Consent to health

Do we give our consent to the popular belief that health is a fragile and fickle condition of physique, easily overpowered by disease? The Psalmist had a higher view of our well-being as sustained by God. He prayed, ''Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: . . . who healeth all thy diseases; . . . who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.'' n1

n1 Psalms 103:2-4.

Health is actually an unvarying quality of God, of immutable, immortal Mind. Health is invulnerable peace, imperturbable harmony. God's ever-presence and invincible power maintain perfect health.

Giving even passive consent to the definition of health as a spiritual quality of God, expressed in man, presents the possibility of spiritual healing. But giving the active consent that attains healing requires us to change our attitudes and habits to conform with the all-harmonious thoughts of divine Mind. In proportion as we harmonize with heaven in this way, our true, Godlike, spiritual nature will come to light as our only and eternally whole identity.

Christ Jesus challenged a man with a longstanding infirmity to consent to be healed. The Master asked, ''Wilt thou be made whole?'' As the man carried out his consent to the Christly command, ''Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,'' he was healed. n2

n2 John 5:6, 8.

Choice by choice, we too can understandingly consent to health. We can demonstratem that consent by consistently yielding, through Christian practice, to God's control over all. Such consent to health renders null and void theories that support the supposed necessity of sickness. Some may insist that disease operates according to certain fixed physical laws, such as the law of contagion. However, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, observes, ''Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching.'' n3

n3Miscellaneous Writings,m p. 228.

We need not consent to idolize health laws. We can give our consent to worship God, to manifest invariable health in accord with His laws. Because disease is mentally induced, it can be mentally averted and spiritually healed. When we live up to the understanding presented in Scripture, that God is good and all-powerful, we won't consent to be sick for any reason.

A relative came to visit in my home while she was suffering from a heavy cold. It was all she could do to rasp out the details of a terrible injustice done to her by her daughter. Her mental and physical misery touched me. I commiserated - until the commiseration became common misery.

For several hours cold symptoms invaded my body as relentlessly as sympathy for her plight had invaded my thought. Then all at once I saw the needless suffering all this agreement with evil was inflicting on us both. I recognized that my suffering was self-inflicted by reason of my failure to avail myself of the healthfulness of harmonious thinking.

Through Christian Science treatment, deep and heartfelt prayer, I began to withdraw the consent I had so unwittingly given to the apparent onslaught of sin and sickness. I gratefully acknowledged the invisible but ever-present power of God and His attributes, including justice and health.

My healing came the moment I exchanged both the sickness of injustice and the injustice of sickness for the healing power of divine grace. Soon my relative began to recall some extenuating circumstances in her daughter's case. As she gradually relented, her voice became clearer and stronger. The remainder of her visit was harmonious and healthy for us both.

Healthy thoughts do possess divine power to manifest and multiply, while sickly thoughts have only the duration and destiny people give them. When the only response the thought-germs of dis-ease evoke from us is utter rejection, we will be ready to give undivided consent to the effulgence of health.

Each of us can assume an active role in spreading health rather than consenting to discord. Humanity responds irresistibly to the true contagion of steadfast witnessing for health. Unconditional perfection is the health law of God. DAILY BIBLE VERSE I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalms 43:5