Man's Unbroken Being

 

I played football in college.  During a scrimmage, I apparently broke my ankle.  I couldn’t walk and my foot was at a ninety-degree angle from its normal position.  Instead of having it set by a medical doctor, I called a Christian Science Practitioner to pray with me for healing.  The practitioner pointed out to me this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by MaryBaker Eddy:

“The divine Science of man is woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent.”

Ten or twenty minutes after speaking with the practitioner, as I quietly contemplated this truth about my spiritual identity, I felt movement in my ankle.  I looked and saw that it had returned to its normal position.  I used crutches to get around for about a week and within two weeks I returned to practice with the team.  After about a month, I continued to play football and not only did I not have any further problems with this ankle, but the ankle was actually stronger than it had ever been before.

You can find healing ideas for yourself in Eddy's book.   Read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures online, purchase it from any major book seller, or read, borrow or buy a copy at a Christian Science Reading Room.  The Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado is located at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Overcoming Fatigue

I had returned from a bicycle ride and was settling down to read Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  At first, I found it difficult to concentrate on what I was reading because of aching muscles from my hard ride.  But then I came across this arresting paragraph in Eddy's book:

"You say, "Toil fatigues me."  But what is this me?  Is it muscle or mind?  Which is tired and so speaks?  Without mind, could the muscles be tired?  Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them?  Matter is non-intelligent.  Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, made that weariness."

Mortal mind is Eddy's term for the human mind - thought which seemingly dwells within a material body and sees and evaluates everything from a mortal perspective of life in matter.  The counter to mortal mind is divine Mind - one of Eddy's descriptive terms for God.  She writes:

"The scientific and permanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power of Mind [the divine Mind] over the body or any illusion of physical weariness."

The Bible says that God gave man dominion over all the earth.  This certainly includes dominion over muscles and exercise.  I contemplated what thoughts were occupying my consciousness.  Was I conscious of mortal mind's thoughts of fatigue or was I conscious of the divine Mind's message of strength and dominion?  As I pondered this, my muscles ceased aching and I felt strong and fresh the rest of the day.

You can learn more in Eddy's book about how to listen to the divine Mind instead of the mortal mind.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures can be read online, purchased from many booksellers, or read, borrowed or purchased from a Christian Science Reading Room.  The Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado is located at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Pandemic!  These are frightening times and people are struggling to cope.  How can an individual respond to the Coronavirus pandemic?  Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian healer, spiritual thinker and discoverer of Christian Science has a unique explanation for world crises in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  She writes:

“This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. ...”

Breaking up of material beliefs?  The nothingness of pestilence, want and woe?  These assertions might seem fantastic, except for one thing – Eddy proved them by hundreds of healings (See Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer by Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Warneck) and she was merely following the example of the all-time master-healer Christ Jesus (see The Bible).

So beyond providing practical care for those effected by the virus, what can an individual do in these times of turmoil?  In her book, Eddy advises:

“… those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.”

You can learn more about Christian Science in Eddy’s book.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures can be read online, bought at any major bookseller, or read, borrowed or purchased at a Christian Science Reading Room.  The Reading Room in Evergreen Colorado is located at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Consciousness Constructs a Better Body

Recently, I was bicycling in the mountains of Colorado.  The very first part of the ride involved a long downhill and then another steep curvy hill.  I became concerned because I would be riding for several hours and I wasn't looking forward to the return ride back up these two hills at the end of the trip.  As I started to appreciate how absolutely beautiful the scenery was on this ride, my thought turned to a statement by the writer and Christian healer, Mary Baker Eddy.  In her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she states:

"Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered."

I began to challenge myself about what was in my consciousness.  Was I thinking that my body was getting older and thus not able to make this return climb?  Was I already concluding that I would be too tired to finish this ride?  What became clear to me was that my fear was based on my thinking that I had this material body that might not be up to the challenge.

As I became more inspired by the beauty around me, I started to think more deeply about another statement in Eddy's book:

"There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.  All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." 

I felt invigorated by the idea that matter was not the substance of my being.  My consciousness became filled with the presence of God, good, not with fear or anxiousness.  What was totally surprising to me was how easily the end of the bicycle ride was.  In fact, I couldn't believe that I was at the top of the last hill because it had just been an enjoyable, easy climb!

You too can construct a better body by conquering faith in matter!  Read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures online or purchase it at major book sellers.  You can also read, borrow or purchase the book at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado.

Mastery Over Matter

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, a book written by Christian healer, Mary Baker Eddy, contains this remarkable statement:

"In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master."

Could this be true?  My experience has convinced me that it is!  To give one example:  One time while camping in the Trinity Alps of California, I was digging a latrine for our campsite and, foolishly, I was wearing only sandals.  In my carelessness, I struck one of my big toes with the spade I was digging with.  As you might think, the pain was extreme and the evidence of injury convincing.  But just previous to this incident, I had been contemplating the above statement by Eddy.  As I turned my thoughts to what Science and Health explains is the real entity of man - spiritual, made in God's image and likeness - the pain and bleeding completely ceased.  I found that I could walk freely and the next day I easily hiked several rugged miles to a beautiful, remote waterfall.

