord” (Ps. 118:19).

What did that mean to you?

I felt that God was telling me, “You’re ready to move forward, now. Listen to Me. Obey Me, and love Me like I love you. Keep your consciousness pure by allowing only My thoughts to enter it. Show your love for Me through your love for and service to your fellow men and women. And be prepared—I’m going to be directing the show, not you. So trust Me and rejoice. Follow Me, and fear not, for it is My good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Before three years had passed, all vestiges of the physical symptoms were gone. During most of that time, I was serving as First Reader at my branch church, and I never missed a service due to illness. I knew God had put me there for a reason and that He would sustain me in my appointed task. I recalled Mrs. Eddy’s words, “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Science and Health, p. 574). Attending our church required a 110–mile round trip drive every Sunday and Wednesday. Initially, it seemed this would be impossible, but I would get into the car and say, “OK, Father. I am going forward. You don’t expect me to do anything I can’t do, and You are my only strength and purpose. Let’s go.” And, of course, these rides brought great blessings. The time on the road gave me more quiet time to review what I had been studying about God every day in the Bible Lessons, and the readings I prepared for Wednesday evening testimony meetings were themselves wonderful friends.

Practicing Christian Science healing is the major way I have to carry out Jesus’ two great commandments.

This healing has been so important. It has dramatically reduced my belief in death. It has shown me the power of infinite Life to care for me. It has taught me to do as Science and Health declares: “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true.” And if I am vigilant in this, I know I will realize the rest of that sentence: “you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (Science and Health, p. 261). And interestingly, Jeffrey, during that time, my healing practice was active and continued to increase. Those healed during those three years of my own healing benefited from my increasing spiritual growth. I see more clearly than ever that practicing Christian Science healing is the major way I have to carry out Jesus’ two great commandments: to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind, and to love my neighbor as myself (see Matt. 22:37–39). And finally, this protracted period of spiritual study and growth also taught me just how far I still have to go and that I can never afford to become complacent. It pushed me into more regular and dedicated reading, listening to, and studying of the Bible, Science and Health, and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy—including the Church Manual. (What a wonderful book!) The Christian Science magazines glowed with inspiration. The Christian Science Monitor brought clarity to my prayers for humanity. And those marvelous weekly Bible Lessons, each one designed to help any sincere seeker for Truth meet every human need, helped me beyond description.

Your three-year journey transformed you.

Yes. It was spiritual regeneration in action. You see, there were things that needed to be clearer in my thinking about Christian Science. Despite my having been a Christian Scientist for over half a century, those three years were years of great growth. Every morning, divine Mind had new things to tell me. Every daily reading of our Bible Lesson was filled with revelations. I began thirsting to listen, to read, to become totally occupied with what I was learning about God—what He was giving to me in the Bible and in Science and Health.

I became more forgiving, gentle, caring, patient, persistent in truth.

And “stuff” just began falling away—baggage I had carried for years—and much of it I hadn’t even realized was baggage. I became more forgiving, gentle, caring, patient, persistent in truth. My wife noticed and remarked on this transformation. Church took on a more wonderful meaning to me. Sharing truth with others was magnified, and healing became my greatest desire. Various interests I had enjoyed for years began moving into the background. And although I still enjoyed participation in the human arts such as carving, painting, recording, playing music, dancing, sports, going to plays and movies, they all began losing their pull. I found that before I had felt, Well, I have really studied and prayed today; I need to do something fun now, or take a break. But I began feeling increasingly, Father, thank you for these beautiful ideas and realizations, for these new perspectives about You and me and all of Your ideas. Let me stay with You a lot longer!

I began realizing a tiny bit of what Jesus must have felt when he retreated from the world to be with his Father on a barren, “pleasureless” mountaintop for weeks at a time. I learned to love the fact that Jesus sacrificed those blessed alone moments and came back to a world that he was outgrowing—a world that had lost its pull on him. Except for his love and devotion to God and to humanity, I could see where he might have asked, “Father, must I really go back down this mountain? Let me go forward with you now. Must I go back down there and pour more of Your love on humanity that doesn’t seem to appreciate all that You are?” And then, he must have thought Thy will be done. I began seeing his sacrifices with new eyes, and my love for this man increased.

