Suppression or spiritual transformation?
Since God is my cause, all that I am—and all that is mine, including my feelings—must be of God, good.
In talking with individuals who are familiar with Christian Science, and even those actively practicing it, I sometimes come across the concern that Christian Science asks its adherents to deny their feelings or just bottle things up.
This seems to be a common misconception, and when I pray about how to respond, I am often led to offer that the study and practice of Christian Science has never taught me to suppress anything at all that is truly mine. Instead, Christian Science has shown me how to distinguish between what is really mine and what is not really mine—what feelings, sensations, hopes, and thoughts really belong to me as God’s creation and what do not. This is an important distinction to understand in Christian Science because we can’t suppress or repress a feeling that is not ours in the first place.
Here’s an example of what I mean. A while ago, I became absolutely infuriated during a conversation with a friend. I was so frustrated that I had to leave the scene! I paced for about an hour, repeating to myself everything that was annoying me and why I was so angry. I asked God what to do, but when I heard the consistent response, “Stop justifying how angry you are,” I replied, “Yeah, right!” It seemed to me that any normal person would be this angry! But after an hour of all this mental back and forth, I got tired of it.
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