AS periods of human history come and go, trends and fashions provide popular topics for conversation. Today, unless those present are very alert, the subject of bodily weight often seems to intrude itself into the conversation of people gathered together informally.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy asks a question about a diseased body that might also be asked about an overweight body. The question is (p. 174), "Why declare that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to the mind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and holding it before the thought of both physician and patient?"
Christian Science teaches the facts concerning the true body of man. Everything pertaining to man is spiritual because man is the reflection of God, Spirit. Harmony, rhythm, symmetry, beauty, activity, strength, and balance are among the qualities that make up the body of the man of God's creating, who was declared by his Maker to be wholly good. Because man is spiritual and the image and likeness of God, divine Mind, every aspect of his life is maintained by Spirit.
When bodily conditions appear to be inharmonious, it is usual for individuals to want to do something about them. Earnest Christian Scientists know immediately what to do when they are tempted to believe that they are sick, weary, too fat, too thin, or too old. They pray for spiritual enlightenment so that faith in matter will diminish. Mrs. Eddy states (Science and Health, p. 425), "Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered."
In prayerful communion with God, students of this Science reconstruct their views of themselves to coincide with the perfect, spiritual concept of man. In proportion as they do this, distorted beliefs about body yield, and harmony becomes apparent to thought.
Conscious appreciation and gratitude for the true and perfect man, as well as the acknowledgment that loveliness, symmetry, and co-ordination are included in man, the embodiment of good, enable Christian Scientists to evidence these qualities visibly and to demonstrate well-being. Spiritual understanding, not physicality, unfolds health and beauty in man.
Mrs. Eddy tells us that "beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color" (ibid.,p. 247). Man's true form and outline must be pleasing and balanced, because they include the beauty which is always within ever-expressive Mind.
Dieting is often suggested as a way to solve the problem of excessive and abnormal weight. To eat temperate amounts of food at regular intervals is still a natural thing to do. Food, like sunshine and rain, is a symbol of God's eternal provision for His beloved child. Christ Jesus partook of food and in his compassion for the multitude supplied them with more than enough to meet their need. And he gave them what was acceptable in that day—fish and bread.
Today our fare is not usually as simple as that. To choose foods with the thought of satisfying an insatiable appetite certainly indicates a state of mind that is not at peace. But to deprive oneself of certain foods through fear of consequences is no more scientific.
"When faith in matter has been conquered," consciousness, not food, maintains the body in fairness and health. And if faith in matter remains unconquered, it is not food but fear, intemperance, greed, conflict, tension, guilt, criticism, or condemnation that provides the mental soil in which undesirable physical results are produced.
It is useless to look to dieting to correct deficiencies or abnormalities of the body instead of looking to the one perfect Mind, which always supplies its ideas with proper spiritual sustenance.
Daniel would not defile himself with the king's meat or wine, but begged the man whom the prince of the eunuchs put in charge of him and his friends to allow them ten days to prove that pulse and water would be sufficient for them. And we read in Daniel (1:15), "At the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat."
Of these children of Israel whose thinking was filled with loyalty and consecration to their God, we read (Dan. 1:20), "In all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm." Certainly it was this wisdom and understanding, not the food alone, which sustained them and made them fair in the sight of the king.
The author of the epistle to the Hebrews gives us the solution for the problem of excessive weight. He says (12:1), "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." We all know the devastating effects of satisfying undisciplined, inordinate clamorings for food and drink. But what are some of the other earth weights that hold thought to the ground?
As men and women appear to mature, a sense, of false responsibility for others, for home and business, often burdens and weighs them down. Unfulfilled opportunities and unaccomplished goals may rest heavily on their hearts. Frustration and discouragement sometimes seem to be millstones around their necks.
Also mad ambition can burden human beings until they cannot lift themselves up without a spiritual rebirth. If they are not overcome, apathy and sloth inactivate one. The Bible would not admonish us to lay these weights aside, these sins which beset us, if they were a native part of man or a necessity of his nature. But they are not native qualities. Sluggishness, disorderly functioning, and unwise activities are no part of man's being. They are only part of the dream that man is physical and inhabits a material universe.
A runner in a race must be active, alert, well co-ordinated, and must keep his eyes on the goal. He must move steadily forward without looking backward. We each have a race to run toward a more complete spiritual understanding. We can, if we choose, "run with patience the race that is set before us," unfettered by the weight of materialism. We do it by exchanging the uncomfortable, unrewarding beliefs of the Adam-dream for the ever-present truths of the man of God, who dwells in the realm of perfect Mind.
If we wish to be unburdened by excessive weight, we should ponder the spiritual loveliness of Soul and acknowledge the perfect symmetry and form of Principle, God. Man, the reflection of Soul, God, derives his health, beauty, form, satisfaction, and substance from God. These qualities are always present. By admitting them into consciousness, one finds freedom from ungainly matter, accumulated as excess weight, and enjoys normalcy in both thought and body.
Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.—Psalm 89:15, 16.
