Most of us realize that it takes devoted prayer—and much listening—to contemplate going into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing. But what are the other thoughts we might find ourselves listening to? Thoughts that try to distract us, and even distance us, from this holy purpose and direction? The Journal collected some of these suggestions and asked Connie Coddington, manager of The Christian Science Journal Advertising, to face them down. And in doing so, to support what “brightens the ascending path of many a heart” (Science and Health, p. 265).

“I keep hearing about practitioners who start getting calls for healing, and that this is what moves them into the practice. Well, what if you’re not getting the calls—do you have to wait till they come?”

If one is prayerfully alert, there are so many ways to “get the calls.” People all around you who are reaching out—family, friends, that neighbor you meet up with at the mailbox, a stranger on the street, the world headlines. Just because the phone isn’t ringing doesn’t mean there aren’t people asking for help. When you begin to set aside some time to specifically work for the practice, that’s when you find there are countless ways to nurture it.

I’m talking about giving Christian Science treatment for yourself. To “treat” what is coming before your thought—that’s the most important “call” you can ever take. And it’s right there in the Church Manual, where Mary Baker Eddy says: “. . . each member of this Church shall strive to demonstrate by his or her practice, that Christian Science heals the sick quickly and wholly . . .” (p. 92). So it’s absolutely clear that she knew every member is able to practice Christian Science.

OK, so maybe you’re not in the full-time practice at this moment, but that will open up. You don’t have to cut off your other job or business right away, but what can you do? Can you have some office hours? Can you set aside some time? How can you best serve God?

“It’s just plain scary to contemplate making the leap to go into the practice.”

I think it’s scary because you’re trying to look down the road—at the whole picture: How are those requests for prayerful treatment going to come—and from whom? If there’s a need for more quiet time, if there’s a need for an office—how does it all work? Well, we don’t necessarily know those answers in advance.

Even that phrase, “making the leap,” is a “leap” into the future. Where am I going to be five years from now? Or 20 years? How does this look? It’s a perfect opportunity to see that outlining the future is no part of the picture.

And even later, when you may have settled into the practice, and might say to yourself, “There. I’ve got it all together,” something will undoubtedly come up that requires more prayer, and the further understanding that unfoldment is active. It takes great humility to hold to the fact that God, Mind, is doing it all. This is His work that you are reflecting.

“I have considerable ambitions in regard to my career. If I become a full-time Christian Science practitioner, they’ll never be fulfilled.”

There seems to be great hesitation about putting a career aside for something so new and untried as the healing practice. But think about it—is it so “new”? Is it so “untried”? You’ve been studying and praying and practicing Christian Science all along—and you’re feeling impelled to consider the full-time practice.

But that being said, I do get it—that individual, say, who’s wanted to be an artist from the time they’ve been a kid—there’s a kind of comfort in having that in thought for all that time. So it can feel like you’re about to lose something by going into the practice—that a talent or an ability goes by the wayside. Recently someone applied to become a Journal-listed practitioner, and I talked to her over several months’ time. She had a wonderful career as a professional musician, and was having trouble letting go of it to enter the healing practice, which she dearly desired to do. But she continued to pray, nourishing the idea of the practice, and she e-mailed me the other day—something to the effect that she no longer had the desire to do anything professionally with music. She realized she’d come to the point where her overriding passion was wanting to be there to help others through prayer.

Going into the practice doesn’t mean our “passions” end. It seems natural to express all our God-given talents—in fact, those talents can thrive, because they become part of the practice.

Unfoldment is unique for each individual—there is no outlining or sense of “should.” You know the way I see it? God guides each individual to listen and follow in his or her own way. There are millions of people who can be attorneys and accountants and artists and anything else—but there aren’t very many who have the spiritual understanding to practice Christian Science healing. And the world needs healing—right now.

“In no way do I have a fast-lane life, but I do like the occasional dinner out with friends, going to the movies, taking hikes. It feels like I’ll need to say goodbye to these activities when I go into the practice. That I’m signing on for a cloistered life.”

