Article April 25, 2016 Issue

Don’t fix it—nix it! And replace it!

Hal H. Hoerner

I’ve been a student of Christian Science my whole life. So I’ve had a fair amount of practice in affirming and proving that I am spiritual and subject only to the law of God, good. Yet, every day I am presented with problems that appear to need fixing. It’s easy and tempting to begin to think that such problems are real and substantial, and that I can only hope that God will help me fix them! However, I’ve found that the only way to deal with problems effectively is to nix them—to continually and consistently deny that these challenges are from a loving God’s creating. At the same time, what should follow this denial is the affirmation that God, Spirit, is not just a superior power over evil, but that God is the only power and that evil indeed has no power. 

This approach is not making light of problems or ignoring them, but bringing healing to the situation in the most beautiful way. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states: “You must feel and know that God alone governs man; that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure to behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothing evil or material; that material laws are only human beliefs, which govern mortals wrongfully” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 10).

I do a lot of home-improvement projects and know quite a bit about painting. One time I was painting a door in our backyard on sawhorses. After putting on the final coat, I noticed a stain bleeding through one spot on the door. (When not properly sealed, stains can bleed through the paint.) An additional coat failed to fix the problem, nor did several additional coats. Finally, a gentle breeze blew and the stain moved. Suddenly I realized that the problem was really a shadow from a single leaf on a low branch of a huge oak tree above my project. The stain only appeared to be real and in need of fixing, but when I saw that it was an illusion, it was nixed from my thought. I knew there wasn’t a stain.

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