Article December 12, 2005 Issue

Next in our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science.

ANYONE CAN BE A HEALER

INSIDE THE CIRCLE OF LOVE

FENELLA BENNETTS—LONDON, ENGLAND

When I Was 13, a school friend asked me to pray for her. Recently, I came across a little book, in which I'd noted the thoughts that came to me while praying and the joy I felt at having been asked to help. This marked when God planted the seed in my heart that would grow and one day flower into the full-time practice of Christian Science.

When that moment came, it seemed that the timing couldn't have been worse. Our children were half-grown, the mortgage was nowhere near half-paid, and we had some debts. My husband had had to make a change in his business affairs that year, which meant his income initially dropped by one third. We'd done everything we could think of to make ends meet, including putting our house on the market. But even amid what looked like impossible financial circumstances, I knew that God's timing is never wrong, and that this long-cherished idea could come to fruition.

There were days, however, when I wondered if I'd ever make it. But even as the fears pounded in, I saw clearly that I was at a crossroads, and that there was no going back to my previous job. The current financial challenges had to be turned from a stumbling block into a spiritual foundation for my work as a healer. So I faced forward, and I prayed to understand more fully a particular aspect of God's nature—infinity. I pondered this day after day. And I began to see more clearly that God is infinite good, and that His unlimited abundance is reflected throughout His creation, which included each one of us. Then I realized with a shock that deep down in my thought was something like a heavy stone. It was disbelief that our chronic financial problems could ever be solved. It was a subtle mental argument that actually denied God and His goodness.

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