"…the need in most healing is less self, more God"
/I’m not sure about changes, but I was deeply impressed with how quick and bold Christian Scientists were to offer healing prayer to others (p. 81, the visiting Christian Scientist who, lunching with the stepmother of the invalid Richard Knox Lee, is told about his condition, asks to see him, and is taken to his bedroom, and starts right in on dealing with his thought; also, p. 255, a Christian Scientist passes Mina Van Dam, a complete stranger and an invalid on her porch, and asks if the invalid knows anything of Christian Science! The Christian Scientist brought her literature and talked with her, and as a result, changed her life.)
The second thing that struck me is the expectation of healing, of absolute conviction expressed in these testimonies, particularly on the part of practitioners. Both observations remind me of Mary Baker Eddy’s opening to the chapter on Prayer: “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, – a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.”
I was very interested in Joseph Eastaman’s explanation that his practice started with his personal acquaintances in the seafaring business. (p. 21) I, too, have approached my friends, the ones who see my light shine the most, but with much less success. They have come to lectures, they have come to church. They love my encouraging, Bible- and Science-based notes and emails of encouraging truths. But no interest in delving further, except one: My very good Jewish friend. We have a deeply spiritual relationship, and bit by bit she is asking more penetrating questions. This has gone on for at least a decade as I have helped her through deep waters. I gave her Science and Health years ago, and this past fall, she asked me about Christian Science healing, and I talked to her about how Christian Scientists pray and shared (again!) some basic truths. I suggested she read the chapter on “Fruitage,” and I also sent her to Phillip Hockley’s lecture on YouTube. She emailed me: How? Why? The discussions continue. I have prayed for her many times, with good results.
Two testimonies spoke to me about the ability of God to heal world/political issues – of particular interest to me as a longtime Monitor journalist, whose writing career is devoted to uplifting thought for mankind. One was a line of reasoning by Gen. Spencer Holland. (p. 79) “My healing was a wonderful experience, because I realized that if God could heal anything at all, then he could heal everything....the relations of capital and labor....supply and unemployment,” etc. Being a news consumer and a news reporter can be so bleak at times. It was new to me to connect an individual’s physical healing with global healing. It restored hope.
That new hope was reiterated in the testimony of former Monitor journalist Takashi Oka, who I had the pleasure of knowing. On page 129, he describes his healing of Japanese nationalism. “For the first time I realized how blind I had been. I had been so busy thinking of myself as a Japanese that I had had no time to think of myself as God’s child.” To me, this is the answer to partisan polarization. We are not Republicans and Democrats. We are all God’s children. So simple.
This past fall, I had unbelievable itching on parts of my body and then welts appeared. I did dumb stuff like buy a very mild laundry detergent to wash my clothes in. The main healing idea from the practitioner was this: this is a suggestion and it has no life to it. It is coming to you for life. You don’t need to give it life. I really got that, and prayed that, and the healing was accomplished in about three weeks.
Regarding the healing of others, two things get in the way. One is seeming disinterest – friends and acquaintances so steeped in materia medica, that I don’t feel I can break through that. I am much more open about my practice of Christian Science and about invitations to lectures and so on. But unlike several of the Christian Scientists in the book, I don’t feel I can help these people because of their view of things.
The other thing that gets in the way is a latent fear that Christian Science won’t work for them. I have overcome the belief of “failure to heal” in my own family’s experience, but I worry about seeming failure as it might apply to others. It helps to articulate these obstacles here, because the answer pops out – there is a lot of “I” in the above two paragraphs: I can’t help them, I might fail if I pray for them, or they might fail if they pray for themselves. As you once told me: the need in most healing is less self, more God. And so the answer, it seems, is more acceptance of God-directed healing – God’s direction to individuals and opportunities, and more God-directed treatments themselves. Thought needs to turn entirely away from any human ability doing the healing and any human person doing the receiving, or any problem needing resolving. The Christ is able to break through the belief of materia medica, the Christ is speaking to human consciousness and is the only consciousness. This answer is less from reading the book, but more from just having to pray about how to answer your question!!!
As for healings for myself – the belief of aging seems to bring challenges. It is so important not to let beliefs associated with aging pile up in thought. They are not personal, just world beliefs. Here, I feel compelled to do more of that “unselfed love” from the chapter on Prayer. Really pray for the world about these claims. It’s not about me here, at all. Nothing personal. Just world belief.
I have continued to pray about question 4 – what will I do differently? In my official answer, I said ...more God, less self...that is, letting God take the lead on everything from who to help, to what to pray, to who is doing the healing and so on. But in the last week, I have made a concerted effort to include healing in my morning prayers for myself and the world, and I think that is making a difference.
Meanwhile, I am praying now about a multitude of physical claims – and what has come to me is really to confront the belief that either I or anyone lives in matter and to more fully explore the understanding that I/we live in Spirit. It’s very comforting to know that God is leading this discovery. And the word “explore” is intentional there. In teaching Sunday School to 8th graders this past week, we talked about childlike qualities that help us to see more easily that we already live in the Kingdom of God. One of my students listed exploring as a childlike attribute, eagerness to discover new things.
Last, just FYI, I have felt more resistance to preparing for this Association meeting than any other. Mostly it comes in guise of “you are such a crummy Christian Scientist! You can’t possibly heal like others do...this is a downer assignment! It just points out how I’m not doing enough. I would rather not confront my inadequacies.”
Error could never get away with claiming this for God, and so it goes after us. When we see that error is just “using” us to try to denounce God – a kind of divide and conquer strategy – it makes it much easier to refute these claims. So much easier to see that if it’s not true about God being an inadequate healer, then it’s not true at all. Happily, I handled this and have been really enjoying the assignment!