I'd never read the Bible. It just didn't seem important. Through the years, in tight spots, I lobbed a few desperate prayers heavenward but with no idea of what I was praying to or really whether prayer helped. Divine was a word to describe delicious desserts. You might say I had a blank religious slate, not having thought enough about God even to call myself an atheist.
Religion wasn't practiced in our family. My parents' religious heritage doesn't embrace Christianity, and I didn't quite know what Christianity was about. So, for me to be able to say that I've found healing and happiness in following Christ Jesus' teachings testifies to quite a journey from a world where spiritual ideas were deemed unnecessary.
Although our home was loving and I don't think I was a "bad" person, I still reaped the anguish (not bliss!) of being ignorant of spiritual truth. Looking back, I can see that the times I suffered most were due to mistaken morals and an emphasis on material things, which has since changed. Yet, all the while, almost without realizing it, I was searching for something higher. I guess that's why clear concepts about God and man and prayer that I found in my first look at Christian Science became very dear to me. And I was amazed to learn that the spiritual healing Jesus did and taught his disciples to do is possible now —healing that enters into every corner of our lives.
The more I read and asked questions, the more clearly I saw that there really was a science to the way Jesus lived. I began to understand that what have been called miracles were actually based on spiritual laws of God that are still operating and have lost none of their power. Jesus' healing works were the natural expression of God's love for His creation. The Gospels began to make sense to me seen in such a logical light.
Jesus referred to God as Father and to himself as Son. Everything he said and did was rooted in this unbreakable spiritual relationship, which he understood just as a bird knows it can fly. His mission was twofold: to demonstrate for all time that man is God's sinless, immortal child, made in His image (as the opening chapter of the Bible states); and to teach us that we can understand and prove our relationship to God every day.
Christian Science explains the eternal bond between God, who is Spirit, and man, His spiritual offspring. And it expands our understanding of prayer, giving definite rules to help us heal in the way Jesus taught his followers. Jesus is the Way-shower. He taught the way to live, to love, and to heal through Spirit's omnipotence. As we follow Jesus' example, our lives are brought into accord with divine law, and healing is the result.
Early on in my study of Christian Science, I had the opportunity to apply what little I'd grasped of God and my relationship to Him.
One evening my lip was deeply cut, by accident, and the seriousness of the cut frightened me. But I recognized that I stood on holy proving ground. Here was an opportunity to act as Jesus might have. I turned to God, and the conviction came, "God, good, is here. This can't hurt me." The power of that truth calmed me, and with childlike trust in God's omnipotence, I went to bed, refusing to examine the wound further.
In the morning it was as if nothing had happened—no bleeding, no pain, no scar. There was no evidence at all of the injury. I was thrilled to witness such proof of God's care, and I felt an undeniable presence—the gentle, mothering warmth of God's love for me. With that experience, Christian Science won my respect and I began to study it more seriously.
Digging into the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, one begins to find answers to basic questions about what God is and who we are. If we are honestly searching for truth and listening for answers, we find we hear them and they ring true. This kind of listening and hearing is really praying. When we silence our personal, human opinions long enough to let God, divine Truth, speak to our thought, we sense, not just physically or intellectually but intuitively, our original innocence as the spiritual children of God, who is infinite Love.
Jesus came to show us that we're safe in God's care because we're inseparable from our heavenly Parent, divine Love. This true idea of God is what Christian Science terms the Christ. Jesus' total embodiment of his sonship with God is why he's called Christ Jesus. His full understanding that he was inseparable from his Father was what made him fearless in the face of apparent danger. A bird doesn't worry about falling, since it knows how to fly. And so Jesus' understanding of the Christ-idea allowed him to express fully man's God-given dominion over suffering and even death.
Each of us already has a permanent relationship with God. And the Science of Christ helps us recognize sonship or daughtership by showing us the illuminating power of prayer. When we pray, we come to know that we're linked to divine Love this very minute. Prayer transforms our outlook from hopelessness to confidence as Christ lifts us above the mistaken belief that we're separate from God and shows us our oneness with Him. Prayer melts fear, stirs us to lift our motives and methods to a higher, more spiritual, basis. One result of this is that our interactions with others are increasingly wholesome and our relationships become more productive as we demonstrate more of our God-given qualities such as patience, love, discernment, and fidelity to God's law. As we become clearer in expressing these qualities, we're better at seeing that these are the real, spiritual nature of everyone.
In fact, it is by coming to a better understanding of man's true substance and identity as God's spiritual likeness that anything unlike God can be overcome. But what about serious illness or chronic lack of self-control? Can we emulate Jesus so far as to heal these kinds of troubles consistently by prayer alone? Yes—he promised it, expected it, and even commanded it. Aren't his words speaking directly to us? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." John 14:12.
As the reports of healing in this magazine illustrate, being a Christian Scientist means worshiping God not just by words but by living our prayer. It takes effort and commitment to learn to depend completely upon the divine Principle Jesus called Father. Yet the more we learn of God and our unity with Him, the more natural it is to feel God's love and power. And relying on prayer ceases to seem like "doing nothing." Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." John 5:19. And he also explained, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 14:10. Sometimes he prayed all night to gain a clearer, more spiritual view. It was as Christ Jesus discerned his oneness with his Father that he was able to speak and act with divine effect. Christian Science helps us utilize the same Christ-power to experience healing and reformation, and so a conviction grows within us of prayer's potency.
In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: "It is possible, —yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman, —to follow in some degree the example of the Master by the demonstration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness." Science and Health, p. 37.
To emulate Jesus is demanding, but it doesn't require some impossible leap of faith, because we can begin modestly to prove his precepts step by step from wherever we are right now. We do have to be willing to look at our thoughts and actions to see if they are in agreement with God's will. And often we find persistence in our efforts is necessary. But our patient learning of the unselfish love for God and humanity, which the master Christian expressed, is rewarded by healing.
And when we've been healed by the Christ-spirit ourselves, we feel a new peace and freedom that inevitably flows outward. We're surprisingly able to comfort our neighbor and to be a graceful force for good in a world that needs healing and comforting. Helping others, we may realize, is our life purpose and reason for being. When we discover this, we're truly Jesus' followers and heirs to his salvation.
