Consenting to health
A Christian Science perspective.
When I was a child I had an intuitive sense that health was normal. I had a conviction that I didn’t have to agree with sickness and pain. I remember specific instances, for example, where I stayed free of contagious diseases I had been in contact with and stayed healthy amid adverse conditions. The few times I did become sick, I recovered rapidly and was able to keep myself free of pain. In my late teens I learned that there was more to this than “That’s just the way I am.”
I was drawn to the study of the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy, where I learned that “Health is a not a condition of matter, but of Mind” (p. 120) and “The necessity for uplifting the race is father to the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weakness, and health instead of disease” (p. 371). This Mind is not human, however; it is divine; it is God. For many decades now I have found this Mind quite capable of keeping me consistently healthy and free of pain, when I consent to the healthy ideas that are consistently emanating from perfect Mind.
It’s quite wonderful to learn that God, divine Mind, fills all space, so that we are always enveloped in His presence, and that He is always knocking at the door of human consciousness – everyone’s, including yours and mine – with His pure and perfect ideas. Such ideas show us that our true nature is already spiritual and harmonious. We only need to open the door of our thought to this health-giving divine influence to experience its preventive and curative power.
The voice of God that delivers the message of health is the Christ, the same Truth Jesus listened to, lived, and by which he healed the sick. The book of Revelation in the Bible depicts the eternal Christ as saying, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (3:20).
Listening for and recognizing God’s, Mind’s, messages requires diligence, because descriptions and predictions of disease and pain are constantly knocking at the door of our thought and insisting we give them entrance. Such descriptions and predictions have no real authority or power, though, because the divine Mind is supreme, creating and maintaining every single person as Mind’s own spiritual and perfect idea, reflecting the one Mind’s harmony and supreme authority. Understanding Mind’s absolute authority enables a person to follow this sound and practical advice: “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.” (Science and Health, p. 392).
No one has to permit thoughts of disease and pain to enter their thought. To “consent” means to give permission to. Everyone has the God-given authority to forbid entrance to such thoughts, or to correct and remove them through prayer. You can consent, instead, to divine Mind’s impartations of health. In doing so, you can experience Mind’s authority and power to lift you into health.