Our greatest opportunity

I’ve had some wonderful opportunities in my life, such as being able to go to college and to do some world travel. But since learning about Christian Science, I’ve begun to pursue an opportunity that I find far eclipses any other: the opportunity to gain a more spiritual view of life.

In the late 1800s, a devout Christian by the name of Mary Baker Eddy discovered a scientific approach to Christianity that enables its followers to prove the presence, power, and goodness of God through healing of disease, sins, and other troubles. She named it Christian Science, and it’s based on what Jesus taught and demonstrated 2,000 years ago.

And while it’s a wonderful thing to be cured of a disease, Christian Science offers something even bigger, too – an opportunity that’s embedded in the healing process.

Years ago I had a number of warts on my hands. They sure bothered me, and while there were means for having them removed medically, I was interested in taking this Christian healing approach. My previous experience had shown me that when a problem is healed through prayer in Christian Science, the problem doesn’t return. Also, I find that such prayer leads to a deeper understanding of our nature as it relates to God, and consequently experiencing more of the good that this includes.

Whether we have a problem at the moment or not, there is a subject here that’s worth exploring. Throughout the Bible, and especially in Jesus’ teachings, there’s a message of God and His creation being of a spiritual and not material nature. The book of John explains that “God is a Spirit” (4:24) and “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (1:4). So the essential, eternal identity of everything is spiritual and perfect like God, and all creation expresses qualities such as intelligence, purpose, and health.

This is more than an intellectual consideration. It points us to an escape from the imperfections, troubles, calamities of matter. We have the innate capacity to know and express in our lives the good news of our flawless, eternal nature as children of God.

That’s what I experienced with those warts, which all disappeared over a period of a few days as a result of a beautiful breakthrough in prayer. I gained more of an awareness of my life in God, and the warts never returned. (You can read more about this healing in my testimony “Prayer took me somewhere I’d never been before” in the Christian Science Sentinel.)

Making a commitment to spiritual growth brings great security, healing, and full opportunity. In her writings, Mrs. Eddy explains the way, and much of it is very pleasant in terms of looking within divine consciousness to know the Love and Spirit that are God and the basis of life.

Sometimes it can seem tougher or more radical. For instance, in Mrs. Eddy’s book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” she urges, “Deny the existence of matter, and you can destroy the belief in material conditions” (p. 368). Denying and doing what denies matter as the substance of our true nature can seem pretty revolutionary. But limits, conditions, processes of matter are not part of what the divine Spirit has put in place. Committing to denying matter or the material view of existence leads the way to healing and freedom even beyond the problem at hand. This is the opportunity to be found in a purely spiritual approach to a problem, which brings about the fullest good for all involved.

Our world today is suffering in a number of ways. And maybe to help us stay motivated to be of help to others, we can see the situation as being a need and even an opportunity to see past material conditions in our lives and discover the spiritual reality. This glorifies our divine creator and opens the door to so much good.