You can find out more about the real entity of man by reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  The book can be read online, purchased from major booksellers, or read, borrowed or purchased at a Christian Science Reading Room.  The Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado is located at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Ghosts and Our Health

Does Halloween, the season for ghosts and other imaginary beings, have something in common with our health?  Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian healer, wrote in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

“Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in the dark. … As frightened children look everywhere for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the right one.”

Halloween ghost-stories are all in fun, but fear of and suffering from sickness is no fun at all!  According to Eddy, public announcements about disease - such as news headlines about flu season appearing in local papers and grocery stores advertising free flu shots - may not be as helpful as intended.

Eddy discovered that the cause, occurrence, and spread of sickness have an overlooked mental component.  Ignorance of the mental cause of sickness and of the divine healing power our Heavenly Father bestows on us, causes us to fear becoming sick and to look solely to material remedies to regain and maintain our health.  According to Eddy, this fear of sickness and dependence on material means for health are just as misdirected as the belief in ghosts.  The last 100 pages of Eddy’s book contain accounts of people healed by looking for relief in the spiritual way she pointed out. 

Check out this “treat”ment for yourself.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures can be read online or purchased from Amazon.  You can also read, borrow or purchase the book at the Christian Science Reading Room located at 4602 Plettner Lane in Evergreen, Colorado

Sculpting a Society Free of Sexual Abuse

This year has been full of charges of sexual abuse and scandal.  Seemingly every corner of our society has been involved including church officials, educators, corporate executives, celebrities, and government officials.  It is good that light is being shined on this problem and that justice is being pursued. Is there more that we all can do beyond raising our awareness and supporting the resolution of this issue?  How can we play an active role in eliminating this undesirable attitude and behavior from our society?

I’ve been contemplating a statement made by Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  She wrote:

“The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception.  We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding [sic] and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind?  Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering?  Have you accepted the mortal model?  Are you reproducing it? … Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model?  The world is holding it before your gaze continually.  The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your lifework, and adopt into your experience the angular outline and deformity of matter models.”

Yikes!  I don’t want to be liable to follow these lower patterns or admit this moral deformity into my experience!  Eddy goes on to explain what we should do to prevent this:

“To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way.  We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives.  Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love – the kingdom of heaven – reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.”

You can learn more about being a sculpting thought in Eddy’s book.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures can be read online or purchased from major booksellers.  You can also read, borrow, or purchase the book from the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado located at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Truth-Power, Not Will-Power, Brings Physical Healing

Positive-thinking or human will-power is considered to be an influence in human affairs.  Certainly, having a positive attitude is more helpful than a negative one and the drive to accomplish some goal is better than indifference and apathy.  But, positive attitude or human will alone isn't enough in many situations.  Mary Baker Eddy, a Christian author and teacher known for her extensive record of healing disease, wrote in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

"Truth, and not corporeal will is the divine power which says to disease, 'Peace, be still.'"

What is the truth that heals and how do we bring it to bear on a problem that needs healing?  Eddy explains that in it's highest sense, truth is a synonym for God.  In her book, she capitalizes the word "Truth" when referring to this divine essence.  For example, Eddy describes Jesus's healing prayers as "deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth ..."  In other words, Jesus proclaimed the power and goodness of God, God's creation of man in God's likeness, and the indissoluble unity of this relationship between God and man.

I experienced an example of this power of Truth on a backpacking trip.  Throughout the trip, I had been able to carry a heavy pack and hike without getting tired or affected by the altitude.  However, as I started hiking the last day I felt a pain in my side.  The pain grew throughout the hike and I eventually became very weak.  It was tempting to speculate about a physical cause, but I refused.  I stuck with my inspiration of truth that strength wasn't about muscles, food, or air, but about my connection to God.  This wasn't positive thinking or willing myself to be well, but a conviction based on understanding the truth about my being.  As I held steadfastly to this truth, the pain disappeared and I resumed my normal activities.

You can learn more about the truth of your spiritual identity in the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.  Read this book online or purchase it from Amazon or any major book retailer.  It is also available for sale or study at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Rights and Freedom We Can All Agree on Protecting

Currently in the United States, much thought, energy, and emotional anguish is focused on the selection of a new justice to the Supreme Court.  The candidate, Judge Kavanaugh, is being exhaustively examined to learn his views of our Constitutional rights, including the right to life, the right of a woman to control her body, the right to own a gun, and the rights of the executive branch of the United States.  Politicians and citizens are contentiously debating these important issues with one another.

 As I considered these rights and the political and legal process for defining and protecting them, I was reminded of some even more important rights and an entirely spiritual method and power for their protection and enforcement.  Speaking of her discovery of Christian Science a few decades after the Civil War in the United States, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

“The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of this new crusade sounded the keynote of universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgement of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ’s divine Science.”

The rights of man as a Son of God!

The fetters of sin, sickness, and death stricken!

Freedom won, not through warfare or political debate, but through the law of Christ!

It is inspiring to consider these rights and methods.  These are rights we can all agree on protecting!

