Your Questions and Answers
from The Christian Science Journal
Given the advancements in the medical field, why would a Christian Scientist opt not to have medical treatment, when much of the time it seems that the medical route would be much simpler? Furthermore, if you’re struggling for a long time with a physical problem and you’re not getting a healing through Christian Science, why would you stick with it? Isn’t this an indication that your method isn’t working, and that maybe you should, just this once, go to a doctor instead?
Christian Scientists are always free to choose medical treatment, which many individuals feel is the most obvious solution to health difficulties. But the reason Christian Scientists tend to choose prayer instead—and to stick with prayer even if healing is not coming quickly—has nothing to do with dogma, tradition, or the advances of medical science, but everything to do with their understanding of and relationship to God. This relationship with God is primary, because it has everything to do with one’s happiness and has a direct impact on career, family, and quality of living.
Personally, I’ve found these to be good reasons to rely on prayer in my own life, even when a medical solution may have seemed like a simple way to correct a condition.
For some time I had a painful foot condition that many people would probably say could have been corrected medically in a simple way. I knew that the type of treatment was entirely my choice to make, but I decided to keep praying. Why? Because I knew I needed more than just a physical change. My prayers were not asking God to heal my feet, but praying to better understand Him, to do His will and “walk” in His direction. An awakening desire in my prayers was not just to love God, but to love His people—to have a greater love for humanity. A complete physical healing did result, and it also had a huge impact on my career and lifestyle. Instead of focusing on just building up my engineering career, my work focused more on those around me. My wife took on a house-parenting position, and suddenly I was surrounded by lots of small children. The more I prayed, the message became so clear to devote my life to helping others. And, for me, that meant helping them with prayer. So these became my first steps into the ministry of being a Christian Science practitioner. And this change would have never happened if I had just sought a physical cure for my problem.
Hopefully, my experience helps to illustrate why one would stick with this approach to prayer, even in dark hours, when spiritual treatment in Christian Science brings about such change, redirection, and healing to every aspect of life.
Phil Davis | Boston, Massachusetts, US
Christian Science teaches that all problems, no matter how material they may appear, have a mental basis. This means that the patient is actually not the body, but the thought of the person. Therefore, a quick solution through medicine would not address the real issue, since such a treatment doesn’t deal with the mental aspect of the condition. Mary Baker Eddy summed up this phenomenon in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body” (Science and Health, p. 411).
There’s no doubt that Christian Science would be the choice for me in trying times, simply because, for more than 30 years as a full-time Christian Science practitioner, I’ve seen how effective spiritual healing is for whoever chooses to rely on it. I’ve faced some severe physical situations of my own, as well, but my instinctive reaction, based on previous experiences of spiritual healing, has been to always trust God for the resolution.
One time late at night, I was lying awake in excruciating pain. I turned my thought to God and didn’t waver from my position to rely on spiritual healing, because I trusted that God would heal me as He’d done in the past. The result was that I experienced a healing in less time than it would have taken to try to find a medical solution.
Throughout society there is currently massive accent on medical solutions—material ways of dealing with physical and mental anguish and pain. But the assumption that medical theory is exact and that reliance on spiritual healing means putting one’s life at risk rests on a comparison that’s unfair. For me there is no contest, because medical theory changes. Whilst many wonders occur in the field of medicine, I’ve found that permanent healing happens when spiritual truth, not material remedies, transforms the bodily condition. In this way Christian Science removes focus from the human body, not just attempting to fix matter. Spiritual healing renews thought and reforms character.
Heather Hayward | London, England
Christian Scientists and others have learned to appreciate several advantages of metaphysical healing, even if the healing does not come right away. One advantage is the immediacy of this spiritual method. Christian Science reveals that God, the divine source of all good, is an always-available resource. We use spiritual sense to draw inspiration from God, and thereby find that we are not creating health but finding it. A second advantage is the purity and positivity of Christian Science healing. A medical procedure that seems simple may not necessarily be, but there are no adverse side effects of spiritual medicine. We apply the remedy by mentally assimilating the qualities of spiritual good. Finally, there’s the advantage of its power and capability. The Christian Scientist has learned that the only power that one can really turn to is the divine all-power, so there is no limited power of human thinking or limited material agents in the way.
Experience teaches that Christianly scientific healing can be—and that, actually, its standard is—instantaneous healing. So the Christian Scientist always sees instantaneous healing as a practical possibility, even if the condition has gone on for some time. For instance, one woman whose poor physical condition had been given up by leading medical authorities attended a lecture I gave on Christian Science healing. By the end of the lecture, she had experienced a complete transformation of life and body. Results like this exceed material methods, and it is worthwhile to progress in this route.
Relying on Christian Science treatment is not about physical healing alone but about understanding the Truth of one’s being, experiencing the infinite powers of divine Life. So the Christian Scientist goes for that spiritual understanding and not for mere relief from physical symptoms.
Whenever a case seems to be a desperate struggle, Mary Baker Eddy advised us to seek divine inspiration for “the right use of temporary and eternal means” (Science and Health, p. 444). The way from matter to Spirit unfolds individually and never by doctrine or will-power, but by divine Mind’s tender, caring guidance.
