What's really 'going around'?
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
My first physical healing in Christian Science occurred while I was still a student in the Christian Science Sunday School, and it related to defending myself prayerfully against illness.
At the beginning of one Christmas season I had been hired to work as extra help in a major department store. The work was prefaced by a day of training to learn the company’s procedures. I was thrilled to have this opportunity and was full of joy! However, shortly after I arrived for the training, I began to feel ill with flu symptoms. I had a childlike trust that the Father-Mother God I was being taught of in Sunday School was present with me as well as with the other employees. So I tried to keep my thoughts still and pray.
I was seeing some proof that the spiritual truths I’d been taught could actually be demonstrated.
The day seemed long, but I was able to remain quietly away from the others without causing concerns about exposure. I was also able to accomplish all that was required of me. After the training session, I waited in the car for a family friend who was to take me on a tour of the beautiful seasonal outdoor decorations and lights in that city. As I waited, my thoughts became filled with some of the ideas taught in my Sunday School class. In our discussions, we’d talked about how not only did God create each of us, but that He also cares for us and meets our every need. As I felt the closeness and assurance of God’s loving presence, the sense of suffering was replaced by peace. When my friend arrived at the car, I said nothing of the experience, but was aware that I was completely free of the symptoms of illness. We went forward with the trip and enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the city
This was a confidence-building experience. I was seeing some proof that the spiritual truths I’d been taught could actually be demonstrated. It was a touchstone of courage and hope as I faced future situations that required deeper understanding and persistence. It also taught me much about how to address and defeat contagion through prayer.
Since that pivotal healing, I’ve learned that although each new year may mentally “expose” mankind to claims of new plagues and epidemics, how reassuring it is that we are not without help!
We can protect ourselves and those around us by daily expressing Godlike qualities.
Christian Science offers demonstrable spiritual counter-facts to the specific claims of contagion. Collective belief in disease can be replaced by spiritual understanding. For example, “inoculation” is a term often used to describe treatment that is intended to produce immunity to a specific disease. I like to think of an “inoculation” as something we can do to in prayer to guard our thoughts.
This line from Science and Health speaks to me, “If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it,--no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent?” (p. 130). I realize more each day that it is possible to purify our mental atmosphere of fear and doubt, and refuse to consent to the general or specific material theories about disease presented to us. The allness of God, good, is a strong defense against the exposure to the belief of evil or discord of any kind. As we look to spiritual causation, we can begin to realize that we “catch” only qualities of good from our environment and from our fellow man. Our associations will naturally become purer, wiser, and sweeter, and we will be less susceptible to thoughts of disease that may attempt to take hold in our lives.
I am so grateful to realize more and more that we can protect ourselves and those around us by daily expressing Godlike qualities such as tenderness, forgiveness, and purity. These qualities naturally lead to health, harmony, and peace.