In my work as a Christian Science practitioner, I’ve found that individuals calling for help often feel that the task of healing in Christian Science is just too big for them—thinking they just don’t know enough, or aren’t good enough—and they’ve become discouraged. My heart goes out to them, and it’s wonderful to see how helped they are when it is gently explained that Christian Science healing isn’t something the human mind needs to become an expert at—that the task of healing isn’t too big for God; it’s a matter of letting God work in them to reveal their natural goodness and to bring healing where it is needed.
The Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus gave his followers as the manner in which to pray (see Matthew 6:9–13), contains this petition: “Give us this day our daily bread.” It’s very comforting to realize that no matter how little or how much we know of the teachings of Christian Science, God will give us the understanding we need today when we give our attention to Him instead of thinking we have to do it all by ourselves. As Hymn 195 in the Christian Science Hymnal says, “Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art” (Horatius Bonar).
When I first started studying Christian Science, I wasn’t thinking at all about how perfect I needed to be; I would just curl up in a chair with the two books, the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, to learn about God and His creation. I was a thinker, so I wasn’t by any means ready to accept what I was reading on blind faith. But I let the books speak to me, and each time I did this I would receive some spiritual enlightenment that would stay with me during the day. And healing would come into my day. I was simply thrilled to be learning the good news of God’s perfection and man’s perfection as God’s spiritual reflection. As Science and Health puts it, “The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration” (p. 259).
