A patient recently asked me how they could reach the tipping point for the healing they sought. They had prayed and experienced many significant improvements in character and outlook but hadn’t seen a full healing yet. What more did they need to do? They wondered.
One definition of “tipping point” I found on the web, stated: “The point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.”
As I pondered an answer to their question, the image of a teeter totter came to mind, with two children, one perched on each end of the beam. If the children both weighed 80 pounds each, the beam would perch perfectly level with one child equally balancing the other. If one child weighed 100 pounds and the other 60, the end of the beam with the heavier child would plunge to the ground and the other end would spring into the air. The heavier weight on one end of the beam would create a predictable and unstoppable tipping point.
The same rule applies to where we put mental weight. The more faith we put in Spirit, the less faith we have in matter. The more faith we have in good, the less faith we have in evil. The more trust we have in health, the less trust we have in disease. There is always an exact trade-off between accepting the realities of God and agreeing with the suffering beliefs of mortal mind. The question arises, “Where am I putting my faith? Is it entirely in Truth, or compromised with mortal belief?”
Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “The human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight into the spiritual scale” (Science and Health, p. 155).
To find your tipping point for healing, be honest with where you’re putting mental weight, and be sure to put all weight onto the side of Spirit. The scales will tilt in your favor. Error will be conquered, and a victory won.
Although this is very true, the question is how to invest your whole faith in something you experience partially?
Hi Peter, There are probably many many different ways this happens for people but in my case it took me about 20 years of vacillating between trusting God and trusting matter until believing in matter for solutions disappointed me so many times I finally lost all confidence in matter and finally got to the point of being able to love God “unconditionally” (loving God even I didn’t “get” anything for doing so). Often times I think people that gain an understanding of Christian Science most quickly are those that have faced problems where there was no seeming human or material solution and therefore they had no choice but to put their full faith in God and when that full faith resulted in their problem being resolved, that was an ahh hah moment for them and built trust in God. For me it was one night when I was praying all alone in my house after having many unresolved problems for many years and I just felt the love of God so strongly for me that I said to myself “That love is good enough for me! I don’t even care if my problems are resolved anymore as a result of practicing Christian Science…I just want to experience that love of God more and more!” At that point I think I just “lost interest” in the problems and therefore they just naturally left my thinking. I know before that sometimes when praying or as a result of calling a practitioner it seemed like it caused me to focus on the problem more rather than less (i.e. by me asking myself over and over “Am I healed yet? Am I healed yet?”). Since this experience, when praying about problems, I try to “put them out of thought” as much as possible and not focus on the problem but instead focus on the truth…again “unconditionally” (not really caring if it brings healing or not)…and that attitude results in the truth becoming more important to me than the problem until such time as I realize the problem is no longer apparent in my experience.
Thanks Brian, your reply is very helpful.
This was really helpful for me. I have been working through something for years with varying degrees of success. You clarified the issue of letting go of the outcome and concentrating on my growth in truth. Thank you, Brian and thank you Peter for raising the topic.
A really perfect follow-up to an excellent Spiritview and question. Thank you Evan, Peter and Brian!
Wonderful reply Thankyou !
Oh, thank you so much for sharing your experience Brian; it is so very helpful to my current situation. Having suffered a brain injury close to three years ago and prior to that being in the healing arts field and very much relying on alternative modes of manipulation, therapy, and healing, I have found myself vacillating between, as Evan explains, the spirit understanding and the fleshly understanding.
I had just begun studying Christian Science before I found myself on this path and have had the same experience thinking of my problem more after speaking with a practitioner. I have had to learn to walk again and many other physical problems have had to be overcome. I honestly feel at most times God’s Grace is my sufficiency but find myself getting pulled in the mortal mind direction and the alternative therapies quite often since that’s where my prior education was. I thank you Evan for this topic today which is so very relevant to me❣️❣️
Beautiful and so well written! Thank you. Appreciate you all every day!
Such a wonderful message! I think we have all asked that question at one time or another! I think it was Adam Dickey who wrote In “God’s Law of Adjustment”, when we are willing to Lay down our own uncertain sense of things and trust God without any fear of the consequences then nothing can stop God’s law from governing any discordant situation.
One of my first healings in Christian Science illustrates a tipping point. When I was in college, I had been coughing a lot with chronic bronchitis, which I suffered from every winter. On this particular day, my parents said if I was still coughing later that afternoon, they were going to take me to the family doctor for medicine. Then later at school, a professor reprimanded me for being there and said to not come back until I was well.
