Not many people would agree with those words written by the great Apostle Paul in his letter to the early Christians in Rome. Rather than rejoicing in the midst of tribulation, aren’t we more apt to feel afraid or burdened, or wonder, “Why me? What did I do to bring this on?”
Yet, after facing twenty years of trials beyond what most people could endure, Paul proclaimed triumphantly: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. . . . For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Corinthians 4:8, 9, 17).
Considering the stoning, beatings, imprisonments, and trials Paul endured as he carried out his Christ-appointed mission to spread the Christian message, how did he come to such a positive outlook?
Here is his answer: “We glory in tribulations . . . knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:3–5). He even adds, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (II Corinthians 12:10).
When we are in our weakest moment and give ourselves wholly over to God, not relying on any human reasoning or our human will, God promises, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:9).
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, agrees with Paul. She writes: “Christians to-day should be able to say, with the sweet sincerity of the apostle, ‘I take pleasure in infirmities,’—I enjoy the touch of weakness, pain, and all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the remedy for it, and to find happiness, apart from the personal senses. . . .
“. . . he took pleasure in ‘necessities,’ for they tested and developed latent power” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 200, 201).
This is clearly not an easy teaching to understand until you have experienced its truth by giving yourself wholly to God and witnessing the verity and efficacy of Paul’s words. We are all faced with repeated challenges, and how often we are tempted to ask ourselves, Did I do something wrong? Did I bring this on myself? Was it chance or accident? A resounding No is the answer to each of those, because God is nowhere to be found in those questions. God is the only cause, and He is incapable of causing anything but good.
Rather than rejoicing in the midst of tribulation, aren’t we more apt to wonder, “Why me?”
Of course, if we have brought trouble on ourselves because of sin, that is a different story, because sin always punishes itself. That is the means of its destruction. But our Leader assures us that “all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 385).
As we grow in Christian Science, we are called to go up higher, to learn and demonstrate more of the truth of being. When you finished elementary school, you didn’t say, “I’ve learned everything I need to know. I don’t need to be challenged anymore.” Of course not! We never stop learning, growing, and progressing. Mrs. Eddy affirmed that “progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil” (Science and Health, p. 233).
Jesus declared that we must be “born again” of the Spirit, or we cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. Being born again means we must adopt an entirely new way of seeing ourselves and others—as spiritual ideas rather than material beings.
Every so-called challenge is an opportunity to prove the omnipotence of God, Spirit. What good are all the words we read in the Bible and Science and Health if there is no power behind them? They are not magic, any more than sending a man to the moon or creating fire by rubbing two sticks together is magic. Metaphysics, like mathematics, is made up of laws that work every time when we know them and understand how to properly apply them. And that is what Christian Science does for us: It shows us how to apply the laws of God to defeat sin, disease, and death—the lies of life in matter. The truth of divine law destroys the illusion of anything opposed to it.
Understanding how this would be received by most people, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “That you are feeling ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ is not strange. But you must remember that our heavenly Father does not require of us more than we can do. Each victory won over self and sickness strengthens you for the next contest, and so on, until you can say with the Apostle, ‘I have fought the good fight.’ We shall never know our strength until it be put to the test, and then His strength is made perfect in our weakness, and we learn from humility the might of divine Truth and Love” (Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, pp. 239–240).
Science and Health promises, “Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love” (p. 66). So whenever a challenge arises, we can immediately declare, “I can’t wait to see what new views of Your goodness and love You’re going to show me, Father!”
Metaphysics, like mathematics, is made up of laws that work every time when we understand how to apply them.
Christian Scientists sometimes feel confused by repeated challenges, thinking that Christian Science doesn’t work for them anymore. That is no more possible than mathematics working in one instance but not the next, or working for some people but not others. “Principle is absolute,” Science and Health states. “It admits of no error, but rests upon understanding” (p. 283).
No matter how convincing a falsehood seems to be, as we embrace the eternal fact that matter—including all evil, error, and mortal mind—is nothing but an illusion, it will cease to fool us. A lie is a lie. It never can move into the realm of reality, even if a billion people believe it, and even if it appears to have hung around for years. Think of how many false beliefs the world has embraced for hundreds, even thousands, of years!
It is only our belief in material conditions that needs to be gotten rid of, not the “condition” itself, which is an illusion. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees” (Science and Health, p. 86). If you think a problem truly existed and then disappeared, then you could think it could come back. If it never existed in the first place, however, then there is nothing to come back. Is it possible that one day the world will become flat, or that the sun will rotate around the Earth—two beliefs that were once widely held? Of course not! When we stop believing in lies, it is impossible to be fooled by their false appearance anymore, and we no longer suffer from them in our experience.
Mrs. Eddy observes, “My faith in God and in His followers rests in the fact that He is infinite good, and that He gives His followers opportunity to use their hidden virtues, to put into practice the power which lies concealed in the calm and which storms awaken to vigor and to victory” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 204). That is surely a reason to glory in tribulations!
Some years ago, while dealing with several physical challenges, including two heart attacks, I was working with my husband and daughter on running three businesses in New York City and also helping to oversee the renovation of our congregation’s hundred-year-old church building. Each and all of these challenges could have been seen as personal attacks or tribulations that could possibly end my life, destroy our businesses, or halt the church project. Or I could face them as Paul did and declare, “I am troubled on every side, yet not distressed; I am perplexed, but not in despair; I am being persecuted, but I am not forsaken; I may be cast down, but I am not destroyed.”
Obeying the First Commandment and refusing to acknowledge any power apart from God, good, I was able to see that those tribulations never touched my true identity as a spiritual idea of God. They were aggressive mental suggestions claiming that I was something less than the beloved child of God, endowed with Love’s power, dominion, and freedom.
With each challenge, I made the choice to cling to God’s all-power as our Leader taught us to do when the illusion of sickness or sin tempts us (see Science and Health, p. 495). And just as Christ Jesus, Paul, and Mary Baker Eddy promised us, I was the victor over the lies of heart trouble or any aggressive suggestion of life in matter—the belief in a carnal mind apart from God. In the 25 years since, I have had no sign of a heart problem.
God has told us unequivocally, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). Amidst all my tribulations, I obeyed this admonition, and He kept His divine promise and delivered glory.
