All my life the biggest hill for me to climb in practicing Christian Science has been wondering whether I know God well enough. After some years in the public practice of Christian Science, it finally dawned on me that I’d been starting with me, human effort, and human reasoning in attempting to answer this question. It became clear that I had it backward: I was approaching Science as a mortal struggling to become an immortal.
Intellectually I knew better, but this was where I honestly was in my heart. Then a light shone, showing me that it’s God who heals, it’s God who knows, and we reflect His healing power and knowing. I’d been thinking mostly about who man is and had given precious little effort to learning about who God is. But Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy states, “We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God” (p. 258).
The shift in my approach, from starting with man to starting with God, has made my practice less labored and more inspired and fruitful. Instead of identifying myself as a little struggling “I,” I see my true identity as the reflection of the divine I, or Us.
