Why I choose to be a Christian Scientist

I choose to be a Christian Scientist because I believe Christian Science is the truth of all being—the truth of one supreme God, who is divine Love, and Love’s universal family, including all identities as immortal expressions of Life. This truth is so good, and yet I wouldn’t align with it if I didn’t believe it to be true. We read in John’s gospel, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:66–68).

I choose to be a Christian Scientist because being a Christian Scientist is inseparable from living a purpose-filled, deeply meaningful life. At the heart of this sense of purpose is the working out of salvation, which I see as coming home to my forever oneness with my Father-Mother God.

I choose to be a Christian Scientist because being so affords me the opportunity to humbly contribute to the working out of humanity’s salvation. I believe that humanity has a profound and utter need for what Christian Science alone can give—an accurate understanding of who we are as members of Love’s universal family.

An unfolding of the Life divine

Prior to being introduced to Christian Science, I had come from an evangelical Christianity. Those teachings had produced a love for God and the Bible and a longing to live my life as best I could in the manner that Jesus spoke of.

When I first started dating my husband, he gave me a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to read. In the beginning, I struggled to accept some of its teachings, since they were starkly different from the theology that I had been taught and come to believe. I put the book down and instead started reading about Mary Baker Eddy and the many people she healed instantaneously. I remember thinking how those healings were reminiscent of the way Jesus healed during his earthly ministry. I knew that this healing was of God and hungered to know more. So I began reading Science and Health again, and slowly my spiritual understanding started to increase. Things I had questioned about my previous theological teaching were suddenly explained in ways that made absolute sense to me.

My first healing came after a night when I had been up due to a family emergency and was only able to get 2–3 hours of sleep. I typically needed 8 hours of sleep and was concerned that I would be too tired to get through my work day, even with coffee. A practitioner was called to provide treatment, and I soon found that I was more alert than I normally felt with 8 hours of sleep and required no assistance from caffeine. This experience compelled me to continue reading, learning, growing, and understanding what Christian Science truly was about.

When I reflect on why I became a Christian Scientist, it was not one moment or one reason. It was a progression, an unfolding of “the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth” (Science and Health 14:26–28). It was the love of God poured out in my heart (see Romans 5:5), leading me to a higher understanding of God as All-in-all. I was discovering what it truly means to be spiritually minded, to experience healing, and to love God more deeply. Truth, Life, Love, Spirit, Mind, healing: these are the reasons I am a Christian Scientist.