What Do You Choose?

Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life

In a world of many different faiths, people may wonder how Christianity became popular. Considering the population of the whole world, it may be fair to say that Christianity hasn't exactly taken hold just yet; Christians are far outnumbered.

I often think about Jesus' life example. There were only three years in which he healed those who sought him out. I've thought about his sermons, which constantly point to God, showing Him to be entirely good, the source of all that is true. It wasn't long after Jesus was crucified that his disciples went back to their former occupation of fishing. I often wonder if they had forgotten completely what they had seen, felt, and learned when Jesus was with them-didn't his example mean anything to them? Did they think it was all over because Jesus wasn't there anymore?

We don't really know what the disciples thought, but we do know that was not the end of the story. Through Jesus' resurrection and ascension, his disciples once again left their fishing to follow him. And that time they left it permanently. That time it didn't matter if Jesus was physically with them or not. They followed his example, did the same good works, healed spiritually, and taught the same ideas. They confirmed Jesus' saying "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:12).

What about us today? Can we, like the disciples, do the same works (healing included), show the same love, and follow Jesus' example? Christian Science says yes. But some people pose a deeper question: "Why should I follow Jesus' words and works? What's found in them that isn't found someplace else?"

Perhaps I could try answering that question with an analogy. Suppose you are in a kitchen full of different chefs, all making lemon meringue pies. Each chef has his or her own way of selecting ingredients and cooking them. Each has made pie many times before. But one chef has done it successfully every time. Only one. Today, in this kitchen, each chef prepares a pie, but once again the same chef is the only one whose lemon meringue pie is perfect.

Which chef would you ask to train you? Wouldn't it be the one who always got it right? Not the one who just said he or she could do it, but the one who actually proved it to you by doing it? That's the one I'd choose.

In a more profound way, perhaps, that's why some people have chosen to live by the example of Jesus as it is explained in the teachings of the Science of Christianity-Christian Science. This Science has demonstrated to them that when the rules Jesus lived by are followed, the results are the same every time. Good results. Healing results.

According to the Bible, not a single healing performed by Jesus was unsuccessful. He proved the truth of his words. He said that you and I can do as he did by following the laws of God. These laws are all in the Bible. And they have been elucidated in another book that's based on the Bible. This book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, has healed thousands through teaching the truth of God. It was written by Mary Baker Eddy, who found in the Scriptures the same laws by which Jesus healed. She proved them and taught how to live them. Through Christian Science, I have learned how to do the same. I've been healed, and I've been able to help and heal other people.

The same laws that Jesus understood are with us today. The same teachings that he taught are being practiced today-with the same healing results.

Science and Health promises early on: "The divine Principle of healing is proved in the personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more potent than that of any other sanitary method" (p. x). We all are faced with the choice of what to accept as the truth. Based on the instruction of Jesus, Christian Science involves what's real, what's permanent, what's eternal.

I have set before you

life and death,

blessing and cursing:

therefore choose life,

that both thou

and thy seed may live.

Deuteronomy 30:19