How I Found Christian Science October 30, 2017 Issue

A Christian Science lecture set me on a new path

Gail Jokerst

In the early 1970s I was living in London and trying to fill a sense of emptiness with food, but the problem had nothing to do with physical hunger. Back then, I didn’t recognize the hunger for what it was—a spiritual yearning to feel God’s control and presence in my life.

At one dark point during this time, I wandered into a Christian Science Reading Room to ask to use their telephone. Although I had no idea what Christian Science was, or the purpose of a Reading Room, I had felt drawn to this shopfront and was grateful the attendant let me make my phone call. Despite the passage of decades, I still remember his kindness in helping a stranger who showed no interest in what a Reading Room really had to offer beyond its telephone.

A few months later after returning to the United States, I encountered the words Christian Science again in an unexpected way. I had been attending a meeting of Overeaters Anonymous, where participants were encouraged to see that a Higher Power was in charge of their days, instead of relying on human willpower. A search began that led me to visit a variety of religious services in the Boston area. However, none felt like my spiritual home.

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