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Fighting the flu
Recently an e-mail advertisement from an office supply store began, “So many ways to fight the flu.” There were seven products displayed on their opening page, including facial tissues, disinfectants, and pain relievers. Just a few days earlier I’d had a conversation with a fellow Christian Scientist about how we can quickly respond to suggestions that come to us about sickness. We both agreed that we can always say, “No. No. No.” Not out of human will, but from the standpoint that God never made disease, whatever its name, type, or widespread influence. Whether or not society views disease as totally mental in nature, there is nothing to stop each one of us from seeing disease and mortal existence in terms of belief.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, clearly stated in her writings how Christ Jesus was able to put down both subtle and aggressive beliefs, and thereby heal those who came to him for help. Jesus was alert to the reality of God as divine Soul, which enabled him to challenge the material senses. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 395 ).
A friend called me to ask if I would pray for her, giving her Christian Science treatment. She said she was suffering from a migraine headache. We talked and she came to realize it was the result of her belief that changes of weather and temperature could trigger pain. She also realized that this belief would not have been corrected by taking a pain reliever or sleeping pill. The need was to view the problem as belief and then follow the Master’s example to “speak to disease as one having authority over it.”
This prayerful, metaphysical approach led her to the realization that God, as Soul, was in charge of her health, her consciousness, and her capacity to put down the false belief that seemed to cause the pain and suffering. She was quickly healed and totally back to normal the following day.
The need was to view the problem as belief.
We are all thinking about something either negative or positive about ourselves. We are either accepting, perhaps even inviting, false beliefs of sickness, pain, and suffering, or we are taking the high ground with a sense of divine authority to correct those beliefs with a better understanding of God’s law of health, harmony, and freedom for each one of us.
“Having authority” over disease is not simply one belief overcoming another belief. It is the result of understanding, to some degree, the superiority of divine reality—God as Soul and Life, which enables us to replace those false beliefs with a divine sense of health and harmony.
And we don’t have to run to the store to buy physical remedies and hope they work. We can turn to the divine reality of spiritual being right here and now—saying to the flu or any other belief in sickness, “No. No. No.” And yes to our God-given health and harmony.
About the author
Robert R. MacKusick is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Southport, Maine. He teaches and holds Association meetings in Cleveland, Ohio.