It is hard to put into words what took place during those years. But I would not change a single moment. I cannot tell you how many times during those trying years and in the years since that I have said and felt these words, “Thank you, thank you, dear Father-Mother God!”

Jeffrey Hildner is a senior writer for The Christian Science Journal. He also is creative director of the Journal and its sister publication, the Christian Science Sentinel.

Many people who look to God for help aren’t always sure that help will come. But how about a concept of God that cannot possibly allow for any doubt whatsoever—the concept of God as divine Principle, always loving, always available, always consistent?]]> Charles Ferris | from The Christian Science Journal

“ROCK” (see Ps. 18:2).

“LAWGIVER” (see Isa. 33:22).

The immutable Creator “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

These potent definitions of God don’t leave much room for doubt about His constant care. Yet many people who look to God for help aren’t always sure that help will come. But how about a concept of God that cannot possibly allow for any doubt whatsoever—the concept of God as divine Principle?

If we look at situations according to what the five senses tell us, we will always be misguided. By its very nature, the material view is limited and temporary. Yet we can’t just ignore it. We have to deal with it—by understanding how this distorted view distracts us from finding a more reliable foundation.

Prayer starts with seeing God as the cause of all that really exists.

It isn’t always easy. In fact, it can seem downright daunting. This is where prayer comes in, and it starts with seeing God as the cause of all that really exists. If this sounds abstract, consider that everything you’re aware of is what you think. The world may seem to consist of objects and conditions outside our thinking, but actually our experience is made up entirely of mental perceptions. It’s like a dream we have at night. Everything is admitted to be mental, even though in our dream we might see physical bodies, trees, buildings, etc. Yet when we wake up, where have they all gone? In the same way, we can wake up to higher perceptions of our experience, completely in line with divine Principle—undistorted and permanent.

So how do we unite with this Principle as the source of everything good in our lives? I find it powerful to think of the qualities associated with perfect Principle. They point to a reality beyond limited, material appearances.

Love. As a quality of Principle, love is compassionate and caring. To show His love, God insists that only His own perfect nature can be expressed in us or by us. Every true healing, every real resolution of a human challenge, testifies to the tender presence of divine Principle replacing to some degree the material evidence that obscures our God-given identity. Love, as a quality of Principle, demands and empowers this inspired result.

God as divine Principle is always present and always operative.

Availability. Unlike a human person, who can be present at one moment, absent the next, or willing to “be there” one time and unable to help the next, God as divine Principle is always present and always operative. We may feel that we are capable of experiencing a condition that is contrary to the harmony this Principle has determined for us. But if we see this discord as real, then we’re buying into the illusion that God is less than the supreme Principle governing every aspect of our lives.

Consistency. Principle operates on a dependable, unchanging basis. It’s expressed through laws that govern everyone equally. In fact, these laws determine the individuality of each person, because they designate our right actions and true conditions in fresh, always creative expression. So no one is excluded from the benefit and support of Principle and its laws.

Infinitude. This quality tells us there is an infinite range of opportunities for good that we can draw on. Even more extensive than Google, Principle has a boundless universe of divine ideas defining our eternal identity. Principle not only informs us as to who and what we are, it provides the infinite resources that are the substance of our lives and experience.

Everything about Jesus expressed the divine nature as the perfect Principle of his being.

Wasn’t Jesus endorsing these four qualities of Principle when he described his inseparable relationship to God: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30)? Everything about Jesus was derived from God and expressed the divine nature as the perfect Principle of his being. Mary Baker Eddy followed the Master’s teaching of the oneness and inseparable nature of God and man. She asked, “Is there more than one God or Principle?” Her answer: “There is not. Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 465–466). Her discovery of Christian Science amplified our understanding of this oneness of God and man, Principle and idea, through explanations that we can apply to the healing of disease and the removal of every kind of human obstacle.

Principle-based business model

This application of the spiritual laws of good includes what appear to be the pressing, present-day issues in the news. Take the economy. Today we’re confronted with many widespread financial problems: heavy credit card debt, stock market reverses, worldwide recessions—along with having to provide income to meet our daily needs.

Here’s how a friend of mine relied on divine Principle when he faced a financial crisis in his business. The founder and president of a graphic design firm, he took on a contract to promote a new line of products. The contract was sizeable, running into seven figures, but as the campaign progressed, he started getting complaints from the client.

