Exploring in depth what Christian Science is and how it heals.
Articles
When actors play their role convincingly, we believe that they are the character they portray. Even though we know it’s an act, their performance can be so convincing that it affects us emotionally.
Do you find that things which once were simple, like regularly attending church services, now seem complicated or difficult? Do you now have to face pressure from family members to sleep in on Sundays, or go away for the weekend? For a midweek testimony meeting, there might be concerns about traffic or public transit congestion, security issues, fatigue, an employer’s expectations that you work into the evening, or trouble driving at night. All this may make going to church feel like going to the moon.
In my sadness after a very dear friend passed away, I told a colleague I was dreading the upcoming Fourth of July celebration. That was because my friend—someone I thought of as family—would always invite me to watch the fireworks with her and other friends at her house.
Sometimes it may feel like a problem we’re facing is incurable—like it’s just not possible to be healed. Yet Christian Science teaches that there is no incurable disease or situation, because “all reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal.
Arriving early one Sunday morning to support prayerfully the service of my local branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I noticed gulls rising, floating, and soaring outside the church edifice as the gentle wind currents actively lifted them. This reminded me of what my mother had taught me about God when I was a child.
Jesus did not change sick people into well people. He understood that in reality no one has ever been unwell in any way.
I live at the beach and swim most days in the Pacific Ocean. Some days I float and let the tide take me to my destination.
It’s my daily practice to pray with the ninety-first Psalm from the Bible, as I was once told that it’s referred to as the “Soldier’s Psalm” because it is so filled with the thought of protection. One morning, I felt particularly guided to pay close attention to this line in the psalm: “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder” ( verse 13 ).
Years ago, a friend shared with me a healing she experienced through prayer, which included a powerful sense that God was present and all was well. At the time, she remarked that the thing that stood out to her was the feeling she had.
I was raised as a student of Christian Science, and I had certainly accepted and even found healing in the understanding that man is the image and likeness of God, as we learn from the first chapter of Genesis, and is therefore spiritual. But I can remember a time when I was overly focused on life as a spiritual journey that required me to dutifully make progress.