To get home I had to take a bus, walk four blocks, and catch another bus. After the first bus, I stopped at a drug store and bought some cough drops. Then I saw a Christian Science reading room across the street and went in. I picked up a Sentinel and read the story about Jesus’ disciples fishing all night and catching nothing. Then in the morning Jesus called to them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and they would get fish. This was my answer! I realized that I had to cast all my faith, and trust, and hope in Spirit and not try to cast on both sides of the boat at once. I threw away the cough drops. Then realizing I was about to miss my bus, which was the last one that day, I started running-all the time repeating this idea that I was trusting completely in Spirit. I arrived at the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up and realized I was completely free. I have never had that illness again.
What a wonderful shift of thought! Grateful for your experience and for sharing with all of us!
Wonderful healing! Thanks for sharing!
Working at truly knowing that there isn’t a material world and a spiritual world. That’s because as MBE says, “… all is Spirit and spiritual.” (S&H 331:24)
Excellent question and response. I have often hear of terms such as this in my experience as an engineer when I was active professionally. One thing would be noticed in a project when it reached its tipping point and the weight of project was close to finish, the end came quickly. I was often challenged to capture the final pictures of any changes we made just before shipping sometimes even chasing the truck out of the yard with my camera. I think it can happen in the healing process as well, once the confirmation is realized spiritually the problem just disappears from consciousness, only this time we need not chase the previous thought.
Thank you everyone. Absolutely excellent comments and inspiration. I am so grateful for all of you. Blessings to all today.
Thank you!
I knew my heart my foot was healed long before matter got the memo! Fearlessly, I put a towel over top of it so as not to be impressed. “with the wrong mind picture”, as MBE tells us. It WAS healed within a few days, but just to say the time I knew it was – as I say – BEFORE matter chgd it’s manifestation to harmonious foot! So grateful for any and all good !
Thanks so much to all! Knowing we are already there, at perfection now, whether or not we see
the tipping point in our experience today.
Have a blessed day!
Wonderful posts today. Thank you Evan. I love the idea if the teeter totter. So practical for me today.
Repeating many comments, I must add….excellent question and inspiring comments! I find that step by step, putting mental weight, all weight on the side of Spirit, brings healing in my own life which is also evidenced by those who shared in the comments above. I so appreciate the honesty and sincerity of everyone sharing ideas and experiences in this blog, that forward the healing practice of Christian Science and deepen our understanding and love of God.
Thanks to all of you…very helpful!
The image of the teeter totter is a perfect metaphor. It gave me my ‘light bulb”moment today. Thank you.
Today you, Evan and commenters, just slammed the door on 30 years of struggling with a constantly recurring struggle in my thought! I now clearly see the error of my previous thought and turn to embrace with joy the presence, love and Hand of God in my expression of Life. Thanksgiving is the never ending
“Holy day”. I can only truly thank you and our Father by loving more, seeing and acknowledging the Christ presence in all more and in an unselfed way.
This is brilliant Evan and so practical. I think it also explains why after what can seem like a long time of prayerful work a condition can just yield as healing takes place. There is no big AH HA moment, just the fading away in consciousness of any concern for the problem. I hope this SpiritView will find its way into the periodicals as an article. I’ve already emailed it to a friend.
Such thoughtful and interesting comments! I have always referred to the following when “scales” come up:
“You have come to be weighed, and yet, I would not weigh you, nor have you weighed. How is this?
Because God does all, and there is nothing in the opposite scale. There are not two, – Mind and matter.
We must get rid of that notion. As we commonly think, we imagine all is well if we cast something into
the scale of Mind, but we must realize that Mind is not
put into the scales with matter; then only are we working on one side and in Science.” Mis. 280: 3-17
Sorry, I should have attributed the quote to Mary Baker Eddy.
Thank you Joyce. That reference is a perfect complement to Evan’s excellent blog today!
For those of you that may not be familiar with Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, this quote comes from a book Mrs. Eddy authored entitled “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896”. A PDF of this book can be accessed via the following link:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31427/31427-pdf.pdf
My what an outstanding collection of comments and dialogue. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to thoughtfully consider Evan’s topic for this blog. I’ve gained much fresh inspiration!
Really inspiring
Thank you very much, Evan and all for today’s wonderful inspiration and interesting and helpful comments!
Just came so simply to my mind, that the surest way to come to the tipping point of my healing is through siding with God, through prayer, listening snd studying in CS literature and let God guide. 🙂
Oh I mean thanks for yesterday’s wonderful SpiritView!