Article May 16, 2016 Issue

Who told you that, Zambia?

Lawrence Musheba Kuseka

During my early days of studying Christian Science, I resisted referring to myself as a Christian Scientist because the word Scientist kept ringing bells. I thought practicing Christian Science had to do with academic prowess. Nevertheless, I awoke to the fact that it is not about academic ability but has everything to do with the understanding gained from consecrated communion with the one God, Mind, the inexhaustible source of all true intelligence. Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light” (p. 505).

I am the only Christian Scientist in my family, and am a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Lusaka, Zambia. The rest of my family, though they belong to a well-known religious denomination in our country, respect my Christian Science studies and respond positively whenever I invite them to Christian Science lectures, for they see the fruits of my labor. I am no longer the troublesome drunkard and unruly boy I once was.

In our townships, some people engage in alcohol consumption, smoking, prostitution, dishonesty, unruliness, and so on. They believe that these township trends and norms are what make it possible to enjoy life to the fullest, since life is short. I no longer fall prey to these claims of animal magnetism, having awakened to the truth that Life is eternal because God is Life, and Life has no beginning or ending.

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