I was in love. But there was a problem. Three other guys also liked this girl, and she couldn’t seem to make up her mind among us. She was overwhelmed by all the attention. I was in agony. How could I get her to like me more?

As I thought about my sad situation one evening, it occurred to me that I could pray about it. I’d grown up going to Christian Science Sunday School, where I’d learned how to pray—though mostly, up to this point, my parents or a Christian Science practitioner had prayed on my behalf. This time, I figured I should try praying on my own…

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I have several go-to statements from my study of Christian Science, one of which has been a beacon and a rock with its assurance and expectation of God’s, divine Love’s, deliverance: “Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149–150).

This statement by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, is universally applicable—to anyone in any situation—and it echoes the beloved twenty-third Psalm, which says, “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (verse 4)…

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In an unattributed drawing, a young man sits beneath a tree. Hands folded on his knees, he peers into the night sky. Accompanying this simple sketch are these words: “You will never speak to anyone more than you speak to yourself in your head. Be kind to yourself.”

If we echo the young man’s stillness and listen within the silence of our thoughts, we can hear a voice that’s not our own, with a similar message. It’s the Christ, the divine message of God, which Jesus ceaselessly heard as he healed the sick and turned lives from wrongdoing and wrong thinking. The Christ still conveys today a key idea Jesus shared: We must love our neighbor as ourselves. This implies that it’s right to love ourselves… 

To view the article in full on https://sentinel.christianscience.com for free, please click HERE

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Who are we, really?  You and I, and all humanity?  The health, harmony, and joy we experience in life depends on our answer to this question.  Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Christian Science church, had a profound insight into the nature of God as infinite Love.  She perceived that God is the only substance, intelligence and Life of the universe, without the opposition typically ascribed to darkness or evil.  Moreover, Eddy realized that this was the basis of Jesus’ healing works…

For more information regarding this lecture,
please click here

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The law of Love is the central theme of the Bible. It is that law which the ancient prophets caught wonderful glimpses of, and which saved the ancient peoples of the Bible from disease, famine, slavery and enemy forces when they turned to God. It is the law that was behind Christ Jesus’ healing ministry, which he taught his followers so they could heal, too. This same law of Love is demonstrated in Christian Science healing today.

For more information regarding this series,
please click here

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If you missed it, Mark Swinney published an article on the Christian Science Monitor website yesterday addressing the value of yielding to God, divine Love, rather than frustration and complaint. The article says:

A simple change of thought often makes all the difference. It can be a change of attitude, a change in the way we see the world, a change in the way we see ourselves, a change in how we behold others.

When we change our thoughts for the better, good things can happen. But there’s another way our thinking can change, and it’s even more powerful. When we invite God to change our thoughts, wonderful things – even healing – can occur. As a high school sophomore at my first job, I experienced one such powerful change of perspective.

I was working in a position that didn’t require much training and the pay was quite low. I was glad to be earning it, but I wasn’t always feeling so glad as I worked along through my shift. It was hot, sweaty work, and after a few months, I liked it even less.

But I’d been attending a Christian Science Sunday School and there I’d learned that if I was feeling upset about something, I could turn to God for inspiration. So that’s what I did, and as I was praying one day, I became inspired to do something very specific – and that was to more consistently let God’s love fill my thoughts and guide my actions.

What that meant to me was if I found my thoughts muddied with things like complaint, resentment, self-righteousness, and fear, I could turn to God for a clean, clear line of thinking. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, metaphorically explains in her insightful book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied” (p. 201). Later on the same page, Science and Health goes on to give specific instruction on how to do this: “pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.”

When I was at work, that’s exactly what I did. Rather than focusing on the unpleasantness of the job, I let appreciation for God, who is divine Love itself, fill my thoughts. As I did, I consistently felt the presence of God with me and was truly grateful for God’s love actively overflowing in me.

It wasn’t always easy to keep my thinking steadily clear in this way, but it ended up being quite a joy-filled activity. And after a time of conscientiously letting God’s love pour into the “vessel” of my consciousness and flush out those thoughts that weren’t loving, I realized I had started to really like my job. Each moment was an opportunity to fill my thoughts to overflowing with all that God is – acknowledging His goodness, tenderness, strength, intelligence.

