MUCH OF THE WORLD today seems obsessed with aging and loss. Advertising focuses almost exclusively on the value of youthfulness, promoting everything from unrealistic body images to botox. The media regularly report on the battle against losing our looks and capacities. We hear over and over that we have old bodies and worn-out points of view. Religion, too, hasn't escaped the bad rap of being outdated. We constantly hear that churches have lost their spark and vitality. Here in Europe, reports tell us that churches, for the most part, are either passé or just plain dead. Furthermore, we're continually reminded that, tragically, a large segment of the global population still struggles daily with basic life-threatening issues, such as disease and poverty, which result in high mortality rates and desperate standards of living.
Do we have to accept that a host of factors—such as disease, heredity, poverty, and untoward circumstances—limit life or define it? Or the concept that God has brought on these conditions or, at best, is unwilling or impotent to relieve suffering? Is this what life is really about?
Mary Baker Eddy spent the first half of her life searching for the answers to these questions. A serious student of the Bible, she resisted the traditional religious teaching she grew up with, which claimed God causes suffering and that suffering is an inevitable part of life. Instead, she persisted in her search to find relief for the illnesses that had afflicted her since she was a young child. Born in Bow, New Hampshire, in 1821, she researched, tested, and practiced many of the medical cures and alternatives of her time. She looked into mesmerism, water cure, hygiene, homeopathy, and other curative systems from which she sometimes found temporary relief. All the while, she also turned to the Bible to find comfort as well as relief from her suffering.
