If you’re praying about a problem and there isn’t immediate resolution, how do you know if you’re making progress? Christian Science presents quite a different way of measuring progress from the rest of the world. And when it comes specifically to physical healing, the way we’ve learned to measure progress might need to change. The world tries to keep us at a surface level—to think only about a physical approach to healing that is entirely focused on improving matter. In Christian Science, however, we’re thinking about improving thought.
The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (12:2). The theologian J. B. Phillips translated that passage, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould.” World thought tries to squeeze us into a physical model of thinking, but that’s actually exactly what hinders our progress forward.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “A physical diagnosis of disease … tends to induce disease” (p. 370). The medical system focuses much on the diagnosis of disease in a patient, and, once the disease is diagnosed, everything that’s happening to the body is charted—recorded, measured, and evaluated.