When God is behind the inspiration that we bring into action, we are often happily surprised. Jesus explained: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). That describes how I felt. Instead of frustrated, I felt full of qualities such as joy and patience – qualities that are actually natural to all of us as God’s children.

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In middle school I was bullied by a boy in my class. In the beginning he imitated everything I did, grinning insolently when he realized that I found it annoying.

Things went from there and culminated, perhaps a week later, in something more physical. As I entered the classroom, he put a bicycle lock around my neck in one quick motion and snapped it shut. Seconds later the teacher walked in, preventing me from doing anything. The boy went off to his seat gloating and laughing, and the other boys thought it was funny as well.

The teacher said nothing when he saw my mortified face, but made the boy take the lock off my neck before he dismissed the class. There were no further repercussions; the boy wasn’t punished, and I was expected to forget the whole thing. But I couldn’t.

That night I knew that something needed to be done to bring about change. I had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that Jesus told his followers to love their enemies. He said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27, 28, New International Version). In the beginning this seemed impossible. How could I love someone who had humiliated me like this? But I didn’t want to retaliate in any way. I wouldn’t have known how, and I was sure that retaliation would just make things worse.

What I wanted was a permanent solution that would allow both of us to coexist – and thrive – in school. So I endeavored to love, which I felt was the only approach that could secure a permanent solution, and I promised myself that I would let nothing get in the way of my doing this. To help me accomplish that, I wrote on the last page of my notebook: “I need to love Peter F, too” (not his real name). A beautiful verse from a hymn expresses the spirit of my efforts. It reads:

Love with a heart of tenderness
Your enemies and friends; 
However hard this may appear, 
This quality just mends. 
For Love is God in action true, 
A presence that is felt;
A healing and a saving power 
That will all discord melt.
(Jill Gooding, “Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603,” No. 519, © CSBD)

Expressing God’s love towards those whom we might call our enemies doesn’t mean that we accept or even tolerate inappropriate or unkind behavior. On the contrary, such love is expressed from the basis of seeing and understanding our fellow man as spiritual and therefore innocent, pure, and harmless. This view naturally acts as a rebuke to any thought or action that isn’t in line with God’s goodness.

The next day, he went back to imitating me, but I knew what I had to do. Each time I felt anxious or upset, I told myself that my job was to love him and to pray to know that God loved both of us. This must mean that God wouldn’t let him harm me or anyone!

After recess a few days later, I saw that my notebook had been opened to the last page. Mortified, I realized he had seen what I had written there! But then I saw that, in his unkempt handwriting, he had replied: “Yes, and I need to love you, too.” To this day I don’t know how he had found my little statement, or why he had even opened my notebook. I had not shown the entry to anyone.

This was the end of the issue. We never talked about it, we never referred to it, and this boy never bothered me again. He had in the past teased other students and even some of the younger teachers, but that also stopped. I, in turn, was never again bullied by anyone.

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Whether it’s extremist hate groups or the anger of a neighbor, hatred can seem like an insurmountable wall. However, even in the midst of its emotional push and pull, we are not powerless. We can refuse to meet hate with hate. However threatening hatred may appear to be, we can yield to God’s love. God is Love, and Love is always operating, replacing anything unlike Love. 

The omnipotence of Love’s dynamic presence and its inevitable influence and impact are best illustrated with the immediacy of light replacing shadow. God, Love, operates through law—a moral and spiritual force.  Christian Science refers to this moral and spiritual force as the law of God, good, the law of Life, Truth, and Love. This law of God governs and guides all the varied expressions of God.  

So what does this have to do with standing up to hate? By yielding to the omnipotence of Love, we can understand that hate is powerless. Mary Baker Eddy explains this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, referring to Truth as another synonym for God: “Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth’s opposite, has no might. Evil is but the counterpoise of nothingness” (pp. 367–368). Knowing this, even in a degree, reveals how fragile and fraudulent hatred is. And because Love is omnipotent, the law of Love is equally so, and is instant and active under any circumstance. 

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