Maintaining and defending our healing mission and practice By Judith Hardy Olson From the March 2015 issue of The Christian Science Journal Every student of Christian Science has a mission: to heal. The practice of the Science of Christ is our life. And it s important, in our own thought, to daily establish our practice and maintain our mission on a spiritual basis of Christhealing, as Christ Jesus did his church and mission. I ve come to see the truth of these points in my own experience. Jesus said, Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). Isn t God always calling all of us, who are in truth His children? Aren t the chosen those who respond to this calling, who listen for His voice and follow Him? J. B. Phillips translates a biblical mandate to the early Christians in this way: It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his amazing light (I Peter 2:9, The New Testament in Modern English). When I went through Primary class instruction in Christian Science, I felt the assurance that we were God called, God chosen, and God equipped and that our practice of this Science was our life. Returning home after class, I continued to ponder this. I thought about how Jesus commanded his disciples to heal. It wasn t an option; it was what being a Christian demanded. This is still true today. The healing practice of the Science of the Christ isn t about waiting until we know more or have nothing else to do. It is beginning this minute to put into practice what we do know of God.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ healing (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 136). I committed to establishing my practice of Christian Science and maintaining my healing mission on this same foundation. Gentle and sweet was this consecration each morning listening for and receiving my daily bread, the truths I needed for that day. Opportunities to help others started coming and then became more frequent. I knew that someday I d be in the full time public practice of Christian Science. This went on for some time until I recognized that my practice is more than the most important part of my life. It is my life, and God is my All. This insight came like a bolt of lightning right after I read in the Bible, Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established (Proverbs 16:3). I saw that I needed to commit everything my works, practice, and life to God, and let Him establish my every thought. That was the leap I needed to take, and as I did, I knew that in giving my all to God, no good could be left out. Mrs. Eddy instructs, Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance (Miscellaneous Writings 1883 1896, p. 117). As I worked to do this, all fears from financial concerns (I would be giving up my part time but lucrative job) to niggling I m not ready suggestions fell away. The very next day, I applied for listing in The Christian Science Journal as a Christian Science practitioner. I also realized the importance of daily attention to establishing my practice and maintaining my mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ healing. This prayerful work keeps our practice pure and sound and is never without inspiration, freshness, buoyancy, and blessings. It is a constant recognition that we are:
God appointed and God anointed God impelled and God inspired God supported and God sustained God provided and God protected God empowered and God equipped The affirmation, cherishing, and defense of our Christly purpose isn t a one shot deal. It s ongoing daily, necessary, and joyful. And as we do it attentively and gratefully, ideas come freshly, freely, and specifically to inspire, strengthen, comfort, and guide us. One morning shortly after I d committed my life to the public practice of Christian Science, these thoughts came to me: My practice of Christian Science is God s calling, and He is with me every moment, guiding my every step. He carefully, thoroughly, lovingly, intelligently equips me each minute of each day with the specific, scientific, spiritual understanding of Him that brings healing. Divine Science is the Comforter, God s law, the Science of Christ, Truth. It is complete, certain, and enough I don t need anything else. And because I reflect God, I express the alertness, dedication, patience, wisdom, compassion, unselfishness, discipline, steadfastness, and understanding I need to be in His service. I am His witness witness to the allness of God s goodness, the goodness of His allness. I have the Mind of Christ; there is no other Mind. And I will prove this all day today. Mrs. Eddy writes, May divine Love so permeate the affections of all those who have named the name of Christ in its fullest sense, that no counteracting influence can hinder their growth or taint their examples (Miscellaneous
Writings, p. 223). I applied this prayer to my own life: May divine Love so permeate my affections, that no counteracting influence can hinder my growth or taint my examples. These were the very encouraging, uplifting thoughts I needed that day. But not long after came a day when subtle, silent negative thoughts were flooding in, trying to make me feel unneeded and incapable in my practice. At first, I felt so pounded down. But when I opened my Bible, I read what Daniel heard in a vision when he felt there was no strength in him: O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong (Daniel 10:19). That s when divine Love lifted me up on my mental tippy toes, strengthening me with Truth. I found myself talking right back to the liar mortal mind trying to convince me that my practice wasn t worthwhile. I declared, You cannot blind me to God s hereness, nowness, onlyness, goodness, allness. You are not a power. God impels and empowers me. You cannot usurp Love s reign or overthrow my divine right, ability, and authority to prove the truth of Truth. Nor can you take away the joy that comes from knowing that God is Love, supreme and omnipotent, here and now. Truth cannot be reversed, nor can it be deprived of its essential vitality its healing power. Nor can I be deprived of my God ordained mission to heal. This helped me realize that defending daily my Christly purpose was equally as important as affirming it. I needed to be alert to mortal mind s efforts to delude reason, deny revelation, and dethrone Deity in my consciousness (see Miscellaneous Writings, p. 3). Ever since then, I ve given daily attention to both affirming the Christ, denying the anti Christ.
Mrs. Eddy reminds us, Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ spirit, to follow the Christ example, and to heal the sick as well as the sinning (Science and Health, p. 138). When we practice Christian Science, we are accepting this mission and committing to fulfilling it. In doing this in my own life, I have found that this passage from Science and Health particularly speaks to me: Hold perpetually this thought, that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being (p. 496). Healing is not an ambiguous goal; it is the natural result of the scientific practice of divine Science. This promise, daily contemplated and held to, keeps our practice of Christian Science firmly grounded in the Christ, safe and secure, and full of blessings. 2016 The Christian Science Publishing Society. For sharing and reprint info: http://journal.christianscience.com/permissions