Healing inspiration from ‘The Way’

I would like to express gratitude for all the ways in which Mary Baker Eddy’s timeless writings counsel us continually. Many times throughout my life I have been amazed at how her exact words seemed written just for me—and have brought about healings of hardness in my thought—because they revealed to me exactly what needed to be uncovered. I’ll share one such experience that was a turning point for me a couple of years ago.

I became aware of a situation that I thought was not right. I was quite unsettled about the whole thing and could not find peace. I was feeling self-righteous and upset that my ideas were not being taken into consideration as part of a solution. In the midst of my agonizing over this situation, one afternoon an angel message came to me clearly: Read “The Way.” I had studied this article by Mary Baker Eddy in her Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896 (see pp. 355–359) many times in recent years, and it had prompted considerable growth and healing. 

As I opened the book to this article, I knew I would find the explanation of three stages of spiritual growth—the first being self-knowledge. One point on that subject reads, “To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea.” I read this sentence and felt in my thought a gentle nudging that this was what I was doing—striking out against the mist. Mrs. Eddy refers to mist a number of times in her writings to illustrate false beliefs that appear to hide something real, similar to clouds in front of the sun or a mountain (see, for example, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 299). 

I recognized that Love, another name for God, was showing me the way to clear the fog: I needed to lift my thought above the seeming problem instead of staying in the mist and ruminating over what I thought was a terrible injustice. But I was still not quite ready to take responsibility and see how I was contributing to the inharmony of the situation, until I read further in the article and found these words: “Learn what in thine own mentality is unlike ‘the anointed,’ and cast it out; …” That was a big wake-up call! At that moment, I became aware of a sense of self-justification in my own thought: “I haven’t done anything wrong here; I’m just trying to help!” I knew I had more work to do, so I continued reading.

The second stage of growth described in the article is humility. This point stood out: “Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; …” This idea stopped me in my tracks as I thought about how a prism works. I have always loved the little rainbows prisms produce when the sun shines through them. The light entering a prism on one side appears to be white. However, as the light passes through the prism, a spectrum of colors is revealed on the other side. In that moment, another angel message to my thought was loud and clear: You don’t see the full spectrum; you don’t have all the information. 

Stunned by this message, I stopped reading and tried to quiet my fear and resistance. All along, I had been so sure that I knew all the pieces of the situation. Now, I felt that divine Mind was communicating directly with me through this idea about humility. I still partially clung to a sense of self-righteousness, but I could also feel myself beginning to let go of that hardness.

The article continues, “The third stage of mental growth is manifested in love, the greatest of all stages and states of being; love that is irrespective of self, rank, or following.” When I reached this part of the article, the words “love that is irrespective of self, rank, or following” practically jumped off the page. I admitted to myself that I had been feeling as though my ideas weren’t being considered or heard because I didn’t have a high-enough rank or position. I knew that this was another important discovery regarding what needed to be healed in my thought.

After spending about an hour studying this article and just listening for Mind’s direction, I was able to sleep peacefully that night. I must admit that I couldn’t yet see how all the pieces fit together, but I knew that opening up to self-knowledge, humility, and love was helping me let go of a sense of self-justification and replacing it with an ever-increasing sense of peace. And I was aware that yielding to the allness and goodness of God would enable me to express more of these qualities that were native to me as God’s child. For the next few days, whenever I was tempted to replay the problem in my thought, I quietly turned back to this sense of peace and to letting the healing ideas presented to me in “The Way” come into clearer focus.

Not many days later, I was brought into a conversation that updated me about a decision that had been made. With one simple piece of information, I suddenly saw the whole experience clearly and realized that there hadn’t been any injustice at all. I saw the full spectrum! Nothing about the human situation had changed, but for the first time, I understood that each of us had been uniquely cared for all along, and that Love was continuing to guide each footstep. I went back to “The Way” and pored over each sentence, rejoicing at how Love had prepared my thought to be receptive during that follow-up meeting.

This healing was a turning point, and has been a beacon for me through many different situations that have occurred since that time. Each time I’ve found I have something more to learn about those three stages: self-knowledge, humility, and love. I’m grateful that Mrs. Eddy’s words always provide fresh and inspiring counsel each time I turn to them with a sincere and earnest desire to grow.