All too often people express dismay because they wish they could eat certain foods but believe they can't, for fear of digestive troubles.
To digest the God-revealed truths of Christian Science, and thereby gain a spiritual understanding of the creator and His creation, can make a distinct difference in the degree of harmony we express in daily living, and can even help in relation to digestion of the food set before us. This is not, however, a matter of simply exchanging one mode of human thinking for another. The healing thrust of Christian Science results from one's yielding, through prayer, to the pure consciousness of divine reality, to the one Mind, which produces harmony. In this way our thoughts are less the outcome of material sense and more derived from Soul, God.
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy devotes two very specific pages in the chapter "Footsteps of Truth" to the cure through Christian Science of dyspepsia—or what we commonly refer to today as indigestion. It is stated emphatically, "In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at all, and eat what is set before you, 'asking no question for conscience sake.'" Science and Health, p. 222 There might be some who would say such a step is inviting disaster, but Christian Science is more than capable of proving to us that we can destroy self-imposed fear of suffering and the suffering itself. This Science shows us the importance of consulting the Mind that is God, which imparts health, harmony, and vitality.
In the pages just referred to, Mrs. Eddy relates a case of an individual who suffered so extremely from indigestion that he was virtually starving because of his fear of disastrous results if he should eat normally. He had exhausted the skill of medical doctors in seeking a cure. The account continues: "At this point Christian Science saved him, and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the old complaint.
"He learned that suffering and disease were the self-imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; that God never decreed disease,— never ordained a law that fasting should be a means of health." The individual glimpsed clearly that true being is sustained by divine Mind. The account adds, "These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and he ate without suffering, 'giving God thanks'...." Ibid., p. 221
Does one fear to eat because of expected physical discomfort? The fear needn't be accepted as valid, because it doesn't conform to the true sense of man as God's spiritual expression. What if something is mistakenly consumed that isn't considered digestible by prescribed standards? There is a law of God, ever operative, able to nullify the suggestion of contamination. We need not be left to battle helplessly with sensual illusions calling themselves self-made material conditions.
An Old Testament account in the Bible relates that during a time of dearth in the land of Gilgal, the prophet Elisha requested his servant to "seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets." See II Kings 4:38-41 Someone went out to the field to gather herbs and also brought back wild gourds, apparently not knowing they were poisonous. They were shredded and put into the pottage. As the men were eating, alarming conditions arose. They cried out, "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." But instead of disastrous results there came forth a blessing. Elisha commanded that meal be brought to the scene. After he cast the meal into the pot, normal eating ensued, and "there was no harm in the pot."
Some might consider this episode as simply a miracle. But couldn't it be seen as illustrating the always present power of God to neutralize in human consciousness a specific fear and belief in matter's so-called power? As Mrs. Eddy writes, "Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it 'every whit whole.'" Science and Health, p. 371
Spiritual power is always present to transform and heal. If we ever feel fear of accidental poisoning, divine Mind is our remedy at hand to neutralize and nullify the aggressive suggestions of evil. Matter is never the poisoner, although it seems to be. It is mortal belief alone that feels and suffers. A fuller realization of this fact will aid one in mastering the mortal belief and establishing in its place the consciousness of divine reality, of ever-harmonious spiritual substance. The perfection of man and the universe, as created and sustained by the one perfect Mind, God, remains forever the true condition of being, and we're able to prove this.
Does one fear to eat because of
expected physical discomfort? The fear
needn't be accepted as valid, because
it doesn't conform to the true sense of
man as God's spiritual expression.
I vividly remember experiencing an almost immediate release many years ago from severe abdominal pains after eating something questionable. The healing came when I was directed to a statement in a Christian Science Sentinel article which made clear that poison couldn't operate or generate in the infinitude of Spirit. I accepted this truth, realizing that matter can never act of itself, and that I, an idea of God, really lived in Spirit alone. One might say I conquered my false belief with the alterative of divine Spirit, knowing that only Mind, God, acts and knows, and that matter cannot. Divine Mind is forever capable of expelling the hurtful, mortal sense of anything.
Digesting the truths of Christian Science leads to greater harmony in everyday living, including the partaking of daily nourishment. The true sense of being can be gained by anyone who is willing to pursue the essential work of spiritualizing thought, of following Christ Jesus' example, and of overcoming the temptation to believe that it is a too bitter digestion to do so. There can never be "harm in the pot" when the ameliorative qualities of the Christ are entertained through a perception of genuine, spiritual being.
