This quote by Adam Grant in his recent article, “What straight-A students get wrong,” published in the New York Times, caught my attention.
“…career success is rarely about finding the right solution to a problem — it’s more about finding the right problem to solve.”
Grant points out that getting high grades in school is not an indicator of future success. Research proves that the effect of high grades on one’s path of success rapidly diminishes one to two years after graduation. Creativity, social skills, the ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, and understanding the need of the moment are better indicators.
I can relate to the above quote because it applies to success in spiritual healing. Discerning the most relevant issue amidst suffering is key to removal of suffering.
For instance, if one has a heart problem because they are stressed out about work, focus on managing the heart, either prayerfully or medically is not going to bring permanent healing. The stress needs to be eliminated.
In writing about how to cure mortal mind of its ills, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or excited action of any organ” Science and Health, p. 377.
When praying for relief, include prayer to discern the leading fear that needs to be addressed. Target your treatment on the issue that matters most to bring about the quickest and best results.
Lovely message, thank you Evan!
My Mum has always used the analogy of a cat rearing it’s back up at the sight of danger / a dog / another cat, and that it would be foolish to try and ‘fix’ the cat’s back as the back has nothing to do with the cause of the apparent discord – it’s the fear of the other animal!
Perfect analogy! I’ll remember that one!
oooh, I love that analogy!!!!
Hi David, great post. Evan can you check me on this; I am trying to drill down a little deeper: it’s not the fear of the other animal but the belief that there is another animal which is a belief in something other than God– the Perfect Love that casts out fear. Help! Happy Solstice to All.
Hi Kenny,
Fear is the belief that there is a power other than God, namely, an evil power that can threaten us. We demonstrate truth in degrees. So, a first step to demonstrating dominion would be to heal any fear, by seeing there is only God, good, and no opposite. This would render a so-called “dangerous” animal harmless. So, the animal really isn’t the problem. It’s false beliefs about it.
In absolute Truth, all is Mind and it’s idea. I think where you’re headed is to see that we live in a universe of Mind where all of God’s animals are ideas, rather than physical temporal bodies. And that is correct.
Thank you very much, Evan, for your wonderfully clear declaration of the metaphysics – so helpful!!
Great analogy!! And doesn’t mortal mind like to have us keep chasing our proverbial tail. Being still brings great rewards.
Love the thoughtful ideas always shared in this blog 🙂
Such a vital reminder and my thanks for the healing light shared on SpiritView. My gratitude abides, Evan, for the generous sharing of SpiritView and for all your prayer and work for Church and the world, blessing all!
Had Mary Baker Eddy not experienced so many failures in her life with husband, son, the thought of sickness, she would have never been challenged to search for their true solution and thus we would have not this wonderful science. It is not our challenges that define us, but how we respond to them that defines us. The discovery and sharing of our true being, coexistent with God through the spiritual understanding and demonstration thereof is, for me, the true gift of Christ, which She discovered in her trials. I’ve expressed it this way before, we do not need to eat a bad fruit to know what a good fruit taste like, but we do need to be challenged to understand the basis for being who we really are. We are all the child of God and our purpose is to overcome these challenges in the demonstration of selfless love as a principle for all being.
So, so true!
Thank you, Evan.
I think one of our biggest challenges is to apply what Evan says above to some of society’s problems. What we see materially is not what we may need to see and pray about spiritually.
Evan! You read my mind yet again. Today is the last day of finals week at MIT, and I’ll be reminding anxious students about the inconsequential nature of grades. And your point is not missed about the primacy of causes over quasi-effects.
Yes, and evil, deceit, lies, error, etc. get more subtle the closer we get to truth. So important to have the ability and courage to detect the hidden lies and then to call them out, speak them up…..it takes courage to see the hidden evil that is subtly controlling thought, body or world affairs! Evil’s power is greatly diminished when it is recognized and the last step is to take the action to bring it to it’s final destruction!!
Thank you so much for your helpful thoughts today Evan! It really made me take some time to dig deep in prayer to establish the “leading error or governing fear” of my seeming problem. That done I can now confidently “target the treatment” as you suggest. Thanks everyone for your helpful comments too.
