“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day” (Israel Shenker, “E. B. White: Notes and Comments by Author,” New York Times, July 11, 1969).

These words by American writer E. B. White wryly sum up a challenge we can face when finding, or reawakening to, a spiritual practice that heals and transforms. On the one hand, we have the resources to play a part in bringing constructive change to the world, and we recognize that doing so demands devotion of thought and selfless action. On the other hand, there’s a great deal of sporting, cultural, and social activity clamoring for our attention, as well as more sensual pleasures tempting us. 

So what’s the balance between prayer and pleasure, spiritual growth and satisfying human relationships, serving God and simply enjoying life?

When I was new to exploring this power of Spirit, God, to heal, I found that question being answered in two ways. At those times when I prioritized understanding and expressing God’s love, I found satisfying human activities and interactions flowing into my experience in unexpected and deeply meaningful ways. When I prioritized pleasure-seeking for its own sake, the results were much more of a mixed bag and generally far less fulfilling and happy, especially when the focus was self-gratification. 

As I persevered in studying Christian Science, I better understood that our more self-serving tendencies stem from a mental outlook that persuasively seems to be our nature but truly isn’t. Christian Science exposes this view of our nature as a material misperception of ourselves and our desires, and we discern this to be so as we come to understand that our true nature is something altogether more wonderful. We are each the spiritual expression of God, and our true mentality is that mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Jesus’ life, words, and works showed that this Christly mind—the divine Mind, God—is full of inspiring ideas that uplift and heal us and others as we open our hearts to them. This includes insights that bring our motives and actions into line with our true nature step by step—nudging us to identify and relinquish preferences and behavior that draw us toward a perception of existence as material. It’s a pathway in which we increasingly repudiate matter and acknowledge Spirit. But it’s not devoid of pleasure, as can be seen in the life of Jesus. Despite being the most God-aware individual that has ever lived, “Jesus was no ascetic,” according to Mary Baker Eddy’s primary text on Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 53). He wasn’t “characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence” (Oxford English Dictionary).

When I prioritized understanding and expressing God’s love, I found satisfying human activities and interactions flowing into my experience.

Mrs. Eddy herself found that her discovery of Christian Science led her to a heightened sense of the good all around. In her Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, she said, “Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve” (p. 86). She exemplified devotion of thought and selfless action in discovering Christian Science and leading the Christian Science movement, yet in the same book she wrote, “. . . pleasure is no crime except when it strengthens the influence of bad inclinations or lessens the activities of virtue” (p. 362). This offers a way for us to assess our choices. Do they take us deeper into self-serving habits that harden our heart toward others, or do they lead us to love God wholeheartedly and the diversity of our neighbors with consistency? 

Beyond getting this balance right lies an even deeper joy we can increasingly perceive and prove. Miscellaneous Writings describes Mind, God, as “holding man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good” (pp. 82–83).

Our lives may seem a far cry from this ideal, and our commitment to spiritual growth might meet fierce resistance from worldly thought set on a material explanation of life and mind. But unfolding bliss and inexhaustible good are more than a pipe dream. They always belong to us as divinity’s spiritual offspring, because as God’s children we each reflect all the good that God has. And as we listen for God’s guidance, we will “hear a word behind [us], saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’ ” (Isaiah 30:21, Revised Standard Version). This is Christ, the healing idea of God that Jesus exemplified, and it leads us out of the maze of material pleasures and pains—which are inherently finite and disappointing and must inevitably perish—and into the imperishable goodness that is our true identity. 

This spiritual identity is forever fully satisfied by God’s goodness, and to the extent we understand and accept that this is our own and everyone’s identity, we find that this spiritual perception of our neighbors impels us to want to bring healing to others, and empowers us to do so. It also opens our hearts to caring for, and praying about, the needs of all humanity. As our focus increasingly shifts away from the lure of material pleasure in this way, we find we have a cause to work for that’s greater than just the cares of our own life; and yet sincerely working for this cause turns out to be far more enriching and engaging than anything the world has to offer. 

If we seem to be resistant to Christly nudges in this truly satisfying direction, we can still prayerfully stand for this truth of what we are, until doing so spiritualizes our thought and transforms our experience. We can persist in affirming and accepting our complete and satisfied spiritual identity despite the clamor of whatever material cravings we might struggle with. Then we uncover our God-given authority over a matter-sense that is either dissatisfied or misguidedly satisfied with material allurements and gain the unselfed satisfaction that we truly want, as described in this promise in Science and Health: “Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul” (p. 390).

Tony Lobl
Associate Editor