Article December 15, 2008 Issue

Bikes and Healing

TOM BLACK

LEARNING AND PRACTICING  Christian Science can be at times something like learning to ride a bicycle.

Some years back my three granddaughters all got bicycles on one day. We four adults and three kids piled ourselves and the bikes into a van and headed for an empty parking lot, where mild bedlam began. It was at least a three-ring circus with squeals of fear and a lot of hesitation. Adults trotted beside bike riders, firmly holding seats and one handle bar to prevent tumbles. We got through that first day, and within a couple of more days, the skill was so mastered that all three kids whizzed around like pros.

There was a mental turning point. You could see it in each child's eyes. It was an awareness that it was something they wanted to learn. It was worth the effort. That brought a quiet resolve to master this skill, which awakened an inner focus. A resolve. A concentration. Determination. Now, it's true that learning to practice Christian Science is natural to nonresistant human consciousness. It can be as easy as paint drying or grass growing. Jesus promised, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:30). And Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and its greatest demonstrator in this age, wrote, "... the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science is understood" (Science and Health, p. 459).