I was participating in a booth promoting Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures last week in Victoria, British Columbia, at a Health Expo. One woman who stopped to inquire about the book asked me if it was God’s plan for her daughter to suffer from an incurable disease. I replied, “Certainly not. It’s was God’s plan for her daughter to be well.”
But the woman had a hard time accepting the possibility of healing because she reasoned out from a material premise. Whatever was real to her physical senses, she argued, must be real to God. After all, God knows everything, she affirmed.
In the midst of this conversation, I became increasingly grateful for the explanations of disease and evil I find in Christian Science.
Christian Science is very radical to the physical senses. It gets right to the root of reality in Spirit and explains anything contrary to the realities of Spirit as illusion. It is not what it appears to be. And we demonstrate this truth by putting it into practice and seeing the good results that occur.
Jesus Christ has already proved without doubt the unreality of disease and death.
But to a person convinced of evil and immersed in the belief that disease is real and powerful, accepting the unreality of disease and the possibility of its cure, feels like a difficult concept to grasp. In essence, this mindset has made evil a god, disease a god, instead of infinite divine Love, even though it probably wouldn’t admit it.
I made some headway in helping her understand the possibility of spiritual healing for her daughter. But what the doctors had told her about incurability still loomed large in her thinking. To her, what the doctors predicted was the equivalent of God’s plan for her daughter. How could it be otherwise? She wondered. And again, what I heard was, “What the physical senses tell me is absolute fact. How could it be otherwise?”
Thank goodness, there is another way to view a situation when disease and loss seem in control.
Any evidence of lack is God’s idea of supply and health waiting to be understood better. With enough humility and willingness, we can find the understanding of God’s idea, turn the evidence of lack around, and be healed. There is no such thing as incurable disease. It is curable.
We can’t buy into the physical picture. It’s illusion!
God is good. God is all. Evil is a lie. This is a demonstrable truth, and it frees us from the debilitating belief that suffering is ever God’s will. It is not. God designed us to be healthy and keeps us that way through spiritual power and presence.
Yes, Evan, this is really how it is for most ‘non CS’ people. I deal a lot with that thought, the impossibility of seeing anything other than what has been presented to the material senses. It is a mighty leap for most people and in spite of deep illness they cannot even give the new ideas a chance. They have nothing to lose, yet I am always surprised that they continue to choose illness over wellness. Interesting that mortal mind can have such a grip. It is almost like inertia.
Amen.
These “fairs” etc. are great places to take the CS message and help heal these thoughts one on one. Thanks for sharing.
LEE
Isn’t the need to see there’s no personal intelligence or mind that could make God’s child a victim of error? God’s child is and always was entirely free from false belief and its supposed inertia. False belief has no identity. Wouldn’t seeing this free that woman and her daughter?
To above,
Very nice! Those truths certainly would help…
Thanks so much for this, Evan. I was very moved and helped by hearing about your interaction with this woman. I did not grow up in CS and am fairly new to to the study. In my work and family life I am surrounded by “non-CS” people like the woman you spoke with. I work at a major university with a reknowned hospital and medical school and I find it very challenging to know how to respond to the overwhelming belief in illness and the material senses that confronts me every day. Your comments have inspired me and given me lots of good ideas. Thanks so much for what you do!
I have been so interested in the book “A Century of Christian Science Healings.” In reading it, I noticed that often people who did not understand this point, came to understand it AFTER a healing. In other words, in some instances, the healing work of Christian Science practitioners is what paves the way for understanding. I think that’s lovely, and so encouraging.
Though I believe everything you wrote, I can understand why this woman couldn’t get passed her fear. People learn from their experience, and there just isn’t enough examplesmofmpeoplembeing cured of so called incurable diseases. If there were, everyone would accept Christian Science without any reservation. I have been a Christian Scientist for over 30 years, and I have had many healings.’however, I have also lost many friends who worked and prayed tirelessly for healing and who were successful healers themselves. These experiences lead me to the only conclusion that it must be very difficult to be healed of these beliefs. If they could not demonstrate healing, I, who am much less advanced in understanding, have no hope of doing so. Every Christian believes Jesus could and did heal, but we have not achieved that level of understanding. In the end, we fall back on the statement that death is not real anyway so it doesn’t matter that we ciuldnt see through to a healing. We were whole from the beginning and all the bad stuff was but a dream.
To above,
Just an add-on thought…you mention that people would believe if they saw healings. That is only partially true. Masses of people have seen healings in the past and still not believed. They continue to cling to their material beliefs and fears. In Mary Baker Eddy’s time even, thousands were healed who never took up the study of Christian Science afterward. So there does seem to be, in belief, a persuasive element of mortal mind that keeps people from embracing the truth for their own benefit. This has happened with thousands of children raised in Christian Science. They were healed countless times throughout childhood, typically by their parent’s prayers, yet took it all for granted and like no big deal later on when they got out on their own. At any rate though, Jesus has made the full demonstration and has left us his legacy to benefit from. He said we can do it too. I believe it! Step by step…
Hi Evan I’m late to this post, but I wanted to mention something that has worked well for me in these situations (FYI:I LOVE working in the CS booth at Health Fairs). I meet a lot of people who have relatives who have seemingly incurable diseases. After telling them a bit about CS, I usually conclude with the following line “Here’s what a practitioner said to ME when I was sick: Dont take MY word for it, test it for yourself. CS can be tested. Why doesnt your father/mother/sister put it to the test?” I’m not saying everyone immediately bought S&H After THAT, but it does plant the seed.
Celia