Several years ago, after I’d returned home from my annual Christian Science students’ association meeting, I became very ill with flu symptoms. I wondered how this could happen, especially after a meeting that was filled with powerful and inspiring messages about God’s goodness.
I decided to get metaphysical help from a Christian Science practitioner. I told the practitioner that I was very disappointed because I thought that so many past healings I had experienced through Christian Science should have prevented me from having this physical challenge.
Rather than focusing on the past, the practitioner told me that each day and each moment are new, and we can’t rely only on our past healings or earlier inspiration to meet today’s problems. The Bible says that “the inward man is renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16). We need to freshly cultivate and nourish inspiration every day. In doing this, we can find healing moment by moment.
I thought deeply about this and also found the following statement very helpful: “The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 15).
One way I approached this “new birth” was to consider what thoughts I was listening to. Prior to this physical challenge, whenever I saw or heard descriptions of illness on TV, I simply turned off the TV. But that was not enough. I needed to ask myself what I was really listening to. I needed to listen only to God. I needed to turn completely away from the claims of contagious disease and instead fill my thoughts with God’s pure messages of divine truth, health, and peace.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness” (p. 475).
Man, created by God, cannot be a helpless victim of so-called contagious disease, of the statistics of mortal thinking, nor of the false belief that he could be a random victim of error of any sort. I refused to consent to these false beliefs about man. I affirmed that I am not a mortal but the spiritual image of God, which cannot be subject to sin, sickness, and death.
The practitioner and I also discussed the need to express gratitude even before the healing is apparent. Christ Jesus gave thanks before he fed the multitude and raised Lazarus from death (see Matthew 15:36 and John 11:41). He did not wait until the human need had been met. Jesus saw only victory, because he saw only God and God’s perfect likeness. We can do this, too, because Christian Science teaches us that God is the only cause, the only power, and the only governor. We can take a vehement stand for the allness of God and His unerring power to heal any discordant situation.
For the next several days, I refused to be impressed by physical conditions, and I kept my thoughts filled with gratitude for so many blessings brought by Christian Science.
Science and Health says, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” (p. 201). I needed to fill my consciousness and heart with such qualities as purity, humility, love, kindness. As I kept pouring these in, all the flu symptoms completely disappeared, and soon I was able to return to my work.
As I expressed my deep gratitude for this healing, I heard a radio commercial during the Christmas holiday season that announced: “Happy New Year and new you!” As we keep our inspirations and prayers fresh, we are transformed into “new you” and “new me.” Indeed we’re being renewed every day through the love of our Father-Mother God.
Jae-Bok Young
New Boston, New Hampshire, US
