Lessons from trees and babies and patients

Spiritual resource to share: fun

No one ever told me how much laughter happens when you are in the daily practice of Christian Science. There is much joy to be harvested here -and sometimes that joy comes out in full throated guffaws. You operate on honesty and earnestness and you expect and demand results. It has to be practical. It ends up being joy-full.

In one particular conversation with a patient, we were talking about moving forward and how this is natural for us to do. As natural as the seedling rises to its full purpose of a tree, it is part of our nature as children of an all-loving intelligent God, to rise to our full purpose.

A favorite quote comes to thought: "The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (F. Buechner) It is not what we love that moves us forward , it is THAT we love that we cannot help but move, grow, and continue to bless others as well as ourselves. God calls us to fulfill Her holy purpose. We respond.

But what about dealing with obstacles or seeming setbacks? What would try to divert, hinder or stop us from moving forward. Perhaps it is nothing but our own fabrications.

So, our conversation continued, how would a child learning to walk deal with a stumble? We know that something in them moves them forward; some compelling and holy curiosity gets them to stand up and try again. This is not heroic or out of the ordinary. This is what babies do! (Can you even imagine a baby taking a tumble and then refusing to get up? "Oh yes, you see," this hypothetical baby might try to explain, "I just must be the falling down baby type. Perhaps I am really meant to be on the floor." Preposterous.)

Segue to the Bible's book on II Timothy, where it states:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.... Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus ....

And answering this calling, and practicing this Truth, and sharing/discovering it with others leads to a joy that just makes you want to look up, hold your arms out and laugh.


To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

the basic questions

Spiritual resource to share: your own inspired answer

I have often been asked about the practice of Christian Science and recently sat down to re-think and get re-charged with new inspiration. I answered these two freqently asked questions in this way:

What does a Christian Science practitioner do?

• A Christian Science practitioner gives Christian Science treatment and prays with his or her patients. The spirit of love characterizes the practitioners’ work in which healing is expected: physical ills are cured, relationships restored and discordant situations reversed.
• The basis of Christian Science is that God is Love. The theology of Christian Science explains that suffering is not God’s will, neither is shunning, shaming, abandoning one needing help, or dictating what another should do.
• If healing results do not come quickly, the individual is free to seek other practitioners or other means of healing. Results matter.

What is the difference between treatment and prayer?

• Christian Science prayer is general and can be shared under all conditions; some Christians might call this type of prayer a prayer of affirmation.
• Christian Science treatment is specific and is up to the individual patient and the practitioner as to how the case is taken up. It is a sacred trust between practitioner and patient, and may involve communion, confession as well as personal revelation and spiritual reasoning. Both patient and practitioner expect healing to be the result of Christian Science treatment.
• Christian Science treatment is purely spiritual and includes the work of a Christian Science practitioner. It may also include the work of a Christian Science nurse* and/or being cared for at a Christian Science nursing facility. It does not include any material methods of healing, neither is a Christian Science practitioner licensed to give medical care. If a patient decides to change to medical care, they need to go to one who is licensed to give that care.
• A Christian Scientist who elects medical care is still considered a child of God! (Nothing can take away that status!) In Christian Science, God’s love is constant and unconditional. A Christian Scientist strives to reflect that same love. Shunning or shaming is illegitimate and has no part in the practice of Christian Science.

For other responses to these questions, check out these links:

What is a Christian Science practitioner?

What is Christian Science treatment?

*a Christian Science nurse is one “who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in the sick room and who can take proper care of the sick.” (The Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy)









To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

Fire, sub-zero weather and thought police

Spiritual resource to share: watchfulness

So here we are, my husband and I, sitting around our living room fire while outside the temperature is dropping way below zero. And we are talking about God and my healing practice. [I know it sounds so cliche - the fire, the cold and the talk about God ; ) ] I like hearing my husband's views on Christian Science. He has been practicing it now for quite a few years and has a fresh take on many of the truths that I have grown up with.

"So, what do you think happens with a practitioner and patient?" I asked, curious to hear his perspective.

"Well, a practitioner is kind of like the thought police. Not in the sense that they are going to be punitive about it, but that they help you guard your own thought; help to bring it in line with what is real."

Hmm. Neat image. Jesus has always given me the model of the most perfect and thorough healer, and I can see how Jesus helped others bring their thought in line with how God sees them. In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy writes,

"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

In Jesus' healing of the leper (see other healings including the healing of sight) he touches the person. I looked up the word touch. One definition of it is "to bring to the same level of understanding."

I could see this in my healing work. When a patient calls, we connect and I work with them to awaken thought to a spiritual reality that is foundational to being - bringing thought to that level of understanding that says "You are made in the image and likeness of God, all-good, all-loving, all-embracing good."

Policing thought is another way of "...bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Or as Mary Baker Eddy explains it and its effects: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously."

I love the practice. I have been both a practitioner and a patient many times now. The calm, confident and comforting assurance of a practitioner helps to "police" the thought, remove the fear, while being a companion who is gently waking thought up to yield to the all might and tender love of our eternal Father, our forever Mother, God.

I know there are a lot of you healers out there! Your thoughts??

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

What intrigues me most about Christian Science

Recently I was talking to a number of other Christian Science practitioners and we were all asked this question. Their answers were clear and varied. One practitioner loves the sound reasoning of Christian Science. Another practitioner loves how effective Christian Science is at problem solving. Another practitioner commented how Christian Science taught her to move through the world with dominion.

As for me, not only do I love the fact that Christian Science is so many things to so many people, but I am most thrilled to know that Christian Science spells out the universal law of Love and shows how to apply it to every situation imaginable.
Let me break this down as I understand it.

• Christian Science is the science or the "how to" of Christianity.
• Science is all about a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws or the application of certain principles that bring about a consistent result.
• Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.
• Christ is all about the expression of an omnipotent and omnipresent God (Love) in our human experience.

So, Christian Science explains "how to" do universal love, how to be loving, and be loved, and how to heal and harmonize with divine Principles of Love.

OK, so the thrilling part of this again is that these principles of Love find receptive hearts everywhere: with your immediate family members with whom you live and in situations a half a world away. Regardless of any human category you put yourself into or any situation you find yourself in, there is a principle, a law of Love, which when applied, brings the human picture into harmony.

To practice Christian Science means a never-ending discovery into the depths of understanding infinite Love and feeling the effects of Love's harmonizing influence. It has an impact on our individual lives. Christian Science has an impact on communities and nations.

It seems to me that Christian Science explains the science of genius, of all that is brilliant and good and enduring. Through the science of Christ's teaching, we can all experience the promise that "with God, all things are possible."

Another friend commented that when she first read Science and Health, she was left breathless. It still does that to me, even after years of reading and practicing the ideas in it.

Signing off,
Kim

Please add your own comments or email to a friend.