Freed from drinking and smoking

I started drinking in high school with a few friends. Since we were too young to buy liquor legally, we would raid one of our dads’ liquor cabinets. It was the “in” thing to do. I started smoking in a similar way. Before I knew it, I was smoking a pack a day and drinking on a regular basis. But I thought that was OK, as it seemed to me that all the socially successful people did it. No one in my family smoked, though, and alcohol was rarely used in our home. My parents were not happy about my activities.

Going away to college gave me more freedom to continue the bad habits. My roommate was a Christian Scientist, and I went to Sunday School with him almost every week. I found Christian Science most interesting, but not enough to make me want to give up drinking and smoking, and the fun times I associated with them. However, the “good times” interfered with studying, which resulted in my flunking out of college.

A year or so later I joined the United States Air Force. It seemed that in the military everyone smoked and drank, so I felt right at home. Liquor and tobacco companies often gave their products away free, which added to the delusion that good times were rolling. Then one night after a party, I was so intoxicated I almost couldn’t walk. This was a wake-up call for me. I realized I had to find my freedom from these enslaving habits. I also knew that if I wanted to finish college, lead a productive life, and get married and have a family, these degrading habits had to go. I just didn’t know how I was going to get free of them.

Then I recalled that several years earlier, after leaving a mainstream Christian church, I had found some direction and comfort in the Bible, even though I thought I was an atheist. So I started reading some of the Psalms I had learned growing up in a Protestant Sunday School. This led to more reading and finding some comfort. 

Meanwhile, although I hadn’t been aware of it, my mother had begun the study of Christian Science on her own and had eventually become a Christian Science practitioner. She urged me to investigate Christian Science. This I did for a year or so, along with reading about every other religion I could think of. What set Christian Science apart from all the others was that its students are expected to prove, by healing, that God’s law is in operation here and now. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy shows how to heal as Jesus did, through a clear understanding that God, good, is the only power and presence. I began to realize that I could, by reading this book, learn how to gain my freedom from the addictions.

So I decided to study Christian Science. Nothing seemed to change at first. I was still a functioning alcoholic, smoking two to three packs a day, and using foul language. Then I was transferred to Alaska. The Christian Scientists in the Anchorage church welcomed me, and I found a new and very supportive family. I started attending church regularly, became involved in church activities, and studied the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly. I began to apply what I was reading and had a few modest healings, which brought the proof I needed and encouraged me to keep studying. 

My thought was undergoing a radical change, and so was my experience. As I got a clearer understanding of my true selfhood as God’s child from Genesis 1:26, 27 and Mary Baker Eddy’s definition of man in Science and Health (see pp. 475–477 ), the desire to drink and smoke simply evaporated, just as if it never was. And in truth, it never had been part of my real, spiritual identity. There was no withdrawal or tapering off; the addictions were just effortlessly gone. My language also cleaned up, without conscious effort.

Then came a big test. One night a couple of months after I had joined The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, two of my buddies came into my barracks and invited me to go out bar hopping with them. One had previously remarked, “Arlen, you will never quit drinking.” For an instant the invitation sounded really tempting. But then I got quiet for a moment and thought: “You just joined The Mother Church, and said that you were free from alcohol and tobacco.” Then I thought, “Yes, I am!” and in Bible language, I thought, “Get thee hence, Satan!” (see Matthew 4:10 ).

I told my buddies: “Thank you, but I don’t do that anymore. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.” They said OK and left. In the 62 years since, I have never been tempted to drink or smoke again. Knowing that I am God’s image and likeness, already complete and fully satisfied, has been a great protection against false appetites.

It is difficult to put into words the impact this healing has had on my life. It’s so much more than the physical freedom. It is the unseen change of thinking and spiritual growth that took place and is still going on every day.

Richard Arlen
Petoskey, Michigan, US