No one likes to be pushed. Resistance is the normal reaction. Most of us prefer to proceed at our own speed, mentally and physically. It's generally someone else's anxiety that does the pushing—whether it be a stranger in a crowded bus or, even more to be regretted, someone close and dear to us in our own home.
How tempting it is, for example, when we know what joy and blessings Christian Science brings into one's life, to try to push a loved one into sharing that knowledge! But can we push others into the kingdom of heaven? Their own acceptance of the fact that they are already in heaven may be the only fully satisfying way of their enjoying it!
Mrs. Eddy wisely admonished her followers, "Let us serve instead of rule, knock instead of push at the door of human hearts, and allow to each and every one the same rights and privileges that we claim for ourselves."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 303;
Personally, I might never have become interested in Christian Science if my wife, who was raised in it, had tried to urge me to use it. In our first three years together, she exercised admirable restraint. Her only condition when she agreed to marry me was that I had to respect her right to study and go to church without interference. Many happy years later I often think of this and bless her for the tremendous wisdom she used in patiently waiting for me to ask for help in her religion.
Nor did she show resentment or self-righteousness when, after receiving healings of two serious physical conditions, my reaction was, "It would have happened anyway!" It was only after an extraordinary experience in my professional life that stubborn intellectualism finally bowed before spirituality and humility took the place of personal egotism. I knew that a power higher than I had ever known was responsible for what seemed truly miraculous to me. I determined to discover for myself just what this spiritual power was and how I could learn to use it consistently in my life.
That was many years ago. Since then my search for Truth has never ended, and each time I have applied the power of that Truth to any situation it has brought happy achievement and fruition.
I often think of my own experience when I see parents disturbed because their children fall in love with non-Scientists. Yet how often, as in my own case, such marriages result in the ever-widening influence and spread of the truth we know and practice! Of course, it is simpler and more comforting when two young people start life together with the same moral and religious background, but one need not dread the challenge of a differing thought. And that differing thought is privileged to gain its own understanding of Truth in its own way and in its own time. Each individual, when he is ready and receptive, will hear and understand the prophet Hosea's call, "Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."Hos. 10:12;
Offering Christian Science to one who seems in need is quite different from pushing it at someone who isn't interested and doesn't really want it. In many cases, especially with young people, I have asked if they knew anything about it Almost invariably the answer is, "Oh, that's the religion that doesn't believe in going to doctors!" Unfortunately, that is the only concept of Christian Science most people have. To correct that very limited and inaccurate impression is of vital importance, but it must be done objectively—not by preaching or proselytizing but by explaining. If that explanation is simple, concise, and clear, a seed of spiritual truth has been planted in the listener's thought, though he may not realize it. When it is right for that seed to burst into flower and fruition, it will do so of its own accord.
Many years ago a writer friend of ours who was a keen-minded, worldly individual often used to express her amazement that my wife and I could be students of Christian Science. "I just can't understand," she would say, "how intelligent people like you two can possibly accept this way-out religion—no smoking, no drinking, no medical examinations—nothing normal! How you can possibly think as you do and still work successfully in the theater and motion pictures is beyond me. If I didn't know you so well, and what a happy life you lead, I'd honestly think you were a couple of screwballs!" She herself at that time was leading anything but a happy life—constantly on the go, a cocktail in one hand, a cigarette in the other—seeking and never finding what she thought she was looking for.
My wife, with a gentle, loving smile, would reply, "Don't let it worry you, darling. Someday perhaps you'll realize why we cherish Christian Science. Until then, let's just be friends and at least tolerate what we don't accept about each other."
This sort of armed neutrality between a spiritual and a material point of view went on for some time. Gradually, however, our friend began to ask questions—at first in sheer exasperation because of our own confidence that what we had was good. Little by little the spiritual gained ascendency over the material. First the smoking slowed down and finally disappeared. Next, the social drinking lessened and then ceased. Stubborn refusal to accept spiritual guidance gave way before a growing desire to understand the truth of her real selfhood. The Christlike compassion of a loving practitioner opened new vistas of thought. Our friend began to see the utter futility of the way she had been living. Her material house of shattered hopes and frustrated dreams collapsed under the impact of a new unfoldment. Now she was laying a spiritual foundation on which she could continue to build with happy assurance.
Today, many remark about the lovely sense of quiet serenity that always surrounds her. She is an active and valued member of a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and of The Mother Church. The transformation from sense to Soul has been beautiful to watch. Once again it proved to us that being patiently willing to wait for proper unfoldment, rather than urging or pushing, results in blessings for all concerned. An interesting sidelight to this experience was that our friend frequently told us it was not the words we spoke but the example we lived that impressed her most. It was that example which finally broke the ice for her and let her rise into the sunlight of Truth.
In Science and Health, speaking of Christ Jesus' disciples, Mrs. Eddy writes: "They had borne this bread from house to house, breaking (explaining) it to others, and now it comforted themselves."Science and Health, p. 33. We too can break this bread—explain the truth we treasure so greatly. As we permit it to comfort and guide our own lives, we cannot fail to inspire others to want to learn more about it. The biggest push we can give to the Cause of Christian Science is truly to live it.
