Dear Members of The Mother Church,
Years ago my wife and I were traveling in East Africa, and we met a young man who lived in the village where we were staying. Over some weeks of regularly being together, he asked about the books we read and wanted to join us each morning to read the Bible Lesson published in the Christian Science Quarterly. Nothing was forced or awkward; it just came about naturally. He was very familiar with the Scriptures and intuitively seemed to understand what Mary Baker Eddy saw as “the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 150). I learned later that he went home each day and read Science and Health to his dad, who had been struggling with alcoholism and eventually found his freedom. The young man also ended up sharing ideas with one of the local pastors, who was so moved by Science and Health that he started using it to build his sermons, and even quoted from it to bring out a deeper spiritual understanding of the Scriptures.
This friend comes to mind sometimes when I think about what it looks like to be about the Father’s business—when I think about what the work of the mission of Christian Science looks like. He wasn’t trying to “do church work,” but I’d say he was doing the kind of church work we are all aiming for: practical and normal Christlike living that lifts the atmosphere of thought spiritually, wiping out mental darkness with the light and love of Truth. He was showing that “Love is reflected in love” (Science and Health, p. 17).
