"Your life is an occasion. Rise to it!" - Mr. Magorium

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Why Don't You Try...?

A person in my situation gets all kinds of advice on how I can heal myself; diets, herbs, things being done in other countries that aren't approved for use here. Why do I stick to my study of Christian Science and decline to try these suggested remedies?

Mary Baker Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures that although such things do work in some cases, this is “one belief casting out another”. And all too frequently they fail in other cases. Just as medical treatments succeed in some cases and fail in others. This is because the effectiveness of any “cure” is proportional to the patient's faith in it.

Modern medicine has the upper hand today because it is the system that society places the most faith in. So it has the power of gestalt behind it (there's a word for you to look up if you don't know it). In fact, in a nation whose founding principles include separation of church and state, popular faith in medicine has had sufficient influence on our laws for it to have become, in essence, a “state religion”.

But in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy begins on page one with the statement, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,--a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.”

There is no reference to any material remedy in that statement. There is however a challenge to the individual who is praying. It's easy to profess “absolute faith”. Living it is much more difficult.

It's common for non-Christian Scientists to suggest that you mix medicine, diet, or some other material remedy with the practice of Christian Science. They will all tell you, “It can't hurt.” In fact it can hurt. If you are trying to use both Christian Science and a material remedy your faith is divided. Mrs. Eddy says plainly that it takes an “absolute faith that all things are possible to God”. If your faith is divided, it is not absolute.

God is Spirit. His work is done spiritually, as Jesus demonstrated in his healing ministry. God is not going to work through any material remedy, no matter how “natural” it seems, though your faith in it may for a time.

So to all my dear friends who've recommended some material remedy to me, I love you, thank you for caring, but I'm afraid that I'll have to decline. My progress proves to me that I'm on the right track.

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