Divine laws govern everyone and work for the benefit of everyone.

My friend’s business had been built sincerely on all those qualities of Principle I mentioned earlier. He knew that divine laws govern everyone and that by his obeying these laws, they would work not just for him, but for the benefit of everyone. My friend also knew that these qualities of divine Principle were available and present at all times, shutting out any possibility of delay or misunderstanding. They constituted the spiritual reality of the situation, right then and there. Further, he believed there was no limit to the good ideas that God, as universal Principle, was providing in this situation, as well as in all situations.

At one point the circumstances became so heated that there was talk of a lawsuit to withhold a major portion of the payment. But my friend continued to trust the integrity of the work going on and the God-sourced integrity of everyone involved. Then the other firm discovered a misunderstanding in their own department in regard to the billing. It turned out that they realized my friend was fulfilling his responsibility perfectly. The project went forward successfully, and the client agreed to pay the full amount of the contract. Interestingly enough, during this entire period while my friend was holding faithfully to his trust in divine Principle, not only was the original account safeguarded, but additional business developed of an equal size. This was an impressive growth for his firm. And why not? Principle always brings forth abundant ideas, which translate into productive and beneficial results.

Harmony in communication: an ear to Principle

Another issue pressing on most people today is the great need for harmony in relationships. With divorces all too common, and relations among nations on dangerous grounds, it’s essential that we find answers. Frequently, I have conversations with couples where one partner says that the other partner is failing to meet his or her “emotional needs,” which greatly affects the harmony of their day-to-day interaction. To me, this indicates a heavy reliance on the actions and attitudes of others for happiness and fulfillment. When our own expectations are not being met in the specific ways we’ve outlined, communication breaks down, and blame sets in. We see this not just between individuals, but on a world scale as well. But regardless of how big or small the conflict, the solution lies in looking to divine Principle as the governing power. Science and Health defines man as “God’s spiritual idea, individual, perfect, eternal” (Science and Health, p. 115). This tells us that Principle has already established harmony between all of its ideas—including each one of us to the other.

Seeing humanity in this true light is more than simply taking a positive attitude. It’s how we free ourselves from the mortal, personal sense that involves selfishness, fear, and self-righteousness. When we drop this limited and limiting perspective, we then can appreciate in one another a spiritual generosity that wants good for all and realizes why such good is always present and expressed. Divine Principle supports and protects us from today’s influences of lust, pride, and envy. It promotes the actions and attitudes that contribute most to our spiritual progress.

The body: built on Principle

This higher view of the body brings freedom and heals in the same way as when Jesus healed.

A third area that’s constantly in front of us is the preoccupation with physical health. With such developments as genetic testing, probing, and predicting the diseases people are likely to experience, it’s hard to find any assurance of continued well-being. But what is the body? Is it a composite of nerves, organs, and cells? Is it subject to material so-called health laws, which constantly vary and change from moment to moment with each individual? Or is the body a consciousness of unchanging wellness where every true condition and function is permanent and performs exactly as it should? This higher view of the body is effective in bringing freedom and healing in the same way it was when Jesus healed and declared, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). What other expression of divine Principle could there be but universal, unbreakable divine laws?

My wife and I saw this proved a few years ago. We were traveling, and Rosemarie came down with a heavy case of pneumonia. As the symptoms continued, we called for extra, prayerful help from a practitioner. After praying several days to convey to my wife her true spiritual nature and the inability of any other power to influence her, the practitioner told her tenderly, “You have to commune with God.” In her distress, my wife said to her, “I don’t know what to say.” The reply was, “You can say, ‘God, I love you,’ can’t you?” Rosemarie told her, yes, she could. “Say it,” the practitioner gently replied. My wife said, “God, I love you.” Then, from the practitioner: “And what does God answer?” Silence. Finally, the practitioner said: “God says, ‘I love you, too.’ And why does God love you?” More silence. “God says, ‘I love you because I made you.’ ” Suddenly my wife was filled with this message: I love you because I made you. It was a holy moment. She felt her total unity with God as her creator. The healing came quickly.

