Waking-up moments
When I was a kid, something prompted me one day to get the vacuum cleaner out and vacuum the upstairs of our house. My dad was ecstatic and thanked me profusely. I have to admit that my cleaning house without being asked was highly unusual since, for the most part, I didn’t help with chores without a great deal of cajoling on the part of my parents.
I’ve been thinking about that incident, because I believe there was something significant about it. What was prompting me to do the right thing? My parents had nearly given up asking for my help. There was no material reward being offered for me to do it. But somehow I woke up sufficiently to recognize a need, and I was energized enough to respond to it. What woke me up? I believe it was the Christ waking me to the eternal consciousness of good, which is forever active. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy defines the Christ this way: “The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error” (p. 583 ).
Looking back, I see similar “waking up” moments throughout my life—moments of kind, positive action, or realization, that gave me a hint of a better way to be. These moments brought me to Christian Science in the first place. And they also laid the basis for my taking Primary class instruction.
The prayers of Christian Scientists have certainly contributed over the years to awakening themselves and the world from the deep sleep of mortality—what Mrs. Eddy called “the Adam-dream” (Science and Health, p. 306 ). I believe that deep in my thought a kind a prayer was going on: an earnest desire for a better life and a better explanation of the meaning and purpose of divine Life. Might it be that I was responding to the heartfelt prayers of others for the world’s spiritual awakening?
When I began seriously to consider the step of class instruction, I had a great concern to receive pure teaching without a lot of personality or opinion inserted. That was the gold standard I was looking for—that was my prayer. One day I heard a speaker at a regional meeting of Christian Scientists. I knew he was a Christian Science teacher, and I found myself thinking, “I’d like to talk to him about class instruction.” But I was feeling shy, so my next thought was, “I’ll speak with him if we happen to be at the same table for lunch.” Talk about Gideon laying down a fleece (see Judges 6:36–40 )! I don’t think I could have asked for a more unlikely thing than for this man to end up at my table at such a big gathering. But that is exactly what happened. No sooner had I sat down at a table, then a group of people including this teacher came along and sat down with me.
What to do now? My ridiculous, impossible criterion had been met. I sat and listened to the conversation at the table, finished my meal in silence—and consternation—and got up to leave. But something made me stop next to this kindly gentleman and say, “Someday I’d like to talk with you about Christian Science class instruction.” With a wonderful smile and a sparkle in his eye, he turned and gave me his full attention. “There is no time like the present,” he replied. So I sat down and we spoke briefly.
When I finally applied for class, I felt completely clear that this was the right step for me and that I had found my “right” teacher. When I received a letter accepting me into that year’s class, I was a little taken aback to read that this teacher had prayed about it and felt it was right to accept me! It had never occurred to me that when I made the decision it was not a foregone conclusion. This taught me that class teaching is very much a two-way street—it has to be right for the student and the teacher.
Mrs. Eddy said this about Primary class instruction: “That teacher does most for his students who most divests himself of pride and self, spiritualizes his own thought, and by reason thereof is able to empty his students’ minds, that they may be filled with Truth” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 92–93 ). This activity—emptying thought of error and filling it with Truth—enables the student to be formed anew, to go forth with higher aims and a holier purpose. For me this hasn’t happened in an instant. Many trials have since come up; many false character traits have been or are being defeated. But in each stage of progress, I have become more awake to good, willing to pray, diligent in following God’s guidance, practical, and consistently happy.
I believe I was hearing a call to a better way of life, to class instruction, long before I knew what it was. It is no exaggeration to say it has been the single most important event of my life.