Love x
So grateful for SpiritView! Another “right on” article! Thank you, Evan!
My step-father was unable to balance his checkbook. He asked me to help. Together we carefully went through each addition and subtraction until we found the mistake. My step-father can add/subtract as well as anyone, so as soon as the mistake was “uncovered” it was “immediately” corrected. No delay or long recuperation period. Problem solved.
Recently I realized healings can occur in this same way if we will only accept the truths we are taught in Christian Science in this same manner. If we uncover a “mistake” in our thinking…meaning if we realize we are holding to some false belief even though we know the truth that corrects the belief, we can immediately replace the false belief with the truth and KNOW the act of doing that will immediately solve the problem, Once the problem is solved in our thinking and we are consistent in holding to the truth, regardless if the illusion of error continues to appear to us via the material senses, it is inevitable that the truth will appear in our experience.
Thank you Evan. I love this idea of removing the leading error. Sometimes the leading error can be the belief that Christian Science can’t heal some situation or that we have to spend a long time studying to learn the truth about some false belief before we see healing results. But the fact that God is all harmonious and omnipotent and reflected in all is so simple when you think about it. We really already know all we need to know to solve any problem, so it really comes down to uncovering the mistake and then applying the truth we already know to correct the error…just like when balancing a checkbook!
Wonderful thoughts and comments from everyone today. Thank you so much. Blessings to all.
I have an excerpt from a Sentinel article that one part I was just reading over not thinking I had anything to dread until recently. I realized I was thinking if I wasn’t demonstrating a healing it would reflect badly on Christian Science. This is what I now read with a better understanding, “God is always with each one of us, unchanging, all inclusive. Understanding this is a powerful help. It enables us to stand up to anything we dread and see through God’s constant love.” I wrote to the author about this and this was her reply:
“Error found out is two thirds destroyed and the remainder destroys itself.” Fear and pressure that we have to convince others of the worth of Christian Science comes to all of us I think, even to Mrs Eddy who so wanted her own family to
see its efficacy. But one of her biographers said that she would often find relief from physical complaints and burden when she realized that the cause was not hers but God’s. That’s good to think on. Christian Science has come because the world is ready for it. We are privileged to have seen it before others and so, as she says, we owe to the world a struggle for its demonstration. But Truth draws all to itself and we can be grateful and at peace for that.”
Thank you Lori, this is very helpful.
Thank you Lori for sharing the author’s reply. It is very helpful. Could you tell me the title of the article so I can look it up? Dread seems to be weighing on me too. Thanks again. (=
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today I had to read and reread this important SpiritView in order to understand it correctly. But when I read the passage from Science and Health by MBEddy, I understood that it is mail fear which has to be conquered, and then one can prayerfully trust that God knows what needs healing. I love Mrs. Eddy’s truth thought ,,Divinity Love has always met every human need and always will meet it ”
THank you Evan for today’s important SpiritView! And am so grateful that I may experience that Christian Science is a Science of divine Truth and Love!
Thank you all dear commenters for your inspired Post today.
Healing today! My daughter, from whom I have been painfully estranged recently, emailed a pic of herself with her precious dog who became very ill this week with heart problem. I offered to pray, was thanked. What came was Mark 16 “Go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” I told Daughter to tell doggie that “God was her life”, and that Doggie could hear her. Then I said “maybe we can heal our own hearts too”, almost as an afterthought. Tonight I got word that she took Doggie back to vet and problem is gone! Dog is “2000 % better”, eating, playful, and herself again. Thank you to MBE, CS, and blog posts like this about listening to God for the root cause of the issue that needs to be healed. Thank you Evan.
thank you very much susanb for sharing your very loving experience of healing your dogy and your daughter christian scientifically – very helpful – merry Christmas to you and to the whole dear commenter family!
What a wonderful Christmas gift you received! Thank you for sharing. (=
Thank you Evan for once again getting us to dig deeper. Your blog and the comments were very helpful today as usual. A wonderful Christmas gift!