A couple of days ago, I had an interesting experience. I found myself in my basement that evening feeling just all-around fantastic! Energetic, loved, mentally calm, pleased with a good day's work. And I was so aware of this feeling, just knowing and feeling that I was God's perfect expression, as I've learned in Christian Science. (See Gen. 1:26. 27.)
So, one second, I'm standing up feeling perfect, then the next second, I sit down and feel horrible! It was sort of a stomach-head-sinus feeling of yuck. After the initial shock of this shift in how I felt, I began mentally to handle my thoughts about the symptoms.
First, I knew I needed to overcome the fear that I was being sentenced to suffer through some sort of cold, something that had a timeline it needed to fulfill. The calming thought that met this fear came quickly: even though the symptoms felt physical, I knew they were simply a mistaken thought. And this mistaken thought could be changed, replaced with the truth, in the blink of an eye--could be made to reflect what I knew was really going on with me as God's image and likeness.
Once I wasn't afraid anymore, it became obvious to me that the symptoms had no cause. Hadn't I just been feeling super a moment before? Wasn't I knowing my oneness with God? I reasoned that He never created the symptoms, or whatever condition they might be symptoms of. God is so good! The whole thing just made absolutely no sense to me.
So rather than resigning myself to suffer, I kept up this mental protest. Even though I still seemed to be feeling icky, I was never going to accept that there was a cause for it. I lay down on my couch thinking I was beginning to watch a TV show, but quickly fell asleep. When I woke not too long afterwards, I was completely symptom-free.
More than being grateful to feel well, I was grateful for the thoughts that came so quickly--right when I needed them--to counter the fearful and unwell thoughts. It reminds me of a story from the Bible. Jesus and his disciples encountered a man who was born blind. The disciples, still accepting the commonly held belief that diseases were the result of sin, asked Jesus whether A) the blind man had sinned, or if B) his parents had, to cause the blindness. Jesus chose C) None of the above! He said the only possible outcome of the situation was to show God's glory, and then he healed the man. I think it was the same for me. No one and no thing had caused me to feel ill; it was simply another opportunity to demonstrate God's goodness, and to know my freedom as his beloved child. Amen!
Healing the blind man
Suddenly well
Showing posts with label no cause. Show all posts
Showing posts with label no cause. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
No cause for colds
As a new student of Christian Science, one of the first false beliefs to fall away was that of contagion. I understood well enough that the source of discordant experiences is actually mental, so I also knew that physical contact with [fill-in-the-blank-unpleasant-condition] didn't make me susceptible to it--even if other people thought it would.
I saw this was true through living with family and roommates, and even through beginning to work as a teacher in a public school system. Each year, as colleagues talked about--and then developed--the "initial cold" you "had to" catch after being introduced to a new bunch of kids, I found myself well.
But, I didn't actually stop having colds. As it turned out, I continued to experience them periodically and without respect to human so-called laws about "cold seasons" and contagion. Going back to what I understood about the mental nature of all disease, I reasoned (albeit imperfectly) that if I was not feeling well, something must be going on mentally that was manifesting itself as a cold. It had to come from somewhere, right? So then began a period in my life where I'd take physical discomfort as a cue to dig around mentally for something that might need to be handled, that is, proven untrue and unreal in thought. Typically, I determined the so-called cause to be stress and handled it. The end. Until the next time.
Fortunately, as I've committed myself to understanding and practicing Christian Science, I've made friends with the same commitment. One of these friends and I were talking one day this past summer, and my method of dealing with colds came up. I mentioned that I only got them when I was "stressed." But my friend stopped me short. I don't remember his exact words, but the idea was, "Erin--first of all, you don't need to expect that a particular situation will always result in certain coordinating physical symptoms. Second, disease doesn't have a cause--God is the only Cause, and disease is no part of Him."
He was right! And now I knew he was right--it was time for deeply-ingrained old beliefs to fall away once again. By concluding (incorrectly) that these colds were the result of stress, I was making a major mistake! Part of it was that I was starting my reasoning about my situation with the cold instead of starting my reasoning with God, who is the only Cause, the only Principle, or Source. He is wholly good, and is Spirit--so reasoning from the basis of a bad, material situation was about as backwards as I could get! The other part of the mistake was that by starting with the cold, I was making it seem real, even though Christian Science works by seeing the unreality of disease. By way of analogy, my former line of reasoning was like believing ghosts were in my house and concentrating my efforts on scaring them away, when what I needed to do was understand that ghosts aren't real, and weren't there in the first place.
At any rate, since the time of that conversation I've checked, i.e, stopped in their tracks, any thoughts that came and suggested that there was cause for a cold, or other form of illness. I've been exposed to so-called contagion. I've experienced my fair share of stress. But I haven't experienced a cold. More than being grateful for experiencing health, I'm grateful to understand to a greater degree the nothingness of disease--and the allness of God's goodness.
God is good
God gives good
God is the only Cause
God is Spirit
Man is spiritual
There is no disease
I saw this was true through living with family and roommates, and even through beginning to work as a teacher in a public school system. Each year, as colleagues talked about--and then developed--the "initial cold" you "had to" catch after being introduced to a new bunch of kids, I found myself well.
But, I didn't actually stop having colds. As it turned out, I continued to experience them periodically and without respect to human so-called laws about "cold seasons" and contagion. Going back to what I understood about the mental nature of all disease, I reasoned (albeit imperfectly) that if I was not feeling well, something must be going on mentally that was manifesting itself as a cold. It had to come from somewhere, right? So then began a period in my life where I'd take physical discomfort as a cue to dig around mentally for something that might need to be handled, that is, proven untrue and unreal in thought. Typically, I determined the so-called cause to be stress and handled it. The end. Until the next time.
Fortunately, as I've committed myself to understanding and practicing Christian Science, I've made friends with the same commitment. One of these friends and I were talking one day this past summer, and my method of dealing with colds came up. I mentioned that I only got them when I was "stressed." But my friend stopped me short. I don't remember his exact words, but the idea was, "Erin--first of all, you don't need to expect that a particular situation will always result in certain coordinating physical symptoms. Second, disease doesn't have a cause--God is the only Cause, and disease is no part of Him."
He was right! And now I knew he was right--it was time for deeply-ingrained old beliefs to fall away once again. By concluding (incorrectly) that these colds were the result of stress, I was making a major mistake! Part of it was that I was starting my reasoning about my situation with the cold instead of starting my reasoning with God, who is the only Cause, the only Principle, or Source. He is wholly good, and is Spirit--so reasoning from the basis of a bad, material situation was about as backwards as I could get! The other part of the mistake was that by starting with the cold, I was making it seem real, even though Christian Science works by seeing the unreality of disease. By way of analogy, my former line of reasoning was like believing ghosts were in my house and concentrating my efforts on scaring them away, when what I needed to do was understand that ghosts aren't real, and weren't there in the first place.
At any rate, since the time of that conversation I've checked, i.e, stopped in their tracks, any thoughts that came and suggested that there was cause for a cold, or other form of illness. I've been exposed to so-called contagion. I've experienced my fair share of stress. But I haven't experienced a cold. More than being grateful for experiencing health, I'm grateful to understand to a greater degree the nothingness of disease--and the allness of God's goodness.
God is good
God gives good
God is the only Cause
God is Spirit
Man is spiritual
There is no disease
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