When my brother and I were preparing to launch our career as a dance team, Dad took us aside to give us some advice based on his own successful business practices. He used an example of horses and their riders in a race. He said that the horse and the rider that make a little extra effort come out on top and achieve success. He encouraged us to make the little extra effort that means all the difference between mediocrity and excellence.
For some time before going on stage, my brother and I would look at each other and smile and say, “Horses.” To us this meant to follow Dad’s advice. It paid off in many years of successful performances and in other careers that followed. Of these, the best and deepest of my careers, because of the unfathomable learning I’ve gained from the healing work, is my Christian Science practice.
How does one feel impelled to enter this career? It takes work, but you love the spiritual development that occurs. In her poem “Christ My Refuge,” Mary Baker Eddy writes, “I kiss the cross, and wake to know / A world more bright” (Poems, p. 12). So, if we really want to experience the “world more bright,” we’ll kiss the “cross” of challenging experiences. In this way we learn of Spirit, and are on the way to gaining the crown. That’s the road to salvation.
Mrs. Eddy has shown the world the possibilities of the genius of spiritual work.
So, how did I get into the public practice of Christian Science healing? The night that my mother was in labor, expecting me to arrive, the doctor had announced that it would be a long time before the birth would occur. At that moment, the Christian Science practitioner on the case, who had been in Mrs. Eddy’s 1898 class said, “This has gone on long enough.” The birth happened 30 minutes later. I was later told that the practitioner said joyfully, “This one will be a practitioner.”
Not until I was on my second career in business was I told what the practitioner had said at my birth. Right then, I knew without a doubt that the practice of Christian Science was to be my forever, permanent career. I’ve appreciated each career I’ve had—but this one is without question the best and most spiritually rewarding. I’m everlastingly grateful for every opportunity connected with it and for each lesson gained and success achieved by making those little extra efforts along the way.
The joy of working with people eager to learn about God and about Mrs. Eddy’s discovery, which explains the deep meaning of the Bible, is precious to me, whether their calls come by day or night. People who strive for and gain healing are traveling on the same road as I am, endeavoring to follow the banner of Christ. Christian healing is worth that little extra effort!
Whatever cross we bear at times, as the patient and practitioner work together to see healing, we can recognize that each one’s practice of this Science is helping to close the gap between humanity and salvation. Mrs. Eddy has shown the world the possibilities of the genius of spiritual work. It’s there for all. And our work as metaphysicians will firmly and lovingly help us close the gap.
