Article February 12, 1927 Issue

Waiting

MARION E. TWICHELL

Christian Science has come to bless, to quicken, and to enlighten mankind. Early in his experience, the student of Christian Science learns that many words hitherto used unthinkingly take on an entirely new meaning; that they are capable of both a positive and a negative interpretation. No condition of thought which confronts the Christian metaphysician needs more prayerful handling than that which is expressed by the word "waiting." In its positive application waiting is a divine quality, to be prayed for and appreciated; in its negative sense it is a tool of the devil, to be resisted with courage and determination.

Every student, sooner or later, must needs decide whether he is waiting on God, or waiting on time, for the consummation of his desire; that is, whether his waiting is positive or negative. One laboring under a sense of disease who asks the oft-repeated question, "Why am I not healed?" may do well to search his thoughts, to see if he is waiting negatively for healing. So-called mortal mind, the seeming cause and effect of all trouble, will see to it there is something to wait for, something still to be done, before healing is accomplished. Since Christian Science healing is not the curing of diseased matter, but rather the awakening to the great fact that, as John puts it, "now are we the sons of God," time figures not at all in real healing, and therefore nothing remains for which to wait. To the individual waiting negatively for healing, no real progress is possible. In place of progress, self-pity, resentment, and mental apathy result. Let one once see as a robber thought the archenemy that waits to be healed, and he will rise above it joyfully; for the time of his deliverance is at hand.

A Christian Scientist who had been safely carried through many a surging sea of error once remained inactively waiting, week by week, for a specific healing. No joy was manifested; no happy tone ever expressed spontaneous gratitude. The invalid sat waiting, daily waiting, for what was already an accomplished fact—perfection. The practitioner finally realized that the time had arrived to "startle mortal mind to break its dream of suffering," as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 420). She therefore exposed and denounced the error that would rob God's child of the joy of divine freedom. The whole environment remained the same; nevertheless, early the following morning a clear, cheery voice called over the telephone, "The wire in front of my house is lined with robins and every one with a red breast toward me!" The eye that had hitherto seen nothing but self and the manifestation of error began to recognize beauty and joy—began to be glad, to be patient, to be grateful, and, as a result, to be free. Waiting then became a calm, progressive, active waiting on God. She had begun to obey Mrs. Eddy's injunction to "wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept" (ibid., p. 454). Many a case of long-deferred healing may be completed through a joyful appreciation of omnipresent good, through a realization that, as Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., Pref., p. vii), "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings."

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