Guess what? You can continue to enjoy the things you normally do. It’s just that once you want to make this commitment to the practice, you find you want to spend more time at it. And when you love the work, you’re so entirely in the “now” of it, there’s no need for regret, or to mourn that you’ve given anything up. Someone told me recently that she called a practitioner on a weekend and he answered the call while he was backpacking in the mountains. He just pulled off the trail, talked with his patient, and got straight to work praying.

We all know that the foundation of the practice is quiet, contemplative time, but by no means is it monastic. It’s joyful. How can healing come without joy?

“Over the years I’ve heard practitioners say something like, ‘Being a practitioner is the only job where you’re grateful when you get fired.’ Meaning that their healing prayers were effective, so treatment was no longer needed by the patient. But how do we reconcile that with the fact that a practitioner needs to make a living?”

Let’s talk for a minute about the practice being a “job” a practitioner wants to get fired from. I understand where that analogy is coming from—but the practice is so much more than a job. It’s your life. It is your continual communion with God, and how that works with everything else that’s going on around you. When I was first interested in the practice, I went to The Mother Church and talked with somebody in the practitioner department, and I said: “How do you do it? How do you go into it? What’s the key?” And she said, “Honey, you just have to think, ‘God, God, God, God.’” I took that to mean that the practice is the very core of our being, and we love it—and God provides everything that supports this love. It takes a deep trust in infinite Mind, a trust that each one of us is continuing to nourish as we go, whether we’re in the official “practice” or not.

I realize that individuals considering the public healing practice are concerned about supply—but if we’re working with the ideas that God gives us, these ideas are literally our “in-come.” And everything will “come in” as needed. And yes, sometimes the going can get pretty rough, and that’s when you really have to be steadfast, and stick with it—and know without a doubt that God placed you here. Motive is crucial—why are you going into the practice? If there’s a great deal of fear, or entertaining fantasies of becoming a Christian Science lecturer or teacher before you’ve even committed to the practice, then those are questionable motives. But if healing is at the heart of what you want to bear witness to, if this is your deep desire, then infinite Mind is not going to withhold what you need to carry that out.

I love to think of the practice as a mental space. Our “office” is in consciousness. It’s right where we are—in the car, at the supermarket, out with friends. That’s because our office is the consciousness of the Christ.

Someone not too long ago applied to become a Journal-listed practitioner. And one of her friends told me that they can all be sitting down to supper, and this healer will just say, “Excuse me” and walk away with her phone—and then slip right back into the conversation after she’s talked with a patient. That’s when you really see so vividly that the practice isn’t compartmentalized. It’s seamless.

“Going into the practice is something I intend to do later in life—when I retire.”

Before I reply to that, I just want to say that if someone’s retired, and drawn to go into the practice, please, go for it! I’ve had many people in their eighth decade recently apply and become Journal-listed. And it’s no surprise that they do powerful work. And I’ve also had lots of young applicants too—all totally committed to the healing power of Truth. One fellow overseas realized he had to give up his web-design business, and after much prayerful thought, that’s what he did—just dived into the practice full-time. But when I say “dived” I don’t mean this was done on a whim, or bowing to human will—I mean that he had the spiritual confidence and impulsion to go forward. As I said earlier, no two individuals go forward in exactly the same way—it’s a holy time for preparation and prayer.

But back to this thought that “I’ll do this when I retire.” In essence that thought seems to say: “I just want to ‘live my life’ first.” I think we sort of miss the point that this “life” and the practice go hand in hand. I remember when I was in the practice as a young mother and took calls while I was feeding the baby, and the bottle of milk spilled all over the place, and I had to keep my calm as I talked to the patient. That calm is required for all of us, no matter what we’re facing.

To me, this is the most inspiring and surprising aspect to all of it—we work out the practice in life—as Life. So that naturally leads to the question, Why not experience that sooner rather than later?

If you feel the nudge to go into the practice, there’s only one thing to do. Let Love lead you. And follow.