Independent Christian Science articles

Pressure Is Animal Magnetism

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I love all the work that God has given me to do here in Plainfield, but occasionally I allow the enormity of it to start weighing on me. I am very grateful to be learning that pressure is animal magnetism, but sometimes I haven’t seen how to apply that statement practically so that I could put the feeling behind me.

For this, my practitioner has given me something that has helped immensely. She said, in effect, when you feel pressured or the need to rush, slow right down. It actually made me laugh the first time she said it to me, but in the months since, I have been applying this as a rule of thumb in every case.

As an example, this past week I woke one morning thinking of all that I had on my task list, and had this feeling I couldn’t get it done all in one day. I entertained this feeling for about 15 minutes, and then remembered her saying “slow right down.” I got up from my computer and grabbed a coffee and looked outside, thanking God for the day, and the sun, and all the beauty of the world. Then when it felt right, I started my work, just concentrating on one item at a time. Within four hours I finished the entire list of my tasks for the day, and then had time for even more work. It was awesome!

Not only has it been a helpful guideline, it has also shown me even more concretely how God gives us our work, and He knows exactly how much we can do each day. Only believing in a power apart from God would fool me to think otherwise. Slowing down, working to understand His allness, and my oneness with Him, has helped me to be both calmer and more productive.

I am so grateful for all this church offers, for practitioner support, and for the joy and purpose that comes from this work.

Dropping All Thoughts of Division

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I am forever grateful for coming to this church and learning how Christian Science is for all people, everywhere. Growing up in Christian churches, they were very concerned about who was supposedly “saved” and who was supposedly going to “hell”, and frankly it made me ill to think of God in that way. Nowadays, it seems that so much of modern life is centered around figuring out what sub-division of humanity you are in, and what subdivision others are in. It seems people are constantly dreaming up new ways to classify people, which more often that not turns into new ways to demonize others. Yet, all the while, God is right here loving what is true and right about all of us.

How much better to be learning Christian Science here, and to be dropping all those thoughts of division, and instead to be striving to be closer to what God made us to be, which is to be united in God, and not separated materially, medically, geographically, racially, religiously, politically, or whatever other way they have come up with.

What God has given us in Christian Science is so clearly the only right way forward for our world, and I am so grateful that God upholds this Church and perpetuates its mission, and I am so thankful that He gave me a place and a purpose here. God is so good, and I know with time all will see the good that Christian Science has for them, just as I have.

Being A Servant of God

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In last week’s lesson, it mentioned how Christ Jesus “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2:7)

It feels clear to me now that when Jesus “made himself of no reputation” he was really keeping himself from a human sense of identity, and that is why he could drop carpentry for healing and preaching, and then drop healing and preaching for fulfilling prophecy, and then drop fulfilling prophecy to impart last bits of wisdom to his disciples and then on to ascending while trusting the future of Christ’s Christianity to God.

Mary Baker Eddy also was willing to fulfill what God wanted at the moment, and then let it go as new divine inspiration came, as we see so much in her biographies, giving just the example of opening the Metaphysical College and then letting it go when God said its time had finished.

I am so grateful for how our wayshowers gave us clear examples of how to live our lives without self-identifying too strictly with particular bits of inspiration no matter how long we end up doing something. These examples have helped me to keep a light grip on identity and reputation and to focus more on simply being a servant.

I am grateful also that the practitioner I worked with for all those years, always had her focus on serving God and was never impressed by human identities, or human anything to be honest. This correct modelling helped me immensely.

I am so grateful for all I have learned and continue to learn in this Church about the pure, unadulterated Christian Science that Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy practiced and lived. Their example and teachings are priceless, and cannot be improved upon. What a constant blessing it is to be here.

Low Self Esteem is Not Part of God’s Man

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I am grateful for how Christian Science healings have often felt like a change in perspective to me, and for how those changes in perspective have helped me to let go of flawed and erroneous views of many situations and even of myself, and gain a closer sense of what is happening in Truth. Like it says in I Corinthians 13 : 12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Certainly the very poor self-esteem I had when I arrived here in Plainfield is a good example. That mistaken way of identifying myself, which was apparently adopted from how other people viewed me, put such a weight of burden on me that, in all honesty, I didn’t even know what to do with it. But working with a practitioner here helped to slowly chip away at that false viewpoint until I was able to put that weight down and be free of it. That was a huge healing for me, and one that only Christian Science was capable of doing. I know that to be true, because I tried many other methods with no success.

