UPFRONT June 30, 2008 Issue

FUNCTION WITHOUT THE DYS—

WARREN BOLON, SENIOR WRITER

So much in contemporary life argues for focusing on, even obsessing about, the troubles people face on a daily basis—from dysfunction in the family or in a special relationship, to the distress many feel over a troubled economy or a contentious and almost endless election cycle. Since stress is literally contained within distress, is it any wonder, then, that by some estimates more than four-fifths of the physical complaints that Americans report to their physicians are thought to be caused by some form of mental or emotional stress?

Ask long-time Christian Science practitioner and teacher Ruth Elizabeth Jenks what it takes to heal through prayer, and she might say, "Start by knowing that God's work is already done and can't be undone." In this week's featured conversation with Betty about healing dysfunctional lives and bodies through prayer, you'll find out what she means by that counsel and its correlative: Start with the solution not with the problem. To Betty, this approach isn't head-in-the-clouds wishfulness or semimetaphysical self-help. It's simply following Jesus' example—Go straight to God in prayer, thank the All-good, and behold Her always good creation.

The Greek root of the prefix dys means "apart" or "to pieces." This week, writer John Barteau tells how he went from a career and home life that looked to be going to pieces—"in disarray at all levels," as John puts it—to the blessings of living in harmony with God. Frequent contributor LaMeice Harding has found it necessary to be "willing to climb higher, even just a little higher" through prayer. One time, when she did some of that climbing, her view of a close relative changed, with healing effect. Everyone, LaMeice says from experience, has an innate spiritual nature that must eventually come to light.

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