When a person decides to go into the public practice of Christian Science healing, he or she is a messenger of freedom and love. The suggestion, whether it's internal or comes from someone else, that it is too early or too late to go into the public practice is really just a false resistance to the Christ—to the healing message that frees humanity from sin, sickness, and death. This resistance comes in the form of seemingly legitimate concerns, such as: "I have a family to feed"; "I have a business to run"; "I don't know enough about this Science to help others"; or "I can't even heal my own problems."
All of these concerns relate to a personal sense of things. By that term, I mean focusing on our personal ability to do something, for example, to earn a living or to heal, instead of focusing on the nature and power of God. One of the most wonderful things in the theology of Christian Science is the emphasis on turning away from our own or another's individual personality, and instead turning our attention solely to God, to divine Principle. We're never healed by a person, whether that person is Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, or even the practitioner whom we've called to support us in prayer. What an uplifting truth!
The Christian Science practitioner realizes that God's plan or purpose for humanity includes freedom and health through spiritual means alone. From Noah to Joseph to Ruth to Jesus, we learn that when someone becomes conscious of and obedient to God's plan, he or she is given the practical ways and means to fulfill this plan. God would not require us to devote our lives to Him and then deprive us of financial supply.
When I entered the public healing practice only a few years after college, I found tangible results from trusting God as the source of meeting all my needs. When thinking about finances, I've often used the analogy that when you lean on a wall, it supports you with equal and opposite force. I felt this was a good example of the way God supports us. The more we need, the more we find that the supply equals—even surpasses—the demand.
Yet I often felt personally responsible for the health and happiness of others, and this only added to my feeling of inadequacy. However, at one point I finally realized that the proof of Christian Science healing was not about me. Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Selfishness does not appear in the practice of Truth or Christian Science" (Science and Health, p. 410). This realization was enough to shift the focus off of myself and onto God—onto glorifying Him and His creation.
Soon after, I came across these words in the Christian Science Hymnal:
Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art;
That, that alone can be my soul's true rest;
Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart.
(Hymn No. 195)
I had to make sure that I wasn't leaving God out of Christian Science! I realized that when I became concerned about what I knew or didn't know as a practitioner, I needed to have a better understanding of God. Christ Jesus, the master Metaphysician said, "I can of mine own self do nothing" and "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 5:30, John 14:10). God alone is the healer, the all-knowing, supreme, all-powerful One.
