I was losing consciousness; darkness was closing in fast. I had just fallen hard backstage in a theater. At that moment, the overriding temptation was to accept the darkness, just go with it, let it happen. It seemed too hard to resist the pull. But a startling thought suddenly roused me: I can’t let this happen. Everyone knows I’m a Christian Scientist. I can’t let them think God isn’t here, governing me at this very moment.

Instantly, everything shifted. I was fully conscious, able to get up and continue with the rehearsal. I was unharmed, with no vestige of any reaction—no shock or pain, nothing. 

This incident happened early in my practice of Christian Science, and it taught me a valuable lesson. I learned that each of us has God-given dominion—meaning we have divine authority to challenge and rise above negative “inevitabilities.” In any situation, we have the capacity to side with and experience the power of God, good.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science and author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, put it this way: “Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take” (p. 392). But how do we “decide” in the right direction?

It’s helpful to remember that making the decision to side with God—to embrace health and wholeness—is not the action of human will. Rather, it’s the exercise of a divine right. It is the expression of our God-given ability to consciously consent to the reality and power of good, no matter what else might appear to be going on.

And this power isn’t actually in competition with some other power. The Bible assures us that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Revelation 19:6). To me, this means that God, the wholly good creator of the spiritual—and only—universe, rules. Period. At the very moment we become conscious of a mishap, or the approaching symptoms of disease, or a temptation to sin, God is present to guide and help us. Our job is to relinquish any sense of evil’s reality that might be pulling on us and instead acknowledge God’s presence as the real, the true, and the only. As we choose God, we find ourselves in rapport with spiritual reality. And then, rather than being sucked into accepting a picture of our situation as being fundamentally flawed or some temptation as being irresistibly attractive, we become free to express and experience God’s supreme wonderfulness—always active and operating. 

There is a big difference between choosing to fall asleep and letting ourselves be taken over by the desire to opt out.

Not too long ago, I found myself regularly falling asleep at the drop of a hat. I drifted along with this temptation, allowing it to take over whenever there was a lull in my day. For a while, I didn’t think much about it. I was rather enjoying a few moments of catnapping here and there. However, this tendency became more and more frequent, and I realized I needed to do something about it because it was taking over. I chose to pray. 

As I prayed, I recognized that consenting to the stupefying temptations of drowsiness really meant that I was giving up my dominion, my God-derived ability to govern my own experience. Allowing myself to drift into unconsciousness was, in effect, shutting me off from my conscious awareness of the divine Mind, God. 

Oops! That was certainly neither productive nor helpful. Now, I have nothing against sleep, but there is a big difference between choosing to fall asleep and letting ourselves be taken over by the desire to opt out. Opt out of Mind’s intelligent, vigorous presence? Not a good idea. 

Since I “woke up” to this subtle temptation to fall asleep at random times, I have refused to allow it to take over. Sometimes a nap is helpful, but it’s on my terms. In other words, it’s a conscious choice. When challenged with sleepiness, I resist it, claiming my dominion, insisting on it. As a result, not only has the temptation receded, but I’ve experienced total control over it.

Resisting the urge to fall asleep is a relatively small problem in the grand scheme of things. The same goes for my moment backstage years ago. But in thinking about this pull toward relinquishing our conscious control, a much bigger picture emerged. 

The book of Genesis in the Bible tells us that we are given dominion “over every creeping thing” (1:26). What are some of these “creeping thing[s]” that would sneak up on us and take away our good—lulling us into accepting a power apart from God? Ever heard that as we get older, we can expect to lose our memory? Or that when our children leave home, we’re going to feel the “empty nest” syndrome? Or, better be careful, every winter the flu season is going to hit?

There are many iterations of these general, widely held assumptions about life, health, and happiness. And if we aren’t alert, they would impose their conditions on our lives. Some may be pretty subtle—“inevitabilities” that we might not even think to challenge. Or perhaps they come as character flaws that we’ve figured we just have to live with. But if we want to experience the health and harmony that really are right here to be enjoyed, we need to be willing to enter a mental protest against anything that would lull us into thinking that God isn’t present at any given moment. 

As we begin to do this, we ward off—and are able to resist—the pull of “every creeping thing,” or animal magnetism, which is another term for evil and its so-called ability to operate. This is something we can do daily in our prayer by recognizing the allness of God and the consequent nothingness of anything opposed to God—even the little things. This would include proving our right to be free from disease, sin, and all other generally held negative opinions and beliefs. 

When we choose to resist the pull to just go along with ______ (fill in the blank), it can mean, among other things, putting our efforts on the side of maintaining our conscious oneness with Mind. It means resisting all enticements toward unconsciousness, negativity, and darkness. It means claiming our right as children of God to exult in the vigor, energy, and freshness of divine Life, the clarity of Mind, experienced up close and personal. And that’s well worth the effort.