How I Shared Christian Science December 31, 2012 Issue

A cup of cold water

John London—Knoxville, Tennessee

Photo credit: John London

A few months after I became a Christian Scientist in 2007, I received a call from my former Unity minister. She said that a friend I had known well at my former church had died, and asked if I would help in the memorial service and play a few songs on my guitar. I was reluctant to attend, so I thanked her and made an excuse to avoid the trip to this friend’s family’s church.

But I awoke in the early hours of the next morning with the question on my mind: Won’t you give a cup of water in Christ’s name? Mary Baker Eddy implores us to do this on page 570 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I knew instantly that I should go to the service and be a spiritual support there. So the next morning, I called the minister back and accepted her invitation.

At the service, I led the congregation in singing a few songs, and then the minister asked me if I would like to say a few words about my friend. I was a chaplain in my former church and regularly made calls to members of the congregation to pray with them. The friend who had passed on was one of those on my call list, and I had regularly prayed with her for a year or so. During this time, I often spoke to her of God’s love and of her natural perfection as His beloved child—ideas that I later understood more fully when I began reading Science and Health.

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