At one point when I was in college, I realized how serious my dependence on caffeine had become. One Sunday afternoon, when weekend demand had emptied the soda machine in my dormitory, I felt I needed a soda, but the only building on campus open on Sunday that would have a full soda machine was some distance away. And I would have to bundle up and trek through the snow to get there. I didn’t want to take the time from studying or go out into the cold, yet I felt I needed the drink. So I went. That was when I realized that I was actually dependent on caffeine. However, realization of the need to change was not enough to make a change. 

Several months earlier, my college roommate had warned me against drinking caffeine. Her serious tone had surprised me, because at that time I didn’t realize the importance of avoiding drinks considered habit-forming, or even addictive. I wasn’t ready to change my choices then. I wasn’t intentionally using caffeine as a stimulant, although it was in the popular sodas that I drank in large quantities. 

Months after that cold Sunday, I finished reading the weekly Bible Lesson (found in the Christian Science Quarterly) at a Christian Science Reading Room and picked up one of the Christian Science magazines. An article I read prompted me to consider that what we do out of mere habit is materialism. I thought about that for several minutes. It was the message I needed. I didn’t want to perpetuate a bad habit or accept anything that wasn’t part of my true selfhood. And I didn’t want to have anything to do with materialism, because I knew from studying Christian Science that reality is spiritual, not material. All real being (including the true identity of each of us), is spiritual, created and maintained by God. The genuine desire to understand our true spiritual nature lifts us out of what appears as materiality.