Healthy in all seasons

Living in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains, in the “valley” as it is referred to, I’ve noticed how many people believe that allergies are particularly common in this part of the United States and accept that they must suffer from them. The fear of the onset of these uncomfortable symptoms at certain times of the year—spring and fall primarily—seems prevalent. Weather reports advise residents to limit their outdoor activities.

Yet there is a way to not only eliminate fear of these maladies, but also prevent them from occurring. We don’t have to limit our activities based on the season. Truly, no one has to live with the tormenting worry, “Will I be the next to get sick?” 

Christ Jesus admonished his disciples, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37). Through the study and application of Christian Science, one may learn what it means to “watch”: to watch one’s thinking, which includes not accepting into thought the belief that sickness and suffering are inevitable and must be endured. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, explains: “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them” (p. 392).

No one has to live with the tormenting worry, “Will I be the next to get sick?” 

Christian Science, in accord with the inspired Word of the Bible, teaches that God is the only creator of the universe, including man, and that this creation is spiritual and wholly good. As the Bible declares, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). A spiritual understanding of the Bible gives us a clearer perception of God’s nature, which enables us to truly “stand porter” in our thinking. The true understanding of God and His creation lifts our thought above the false belief that we are at the mercy of matter (for example, that trees and flowers can incapacitate us) and into the consciousness of Spirit. 

In reality, all is spiritual, and all cause and effect belong to God, Spirit. Christ Jesus knew God as the source or originator of all living things, the all-loving creator of the universe, including man. In healing the sick, stilling the tempest, feeding the multitudes, and raising the dead, our Master demonstrated the fact that cause and effect are spiritual, so no material condition can have any effect.

Anyone can gain a demonstrable understanding of God as the only cause and creator and successfully apply this knowledge to any human need—and in this way prove that the real man is subject only to God’s beneficent laws. Christian Science brings to light man’s true relation to God—namely, that man is the expression of God. Man, male and female, is a spiritual idea, not a material organism. Our true selfhood has never been material; it is forever spiritual. And because it is spiritual, it is complete, harmonious, and whole. 

Anyone can gain a demonstrable understanding of God as the only cause and creator.

Because we are wholly spiritual, we include all (and only) those qualities God, Spirit, imparts­—such as peace, joy, health, dominion—and suffering of any kind has no power over this true identity of ours. When we understand that disease is a mortal belief, not an actual God-created condition, we can mentally and prayerfully replace any form of disease with the truth of man’s inseparability from God—of man’s uninterrupted well-being as God’s image and likeness.

Last fall I was out raking leaves when I started experiencing symptoms that several neighbors of mine had been describing. I realized this needed to be healed through Christian Science. At once, a wonderfully reassuring statement from the Bible came to thought: “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:24). This verse defines the truth of God as the only power and presence. After I spent a couple of hours praying with this truth, the “offending errors” disappeared. I was completely free and went back to my yardwork.

The healing and prevention of disease through prayer proves there is a power that surpasses human aid. This supreme power and intelligence is God. Sickness is proved untrue by the change in thought that takes place through prayer and reliance on God’s truth. The divine law of Truth operating in human consciousness is what invariably results in healing.

The physical senses and human reasoning may insist that this is nonsense, but through spiritual sense and purification of thought and action, anyone can prove for himself that evidence of illness and suffering—no matter how real it seems—is never more than a temporal illusion. God’s healing power is ever present and always available to be proved in every season of the year.