My journey with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy began when I received this book as a gift from a friend. He saw that I was in a very dark place. (Since I began this journey, I’ve purchased an untold number of copies for myself and for sharing with others, as my friend did for me.)
I accepted the book graciously but did not intend to read it, since all I knew of Christian Science was that it did not involve healing through medical means. And I was totally committed to a career in the field of medicine. My entire family was involved in the medical profession, and I was working as a medical technologist in a cancer research laboratory at a university hospital. We shared a common goal of wanting to help others find health and well-being.
After the book had sat on a table for several days, I picked it up and began to read, but only out of respect for my friend. I realized it must have taken great courage for him to offer it, knowing my commitment to the field of medicine. I was also aware of his intuitive understanding that my negative mental state was directly connected to frustration that there seemed to be little progress in finding a cure for a disease whose name alone held so many captive by fear.
I continued to read, and something wonderful took place.
Feeling grateful for my friend’s support, I continued to read, and something wonderful took place. After several weeks, I was totally surprised to find that I was free of lifelong suffering from allergies, debilitating asthma, and a metabolism disease that doctors said would need to be medicated for the rest of my life if I was to survive (see my testimony in the December 2006 Journal). As I pondered those healings, I realized that my resistance to the message of the book had faded away. And I had a new understanding of God and my relationship to Him.
As a child and young adult, I had searched in vain for any understanding of God and where I fit in with Him. No matter where I turned for answers, I was left with doubt and confusion. But by simply reading Science and Health, I had gained an inspired understanding that God, divine Love, creates all, and God unconditionally governs and cares for His creation. As wonderful as the healings and the accompanying freedom were, I realized this scientific understanding of God and His Christ was the most significant outcome of my journey thus far.
I began to think about the impact of Science and Health on my path going forward. I wondered, What if this book’s message provides answers that the field of medicine does not? My career and all that I’ve committed to would be altered from anything I’ve ever known. And what about my identity—so intertwined with a desire to help others?
I had been given the “Key” that enabled me to make the Bible my “chart of life.”
About this time I came to another inspiring milestone in my journey. I saw that for the first time in my life, I was beginning to grasp what I was reading in the Bible—really understanding it! I had long struggled with the Bible, trying so many times to read it, only to give up when contradictions and literal meanings confused me. Now I had been given the “Key” that enabled me to make the Bible my “chart of life” (Science and Health, p. 24).
This new clarity was connected to the fading away of my resistance to the author of Science and Health. I saw that I wouldn’t be on this journey were it not for Mary Baker Eddy’s obedience to God in bringing to this age Christian Science, the divine Comforter promised by Christ Jesus. And with this insight came the humble realization that I wasn’t just on my own personal journey. I was joining the ranks of dedicated people who were seeking—and finding—the laws of God and His inspired Word and learning how these laws govern their own lives and the lives of all humanity. Joining The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, was a natural next step for me. What a joy it was to discover that as members we support together the Church “designed to be built on the Rock, Christ; even the understanding and demonstration of divine Truth, Life, and Love, healing and saving the world from sin and death …” (Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 19).
The beginning of my journey was uplifting and joyful, like a pleasant hike up a mountain, with inspired vistas at every turn. But sometimes a traveler can be faced with challenges or obstructions that discourage or divert him or her from continuing the journey. These may seem unavoidable—something we have no control over. Or they may appear to be the result of our own doing—sins that we could have avoided. Suddenly it seemed that both were at play in my life, and what started as a sweet experience began to turn bitter. I found myself challenged by the sudden passing of my parents, a distressing divorce, and the effects of unwise personal decisions. I was very confused about why these things were happening.
Science and Health contains several explanations about how to handle dilemmas such as I was facing. One is in the chapter titled “The Apocalypse.” On page 559, Mrs. Eddy speaks of the “little book” written about in chapter 10 of Revelation, the book that the angel had in his hand “open for all to read and understand.” She asks, “Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science … ?” The thought that Science and Health is that “little book” was strengthening and encouraging to me.
But then Mrs. Eddy instructs the reader to obey the heavenly command: “ ‘Go and take the little book.… Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.’ ” She says, “It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter” (p. 559). I felt a sense of burden lift when I read further down the page, where Mrs. Eddy likens the bitterness to the Paschal meal of the Israelites before their passage out of bondage into the promised land.
The revelation of divine Science did indeed sustain me through that difficult time in my journey, on to greener pastures, and it still does. It consistently leads me out of any belief of bondage into the place of abundant faith, hope, and healing. Doesn’t this describe what I had always searched for—a way of helping hungering humanity search for solutions? Every day since I began advertising as a Christian Science practitioner in The Christian Science Journal, I humbly thank God by saying, “Yes!”
St. Louis, Missouri, US
