Love moved me . . . to Spain

Susan Rynerson | from the Christian Science Sentinel

If you’re looking for guidance or adventure, let God’s will—the will of infinite, vigorous Life—be done.

Personal Log: Summer 2004. Loving life in Boston. Cannot believe it’s been five years since I began my Christian Science healing practice. For fun I’m taking Spanish classes!

That summer, Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan was on my mind. I spent a lot of time helping children study this story of the journeying man who stopped to help a wounded man, while others passed by. This Samaritan even took the man to an inn, giving the innkeeper extra money to care for him (see Luke 10:25–37). And the lesson of the Samaritan extends beyond just loving those who are suffering injury or injustice. It teaches how to love in fresh ways.

Let the will of infinite, vigorous Life be done.

Little did I know how the parable’s message would play out for me or how rewarding life could be as I deepened my commitment to God and my neighbor. Getting to know God—as Life, as Love itself—illumined the prayer “Thy will be done” into “Let the will of infinite, vigorous Life be done; let Love’s patient, unfailing grace prevail.”

October 2004: Here I am—five days into a vacation in Spain. And suddenly it feels like I’m supposed to move here. Yikes!

I’d never thought of living in Spain and knew only the married couple I’d just gotten to know in Alhaurin el Grande, Malaga. They were studying Christian Science. They introduced me to others who were reading Science and Health together in their homes—and experiencing healing from what they were learning.
I loved Christian Science and saw living in Spain as an intriguing opportunity to see it in action with these small groups new to its practice.

However, at first I couldn’t really imagine living there. The culture of the predominantly Catholic region felt foreign. Many of the women had never ventured to Malaga’s capital, only 35 minutes away, and they were generally focused on their homes and families. On the other hand, I was a single, athletic, career-oriented woman of a different religion.

Answers came with a peace and clarity which said to me that they were from divine Love.

Making the move would also be a financial stretch and would be complex logistically—including selling my house and car and leaving absolutely nothing behind. Yet I began the process. At times it all seemed overwhelming. So I’d turn to God to help me sort things out, and answers came with a peace and clarity which said to me that they were from divine Love. The move began to seem logical, and I saw how God had been leading me to this path.

My main inspiration came from that story of the good Samaritan. It spoke to me about a unique opportunity I had to love—and to learn from—those people I’d met on my vacation.

As I faced one giant obstacle after another in accomplishing the move, I thought a lot about another question: “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14).

In the story of David and Goliath, most everyone thought that David didn’t have enough experience, height, or strength to take on the giant. Yet David knew God could strengthen him to prevail over all obstacles. Jesus also said, “With God all things are possible,” and Jesus was described as always “moved with compassion”—with universally accessible divine Love (Matt. 19:26; Matt. 9:36).

And so, in the face of my own limitations of money, time, experience, contacts, and so on, I listened to hear God’s perspective. I remembered how He’d helped me before. Then I heard God quietly becoming to me even more of what He’d always been: My boundless Source, Motivator, Advisor, Lawmaker, Caretaker. One day, as I faced yet another setback with visa approval, the question came, “Who is asking you to go?” I could only reason that if Love was motivating me, then nothing could interfere. And so I kept going forward.

February 2005. Less than four months since my vacation to Spain—my first morning in Alhaurin el Grande! I’d left Boston with my two big dogs 54 hours ago, traveling by plane and car. I’d barely slept on the plane, and last night in my new home in Spain, I was cold, uncomfortable, and frightened. I’d tossed and turned—sleeping on a thin dog bed on the cold marble floor—and prayed about our safety, health, life.

I am not going to bed tonight without buying food, a blanket, a space heater, and finding the water heater on-switch!

So, unshowered and wearing a hat and several sweaters, I got in my rental car and turned its heater on full-blast. There I read the Christian Science Bible Lesson. Encouraged yet again by the promises I read about God’s love, protection, and direction, I set out and found a grocery store. But I couldn’t understand a word the Spanish people were speaking. I felt helpless and again reached out right there to God.

This thought came: “You are here to love.”

So I stopped focusing on my needs and began to love everything around me. I started with what was in front of me: familiar potato chip bags; a woman with her little daughter; people serving others at the checkout. The despair lost its grip and gave way to an awareness of God’s loving embrace of me, and everyone.

It was amazing to feel the power of such a simple idea: to love.

It was amazing to feel the power of such a simple idea: to love. That was the turning point. Though there were more obstacles to surmount, I was on my way to discovering that anywhere and everywhere, as Mary Baker Eddy declared, “We live in an age of Love’s divine adventure to be All-in-all” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 158).

I still couldn’t understand what people were saying, and didn’t really connect with anyone at that time, but I bought groceries and then found stores to buy a comforter and an oil heater. I took my treasures home and found the water heater switch, too.

As I kept praying to follow God’s leading, so much more love and good became evident. I received all my documents, legally and on time. The dogs adapted, and we daily ventured into the woods behind my home. Perseverance enabled me to learn Spanish sufficiently to develop friendships with predominantly Spanish-speakers. I got to know neighbors and sometimes translated for both English- and Spanish-speaking residents (even when they were arguing).

Every day—feeling God’s love—I made an effort to smile and express love to everyone I saw. Gradually the friendships led to swimming, kite surfing, and cultural trips. I participated in some of the Science and Health new-readers’ groups that my first acquaintances introduced me to. And I loved volunteering at a retirement home where I’d sing with the residents—even performing with them—wearing a flamenco dress no less—during the annual town fiesta.

And all this time my Christian Science healing practice was growing throughout Spain, as well as in other parts of Europe and Africa.

The daily demands of being in a foreign country away from friends, family, and all that was familiar stretched my faith and love of God. At the same time, I was in awe of how infinite Life could develop such a full experience from virtually nothing except a desire to love.

May 2006. I’ve been in Spain about 15 months. Feeling settled. My parents just visited, we had a blast, and they said I looked great.

One Wednesday we went to a church service conducted entirely by new students of Christian Science, all Spanish natives. It was held right in my town—in a warehouse! There, among a cracked, half-cement/half-tile floor, uneven cement walls, and empty rusting shelves, everyone sat in a circle of unmatched chairs, with the Readers behind a small, round table. Our surroundings didn’t matter; the service was all love and joy, and enthusiasm for what everyone was learning. My parents barely understood a word of the Spanish, yet we all felt the spirit of worship untainted by tradition. We were humbled by the deep love for God and others as people told of their healings of serious diseases and circumstances.

Summer 2008. I’ve been back in Boston for a year now.

I loved my time in Spain. There had been no reason to leave. Yet, I heard of an opportunity to work again in the States. A day later, I heard that the people meeting to hold Christian Science services in my town had been recognized by the Spanish government and could officially become a Christian Science Society.

Two days later, my loved parable of the good Samaritan was read at church. Hearing it encouraged me to contemplate a move back.

A month later, all the implications, logistics, hopes, doubts, and opinions about where I should be pressed back in on me. But that very Wednesday night at church, the primary reading from the Bible was again the good Samaritan. God’s message to me felt clear and emphatic: I’d helped my neighbor in Spain; we’d gone down a shared road, and it was time for me to move on. I saw I could trust my dear Spanish friends and myself to God (the great Innkeeper) and to His sufficient and uninterrupted love.

Since then, as I’ve thought about my time in Spain, the results of my commitment to God—to letting “Love’s will be done” in a Samaritan-like way—I realize I glimpsed in fresh, simple, powerful, and grand ways what God can do. I look forward to seeing more.

Susie Rynerson is a Christian Science practitioner in Boston. She manages Sunday School activities for TMC Youth.