This healing, and every healing that ever occurs, is the union of Principle and Love, conveying the immutable nature of our Maker. God’s activity springs from His infinite, divine identity—beneficent, preserving, endlessly showing itself in new and wonderful forms as our true being. Our purpose is to be this creation—each one of us testifying to our only source—the infinite, divine Principle, God.

Charles Ferris is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

An instantaneous healing leads a man to find fuller answers to vital questions about how Christian Science treatment works. What does a Christian Scientist know or do? How is it done? And “where” is it done? How could a spiritual action that appeared to take place miles away heal someone?]]> J. Denis Glover | from The Christian Science Journal

Unhappy because of a severe case of the flu, I stumbled down the stairs to the telephone.

At my request, my wife had called a Christian Scientist two hundred miles away to pray for me and give me Christian Science treatment. This person scarcely said a thing to me except for words of comfort about my falling only under the influence of God, divine Spirit, and not under the influence of something like the flu.

I hung up the phone, climbed back to the bedroom, lay down on the bed—and found myself completely healed. So much so that in two hours I enjoyed a fried-fish meal with guests.

This healing set me to discovering fuller answers to vital questions about how Christian Science treatment works. What did this Christian Scientist know or do? How was it done? And “where” was it done? How could a spiritual action that appeared to take place miles away heal me in my bedroom?

Inward kingdom

First, I remembered that Christ Jesus’ statement, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), bases Christian Science treatment.

“Within you” means, of course, within the individual, within individual consciousness. And “the kingdom of God” means that which is purely of God, or Spirit. The kingdom, then, is the consciousness of things of the Spirit.

Healing is impelled by God and takes place in what appears as individual human consciousness.

Applying Jesus’ statement to the issue of Christian healing implies that healing is impelled by God and takes place in what appears as individual human consciousness. This activity is the light of divine Spirit shining within us, normalizing our human condition. Christian Science teaches that experience is consciousness externalized, and inward spiritual harmony, derived from God, has the effect of destroying what seems to limit our day-to-day experience.

Jesus’ lifework proves that in this way we can increasingly witness God’s healing effect over every kind of personal, social, professional, or physical challenge.

Beyond that lesson, I learned from the study following my healing that we can begin to accept the consciousness of God, also called “the divine Mind” in Christian Science, as our own, and so begin to approximate having that Mind which was in Christ Jesus. From the standpoint of absolute spiritual truth, to know everything from the point of view of the divine Mind must be to know everything as spiritually perfect. This knowing has direct bearing on every event and condition of our lives.

We can take high spiritual ground and know that in reality we are spiritual.

On a daily basis we can take high spiritual ground and know that in reality we are spiritual, not encased in the mortal definition of ourselves. If the kingdom of heaven—the allness of God, or Mind—is reality and is within us, then everything, including what we think of as our bodies, is controlled by it. Our homes or jobs are spiritual and are also “within”—in consciousness. We can know that we are not in any mortal condition. Any condition is mental and appears in us—in what comes to our consciousness, where it can be harmonized.

Locale and process of treatment

In No and Yes, Mary Baker Eddy touches on Jesus’ “within” methodology for healing: “The theology and medicine of Jesus were one,—in the divine oneness of the trinity, Life, Truth, and Love, which healed the sick and cleansed the sinful. This trinity in unity, correcting individual thought, is the only Mind-healing I vindicate …” (pp. 1–2).

One heals, therefore, by the correction of whatever is unlike Life, Truth, and Love—unlike God—in individual thought.

Knowing this, we have the proper “locale” in which to preserve what is right on the human scene and destroy what is wrong, because thought tends to externalize itself. To the degree that we are materially inclined, experience tends to be discordant. To the degree that thought is spiritual, experience is whole and wholesome. Progressively we shall find that all is entirely within the one consciousness that is God, and that all that can be experienced by us—all that can be externalized or embodied—is of God.

And what did I find out about the “process” of healing?

Christian Science treatment represents the activity of the Christ permeating our thoughts and lives.

Christian Science treatment represents the activity of the Christ, or Truth, permeating our thoughts and lives. How? By acknowledging being’s true nature as God’s full perfection. By letting this powerful truth heal the belief that man is something separate from God—the belief that some error is “within” a mind and nature separated from God, to be manifested “without” as discord.

