Article April 16, 1990 Issue

The importance of stick-to-itiveness in healing

The willingness to stick to the spiritual facts of being—right in the face of the material picture— is the key to healing.

Jane Partis McCarty

"Stick-to-itiveness" is a made-up word to describe a tenacious, determined effort to finish a job. Some people wince when they hear that word because sticking to something until it is finished is difficult for them to do. Other people are unfazed by the word because they are like beavers building a dam, staying right with something until it is done. Procrastination, laziness, discouragement, and self-doubt are obvious enemies of stick-to-itiveness.

Applying the rules of Christian Science to healing requires the same persistence that we put into many worthwhile projects in our lives. In fact, it seems to me that many a healing in Christian Science is brought about in proportion to our stick-to-itiveness to the spiritual facts of a case. Whether one is dealing with sickness, poverty, injustice, or sinful tendencies, a superficial application of the truth of being, a wavering attitude, a tentative approach, all portend a delayed victory or outright defeat. It takes a mighty struggle sometimes to reject the inharmony our eyes and ears may tell us is present in our lives. But spiritual sense within each one of us tells us that God is present and that He loves us. And this spiritual fact is what we have to stick to, even when the going is rough.

Christ Jesus gave us a parable that the Bible says illustrates the point "that men ought always to pray, and not to faint."^{See Luke 18:1–8.} It was about a judge and a widow. The widow wanted him to render a certain judgment against an adversary of hers. The judge didn't respond for a while. Then he did, saying, "I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." Jesus certainly seems to be preaching that stick-to-itiveness pays off! He concluded the parable by asking the question "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Can we say that our fidelity to spiritual facts, that our importunate prayers, are such as to open the door of our consciousness for the healing Christ to come in?

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