Among the many things I learned in a Christian Science Sunday School when I was a child was Mary Baker Eddy’s answer to the question “What is the scientific statement of being?” It begins: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 468). After each Sunday School session, the superintendent read the full statement, which I found to be a reliable companion and ready aid, an inspiring prayer leading to spiritual growth.
But as I matured and started to delve deeper into the significance of the individual terms that constitute the statement, there was one word that rubbed me the wrong way: “is.” “Couldn’t there be a more exciting ‘action word’ for truths that are so revolutionary?” I wondered. I even toyed with finding other words to replace that little term. Not surprisingly, I could not come up with anything better! The more I studied this statement, the more I saw the deep significance of the concept of present being.
After all, when God revealed Himself to Moses, He revealed Himself as present being, or “I am” (see Exodus 3:1–15). How significant that God showed Himself as all-presence, always in action, not just a very, very big “thing.” Sometimes I’m tempted to limit my prayers by appealing to a divine something, or asking for some thing. But the prayers that I’ve seen to be most effective are the ones that bring my thought into accord with what truly is—prayers that are based in a humble acknowledgment of the ever-operative presence of God. Contemplating God as actual, active being, or I am, vitalizes and expands my understanding of Deity; and it often brings swifter healing. It also helps me clarify my identity—not as an independent “I,” or separate thing, but as the spiritual expression of that infinite, active presence, which is God.
The Bible teaches us that man—all of us individually and collectively—is the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26), and Mary Baker Eddy states it this way: “Man is the expression of God’s being” (Science and Health, p. 470). God is actively being, and we are the active expression of that being. In fact, since God is All-in-all, the only activity in the whole spiritual, real universe is God, good, expressing Himself. This means that good can’t be static, and it can’t be based in matter. It isn’t a limited quantity that can be trapped in the past, or saved up for the future. God, Spirit, is ever-present, ever-active good.
When something is, it rules out what is not. “The scientific statement of being” establishes God’s allness right up front. The active presence of divine Love, Spirit, Life—the infinite and only I am—makes anything other than good impossible.
At one point, I began having problems with one of my teeth. It felt as though a wisdom tooth was growing in, and the area was sore and inflamed. I prayed fairly regularly for several months, but not importunately or with a great deal of conviction. It reached a crisis point suddenly one early Sunday evening, when I found myself in extreme pain.
Feeling I was not making progress toward healing on my own, I called a Christian Science practitioner for help, because I’ve always experienced healing results from Christian Science treatment. The practitioner shared with me this passage from Science and Health: “Nothing can interfere with the harmony of being nor end the existence of man in Science” (p. 427). I’d often prayed with this statement before, and I came to it again with renewed interest.
Though I was still in a great deal of discomfort when I hung up, the practitioner assured me he would continue to pray for me. I was riveted by the statement he’d shared, and two words especially stood out: being and existence. I looked up both words in the dictionary and discovered that the definition of being included the concept of existing in a certain state. Considering Mrs. Eddy’s statement, I saw that the specific state in which harmony and man exist is a state of certainty. Along the same lines, the word exist included a sense of permanence and continuity.
I relished the idea that being is a state of certainty! “The scientific statement of being” came to thought, and I considered it as an explanation of the scientific state of certainty about God, man, and the universe.
While appreciating these ideas, I was still struggling to find relief from the physical pain. Science and Health explains, “Inflammation is fear, an excited state of mortals which is not normal” (pp. 414–415). We also learn there that both inflammation and fear are seemingly powered only by belief. The word belief stands in sharp contrast to being or existence because, according to Webster’s 1913 dictionary, one definition of belief is merely “partial or full assurance without positive knowledge or absolute certainty,” and Webster’s 1828 dictionary includes that “belief is opposed to knowledge.”
When I saw that being is a state of certainty, but belief is without certainty, I saw that the hold the pain had over me was mental. And what’s more, it was not part of my true consciousness, since the only being is God, divine Mind. As never before, I was filled with a remarkable comforting sense of there being only one existence, one presence, one power, one consciousness, and one activity infinitely expressed. In spiritual reality there can be no other activity—not mentally, as fear, or physically, as pain. I was convinced of my oneness with God Himself, as His own spiritual expression.
I was so enthused by these ideas, I ran to tell my husband what I was learning. By the time I’d finished sharing with him, the pain was completely gone, and that was the end of any problems with that tooth. Nothing ever did grow in or come out.
Understanding fear as belief, and the active presence of God, good, as spiritual fact, enables us to overcome any terror, whether it comes barreling in as panic or sneaking in to set up camp as subtle anxiety. Because fear never amounts to anything more than a “what if,” it can never alter what is. Christ Jesus, who frequently uttered phrases such as “Fear not” and “Be not afraid,” was clear on the inability of anything having the power to change a jot of man’s true being as a spiritual idea coexisting inseparably with divine Love.
Mary Baker Eddy confirms, “Fear never stopped being and its action” (Science and Health, p. 151). How inspiring, comforting, and liberating to know that “what if?” never stops what is: I am, the infinite presence of which we are all the active expression.