Through the Christ consciousness, we hold to spiritual truths and mold our lives to the divine. We mentally correct any lie against spiritual perfection with spiritual truth, so that the error of illness or limitation is seen to have never had reality in God’s sight, and to have never even come to the point of really existing.

Mental error—however it may appear to externalize itself—as sin, disease, death, deprivation, poor relationships, deception, problems associated with age—simply cannot stand up long next to spiritual truth, when held to and lived.

The inward patient

Christian Scientists sometimes say that they themselves are, in a sense, their own “patients” because what appears as their own thought is their “patient”—whether the error needing healing is a report of disease, a news story about a bombing incident, a friend’s calling about a death in the family, a magazine article about senility, or a television special about unemployed workers.

Since God is All and perfect good—the only Mind and Truth—such evil reports present to us only incorrect mental pictures and arguments. They may be colorful or drab, ecstatic or poignant, exciting or deadening—or apparently “well reasoned.” But because they’re errors, they’re lies that can be corrected. Because they’re mental, Christ, Truth, the presence of the divine Mind, corrects them in what appears as our own individual consciousness, and, as a result, in our experience.

Our consciousness is our experience. This is cause for rejoicing, because any apparition of distress in our lives can only suggest itself—not as an uncontrollable “out there” that we can’t do much about—but, through the Christ, Truth, as a controllable and healable “in here.”

Christian Science treatment can be looked upon as God’s healing us of believing mental lies.

Christian Science treatment can be looked upon as God’s healing us of believing mental lies. Treatment “sees”—within—the truth of God’s infinite harmony, instead of being fascinated by unhappy pictures claiming to be without. And, because truth excludes error, this spiritual seeing heals sin, disease, discord, and decline.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Nothing appears to the physical senses but their own subjective state of thought …. Destroy the thought of sin, sickness, death, and you destroy their existence” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 105).

Healing others

How can the spiritualization of thought that appears in the consciousness of one person, help another? A community? A church? How can it help a nation? That was my next pursuit in finding out more about Christian Science treatment.

When we enter a cold room and turn on the heat, we can’t turn it on just for ourselves. Whoever is in the room with us receives the benefit of the same warmth. “His” or “their” coldness disappears, too. The Christian Scientist I spoke to the day I was ill turned on the “warmth” of spiritual truth, and that Christly truth “warmed” both that Scientist and me.

When our lives seem to be invaded by evil, we can let God enrich our thought with spiritual truth.

When our world or our lives seem to be invaded by evil—through such “agencies” as malice, circumstance, misdirection, ads about aging, or alarming information via the media—we can let God enrich our thought with spiritual truth. Motivated by the Christ, we can “turn on warmth,” correct the specific, unsettling error with calming, spiritual truth. We can see that error is always unreal before Truth—and we can see it destroyed.

From the study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings that followed my healing, I learned that in belief there’s only one carnal mind—not minds many. One deceptive mortal mind, masquerading as many.

Therefore, whatever calamity seems to be happening in another’s experience is actually happening somewhere within this whole supposititious realm of mortal mind, the claim of a mind opposed to God. The problem can be thought of as a specific condition we’ve been alerted to see through, or reverse, through the power of the Christ.

And so the condition can be healed for another because he or she, and the condition, appear to be in that same one mortal mind. Change can be made there by the action of spiritual knowing, no matter where it seems to occur geographically. Mortal mind then gives up some of its nest of worms.

Going a step further, however, it’s essential to radically affirm that in the reality of being, God alone exists—there’s one true will, one true condition, and one true Mind only. That’s why spiritual healing is not the action of a human mind, although, granted, that’s where it appears to take place. Healing is entirely the action of God, the one and only Mind, consistently declaring Himself as All. Whatever discord may be encroaching on our experience, healing is God’s declaring Himself, His kingdom, to be infinite harmony.

What Christian Science treatment is not

In this research I also discovered what Christian Science treatment is not. Christian Scientists aren’t messing around in the minds of others. We don’t operate there, nor should we want to. In truth we can’t control the minds of others—for good or for ill—nor would we want to since that would be an aspect of personal domination or will power.

Christian Science vigorously opposes intrusion upon another. Seeking to control others or their thoughts would not be pure Christianity. True Christianity affirms the uninvadable holiness and free moral agency of each of us as God’s child. So any intrusive human thinking wouldn’t even be basic courtesy, which respects the rights and mental sanctuary of others.

