The Bible Speaks to You May 3, 1969 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of April 25-May 1 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over more than 1,000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 369 - Are We Willing to Be Well?

Robert McKinnon with contributions from Jack Krieger

[The speaker is Jack Krieger. The questioner is Robert McKinnon.]

Questioner: There are people who have one illness after another or perhaps suffer from a chronic illness. Many people feel that the pace of living today, air pollution, and all the rest of the problems we face make it very hard for a person to feel really well.
Speaker: Situations of this kind certainly need attention. We want to help people feel well and be well—totally well, whole in every way. Before healing one individual, Christ Jesus asked (John 5:6), "Wilt thou be made whole?" So we might ask ourselves if we are really willing to be well. Do we want to be better morally as well as physically?
Questioner: I can see how this desire might apply to people who either consciously or unconsciously don't want to recover. They don't want to face some responsibility, or they want a little more sympathy from their friends. But I'm wondering about the majority of people who really don't want to be sick, who do want to face up to their responsibilities and be well enough to do so.
Speaker: I think this willingness applies to them in a profound way. I don't mean that it is easy, or that willingness of itself will suffice. There's a demand on us, because to be whole is far more than just a desire to be free of illness. What does wholeness mean to you?
Questioner: I think wholeness basically means physical soundness and health, but I think it also means a total feeling of well-being, which perhaps includes one's emotions, his psychological state.
Speaker: Now let me ask if you relate this better sense of well-being to God?

Questioner: I do, but I'm not sure that it's similar to what you believe. My feeling is that there is a state of being that we could call proper—truth, perhaps—and that this is a state of healthiness, of well-being.
Speaker: You endeavor to align your thought on the side of truth, then. Isn't this really what we're talking about, relating our well-being to Truth, which is God?
Questioner: Perhaps, but for many of us it's very difficult to know what Truth is or how to align ourselves with it.
Speaker: One place we can turn to for help in that direction is the Bible. I think what Paul said applies here. He said (II Cor. 5:8), "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," present with Truth, God.