Living with a simple trust

I've never known Remmy to be anything but calmly certain of God's goodness. My friendship with this wonderful Jamaican man goes back over 20 years, and I well remember the first time he helped us with our yard work.

It was a rainy day, and I was complaining about its dreariness. He looked at me and said in gentle rebuke, "Who woke you up this morning? God did! And it's God's day, and we will bless it." I was to find out that these were not just words of positive thinking from my deeply Christian friend. He lives this conviction, this simple trust in God's control every day, and there is no question that his faith permeates his experience.

For example, I've never seen him ill or known him to miss a day of work for anything except something he has planned. He never complains about anything. He's always whistling or singing while he works, and he expresses untiring gratitude for everything and everyone.

Now, well over the three score and ten mark, he works as vigorously and actively as he did 20 years ago. He attends church faithfully and loves to tell me about how his granddaughter loves going to these services with him.

He told me once that his church had been burned down and how the congregation had rallied and rebuilt an even better building. They refused to be discouraged or resentful, because they were "leaning on the Lord."

It's not that Remmy hasn't had hard things to face – a divorce, the unplanned pregnancy of his daughter, paying off a mortgage, making ends meet financially, and the indignity of being treated as a second-class citizen at times because of his race and lack of education. But through it all he turns to one singular source for strength and assurance – God.

When I think of Remmy, I think of these words from a hymn:

In simple trust like theirs who heard,

Beside the Syrian sea,

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow thee.

Christian Science Hymnal, No. 49

Remmy is teaching me to cherish this simple trust that the fishermen disciples of Christ Jesus expressed. They didn't struggle with an academic or intellectual approach to their faith. They responded with their hearts to the good news of God's allness and complete love and care for His children. They saw the healing work that Jesus did, and followed this proof of the law of God's goodness and supremacy.

Remmy and I share our bond of trust in God. I spend my days in the work of spiritual healing, and pray daily for those who call me for help. I have studied deeply and proved countless times the Science of God's healing laws as discovered by Mary Baker Eddy in Christian Science. Remmy and I like to talk about those laws and what I'm learning about God from my study and healing practice. But I still learn a lot just from watching his practice of Christianity.

His certainty of God's love and care is unquestioning. His faith may be simple, but it is so deeply and profoundly real to him that he doesn't struggle with extraneous arguments as to the certainty of goodness. He doesn't allow himself to ruminate or speculate upon anything negative, no matter how small an issue it may appear to be – not even a rainy day.

Putting this Science, or divine laws of healing, together with this spirit of primitive Christianity makes a powerful combination. I've concluded that a simple trust is not a naive trust, but one that stays so wholly rooted in spiritual evidence, in what Spirit, God, is telling us is real and true of the Principle or laws of universal harmony that negative and fearful thoughts don't even tempt us to doubt God's omnipotence.

A simple trust is becoming to me not just a helpful aid to spiritual healing but a vital way to live. Thanks to Remmy and many others who exemplify it so beautifully, I'm beginning to learn to live it too.