Such a manipulative approach would try to give legitimacy to the false notion that there are many divided mortal minds, instead of the one, infinite divine Mind, the one God. It would foster the impression that Christian Scientists are personal, charismatic healers, instead of acknowledging God, divine Principle, as the only true healer.

Human will and human outlining have no part in Christian Science treatment.

So human will and human outlining have no part in Christian Science treatment, which is the activity within consciousness of the divine will alone. Inharmony cannot be destroyed—externally, physically, or mentally—through, charmingly or forcefully, meddling in other people’s affairs or thinking.

Further, it’s impossible to radically solve problems through personal or material means. Solutions in the long run are found spiritually. They’re successfully wrought out only within what appears as individual consciousness responding to its innate Christliness.

Evil is effectively destroyed through radical inward prayer—especially the prayer of self-correction—through the spiritual correction of individual thought by divine Life, Truth, and Love, acting through its agency, the Christ.

J. Denis Glover is an author and lives on Cape Cod in Chatham, Massachusetts.

Ever wonder how Christ Jesus’ command “cleanse the lepers” applies to people today? Christian Science practitioner and teacher Keith Wommack offers some insights—and also talks about forgiveness, the way prayer affects the body, and our need to quit interrupting God’s story of goodness.]]> Jeffrey Hildner | from The Christian Science Journal

Keith, as you know, if you look at the cover of the Journal, you’ll see the seal of Christian Science incorporated into the magazine’s nameplate. And around the emblem of the Cross and Crown, you see Jesus’ command to all those who seek to follow him: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” [Matt. 10:8, Revised Version with marginal note]. I’d like to zoom in on the “cleanse the lepers” phrase for a moment. “Cleanse the lepers” seems an odd assignment today, since leprosy no longer exists as the scourge of civilization as it did in Jesus’ day. What do you make of the relevancy of this command?

I see this command as very relevant, because I see it as a metaphor for the types of infirmities that continue to menace people today, and no doubt will forever menace people as long as they misperceive themselves as material.

In the Bible, the book of Mark tells the story of Jesus cleansing a leper. The leper says to him, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed” [Mark 1:40–42].

Cleansing the leper means not only healing physical troubles but liberating people from the belief of being an outcast or a sinner with no hope of cure.

Many of today’s leprosy-like conditions, as in ancient times, are still seen by some people as a sign of God’s displeasure and punishment for sin. I’m finding in my practice that cleansing the leper means not only healing physical troubles, but, as well, liberating people from the belief of being an outcast, unloved, or a miserable sinner with no hope of cure. Christian Science reveals that we are not mortals preparing ourselves for a future embrace with God. Christian Science teaches us to cleanse ourselves of the false belief that man—and I’m using the generic term here, encompassing women and men—could ever be unclean. This regeneration awakens us to see we have always been in God’s eternal embrace. We are always at one with God!

I’ve learned that there are two ways in which I must know myself and others. First, I must know everyone as God’s perfect, spiritual idea. Second, I must recognize the weaknesses and sins I have accepted as part of myself or others. Then I use the first idea to get rid of the second.

In Leviticus, leprosy is described as the most serious of all forms of uncleanness. It caused the person to live outside the camp, to be cut off from the whole congregation of Israel. Lepers could approach no one, touch no one. They were required to give warning of their presence by shouting out, “Unclean! Unclean!” This was so others would know to stay away. We don’t know exactly what diagnosis a modern physician would give to the disease of the leper mentioned in Mark, but if it was similar to modern leprosy, known as Hansen’s disease, the victim of this diagnosis would accept the suggestion that they were losing all sense of touch.

Any evil or devilish belief left unchecked in thought seems to grow and worsen. The belief in leprosy is no different. Those accepting this belief of leprosy were left with no sense of touch, and eventually damaged their toes, fingers, and feet. They would knock them, cut them, get infections—and not notice. And because an evil belief starts a downhill slide for those who do not defend themselves against it, many lepers went blind, for without feeling in their eyes, they forgot to blink. These were the loneliest people. Like many others, they were blind, but unlike most who were blind, lepers couldn’t use their hands to provide the sensations and interactions with the world that their eyes denied.