You can learn more in Eddy’s book about your rights as a Son of God and how to win your freedom through Christ.  Read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures online or purchase your own copy from Amazon.  You can also read, borrow, or buy this book at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Protecting Our Security and Freedom in a World of 3-d Printing

The current controversy over an individual’s right to publish blue prints online for producing a gun with a 3-d printer raises important questions about issues everyone cherishes – safety and freedom.  While courts, legislatures, and voters all have a role to play in deciding this issue, it’s worth considering the larger question of what ultimately insures our security and freedom.  Can we find real security if changes in technology give anyone ready access to instructions and capabilities for manufacturing guns, bombs, or other destructive devices?  Can we permanently protect our freedom if laws can swing back and forth with each change in political control?  Can we trust our government and our fellow citizens to know and do what is best for our country?

Mary Baker Eddy, in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", points out that we can trust in the forces that will ultimately shape our society.  She writes:

“The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking.”  

In the statement above, Eddy uses the term “Mind” with a capital “M” to refer to the divine Mind – God.  In her writings she explains that although security and freedom can seem precarious or threatened by the swings and extremes of the human mind, these desirable conditions are protected and promoted by God, the divine Mind.  She writes:

“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfills the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself"; annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, - whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” 

You can learn more about the divine Mind and how it protects your security and freedom.  Read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" online or purchase it at bookstores such as Amazon.  You can also read, borrow or purchase this book at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Finding Freedom of Movement by Knowing More About God's Government

My husband and I had hiked to a beautiful mountain lake.  When we started back down the trail to our car, I found it painful to walk.  What could I do?  There was no other way to get down, but to walk.  That week, I had been thinking about a statement by the writer Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that was applicable to this situation.  She wrote:

"Whatever is governed by God is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life."

I thought about what life represented to me.  I knew that this life as created and governed by God included qualities like flexibility and freedom.  As I contemplated these ideas and completely focused on God and an awareness of God's government and care, my freedom and flexibility of movement returned.  I enjoyed the rest of the hike and returned comfortably to our car!

You can find out more about how God governs your life in Eddy's book.  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures can be read online or purchased from major booksellers such as Amazon.  You can also read, borrow, or buy this book at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Divine Love's Control Over Wildlife

Are you going hiking or camping in the great outdoors this summer?  If this is the case, you're probably giving some thought to what to take to handle the wild critters you may encounter on your adventure - insect repellent, snake bite kit, even bear spray!

I spend a lot of time outdoors every year and one thing that I always take with me for wildlife encounters is this idea from the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy:

"Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.  All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible.  A realization of this grand verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.  It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor to emulate the example of Jesus."

This statement was a source of reassurance to me one summer when I was doing geology work in Wyoming.  I had heard that ticks were common in the area and that they were carriers of disease.  My very first day in the field I encountered a lot of ticks.  They appeared to be everywhere!

At lunch time, I did some prayerful thinking about the above statement and reviewed my understanding of the control which Love held over all.  The word "Love", when capitalized by Eddy, is one of the names she uses for God.  I had learned a great deal about Love's control from reading Eddy's book.  With the assurance that God's creatures are harmless, my fear departed.  Because of my new found love for these little creatures of God, I decided to try not to harm them.

Interestingly, for the remaining three weeks that I was working in that area, I found only two ticks on me and they had not bitten me, but were simply walking around.  I can't prove that this was the result of my "understanding the control which Love held over all", but I can say that understanding this control relieved my concerns and gave me the freedom to enjoy many wildlife encounters, not just on this trip, but ever after.

You can read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures online or purchase it from Amazon or any major book retailer.  It is also available for sale or study at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.

Right Motives Give Pinions to Thought

One day, a manager in my organization called me into his office.  He explained that he had promised that some software would be developed to perform a particular task.  This was a new application and no such software had ever been written for this work.  Unfortunately, he explained, the software was due shortly, but the experts in our organization assigned to the task had been unable to write it.  This manager knew that I had some experience in this work and he asked if I would take over the assignment.  I had no immediate idea of how to solve his problem and my common sense told me to not get involved.  I could easily say "No" and walk away, but to my surprise I said "Yes".

Why did I say "Yes" to this request?  I wasn't trying to impress anyone or score points.  I could see that my manager had the right intentions when he promised the work would be done - he was a forward thinker, saw the need for the software, and had great confidence in the people he originally assigned to the task.  For him to report failure would be a missed opportunity to advance our capabilities and potentially embarrassing - not only for him, but for our organization.  I wanted to help.

As I pondered how to solve this problem, I took comfort in a statement from the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.  She wrote:

"Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action."

Pinions are the long feathers on a bird's wings that give it the power to fly.  So this statement is saying that right motives give us the power, inspiration and freedom to think, speak and act.

I didn't feel any sense of panic or pressure and I didn't rush into the work.  At first, I simply sat quietly in my office and waited for ideas to come.  Very shortly the ideas came!  I completed the work in just a couple of weeks - well before the deadline - and everyone was pleased with the results.  My right motives for being involved gave me the wisdom and freedom to think, speak, and act!

You can read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures online or purchase it from Amazon or any major book retailer.  It is also available for sale or study at the Christian Science Reading Room in Evergreen, Colorado at 4602 Plettner Lane.