Article September 3, 2012 Issue

At home in Spirit

Lerois Fotso

Much has been written about the housing shortage in cities around the world. Those who have money are more or less well accommodated, but for a great part of the population it can be a struggle to find a place to put their heads when night falls. The situation is particularly severe in third world countries, where the great majority of city dwellers are self-employed in relatively low-paying jobs.

This is the picture that appears at first glance. But Christian Science, the rules of which Mary Baker Eddy discovered and explained in simple words in the 19th century, tells a different story. This Science states that spiritual reality, governed by God, is harmonious. It follows that a shortage of accommodation or inharmony of any kind can’t be real. In reality you and I and everybody already have a perfect place; all we have to do is to look into spiritual facts. Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things” (p. 207). So we can translate, so to speak, every physical need into spiritual language to apprehend God’s perfect solution.

I first learned about Christian Science in 2007, shortly after I arrived in prison. Upon my release several months afterward, I longed for a house to accommodate my rather large family—five children. Everybody will tell you that to get a room to rent in the city of Douala, the largest city in Cameroon,  is an ordeal. And how much more difficult if you intend to build a house of your own! Even in marshy areas the price of a square meter of land deters you.