But when I think back on it, — despite the difference in how it feels to actually be me now as opposed to then — I can see that God didn’t make a new Jeremy, but rather Christian Science made it possible for me to stop looking at myself with such a negative lens, so that I could start being more the man that God created me to be.

What a blessing that realization is, for many reasons, one being that it helps me to look at other people and more clearly see that there is truly, right this moment, a child of God standing before me. After witnessing Christian Science dispel the illusion around me, it gives me such joy to know that God is just waiting for the opportunity to free all people everywhere. I see now that praying for mankind to be receptive to Christian Science, is also praying that they become receptive to their own healing.

Letting Go of Old Identities

Jeremy, N.J.

Right before I came to this church I was going through perhaps the most difficult period in my life, but I am thankful how during that time, I ended up having a thought that I have since learned to regard as an angel message right from God. It was the realization that I needed to let go of all the different ways that I had been identifying myself if I was to have any hope of moving forward in my life. For so long at that point I had self-identified as a dad, son, graphic designer, and a slew of far worse things such as dumb, ugly, useless, lazy, and so on.

Coming here, and beginning to learn Christian Science and working with a practitioner helped me to start seeing the difference between our human identities and the divine individuality that God created us with. Humanly it seems important to label things and people, and to have beliefs of division and limitation, but I see now those things have no place in God’s reality. All He wants is for us to be ready to listen to and act on His Word, and express His qualities to all we meet. God may direct us to do something for 10 years in a row, but that doesn’t change our divine identity at all. We are still here to express Truth and reflect Love and embody Life as the Christ leads us each and every day.

I am so grateful to have this true identity to hold to. It has helped me steer clear of the trap of feeling I am only here in Plainfield to build websites, write programs, edit audio, or make videos, and has made it so I am free to follow the Christ wherever it leads, including this new role as a practitioner. If I was still trapped in those out-dated human identities I would never have been able to accept where God was leading me.

I am so grateful for all that Christian Science, this church, and practitioner support have blessed me with over the years. How wonderful that God has given Christian Science to the world, and how wonderful that this Church has kept the high standard intact over all these years.

Putting Off Unhealthy Attitudes

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When I first came to Plainfield, I had many unhelpful and downright unhealthy attitudes about myself. I was usually happy to try my best for others, but for myself I was unwilling to do much of anything that would be considered loving or beneficial. I spent many years working with a practitioner here which served to heal me of all that and get me to the place where I could see and understand myself as God’s child. I am so grateful for that.

One specific way this has helped now is to allow me to take care of my body by understanding that God gave me this body to work for Him. So now I am able to take time to exercise throughout the week and I now view it as time to be grateful for what God has given me, as opposed to simply making it a task to check off.

I can’t help but think of Christ Jesus saying “these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23) when I take this time, because in addition to what might be specifically viewed as Church work, there are these other secondary concerns which all work together, such as taking time to eat well, and maintain my truck, amongst other things, are all ways to be ready for what God would have me do, and also ways to show I am grateful for the abundance He has given me.

I am so grateful for all the ways that being a member of this church and learning Christian Science have helped me to let go off all those old unhealthy attitudes I had and to instead move forward with God leading the way. What a constant blessing it is to be here.

Universal Solvent of Love

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A recent lesson had what Mary Baker Eddy wrote on page 242 of Science and Health: “In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.”

There was a time where I was quite willing to justify myself and get defensive and take things personally. I even remember once telling someone, “Of course I am taking this personally, it is happening to me.” Additionally, I also spent years defending my own choice to stay in horrible situations without making any true attempts to change it, and I would often justify it by saying it was because I was a loyal person. In the end, however, no matter how awful it became, I was too afraid to lose that life, and I went through a foolish amount of effort to prove to myself and others that everything was fine. But it wasn’t fine, and no mental gymnastics or verbal trickery could make it fine.

I am very grateful to Christian Science and all the practitioner support I received through the years for healing me, and showing me that the only loyalty we need to have is to God. I am forever grateful for how that “universal solvent of Love” so thoroughly dissolved those errors and freed me to move forward.

Looking back now, I can understand how “self-will, self-justification, and self-love” were warring against my spirituality, because I most certainly was not reflecting more than perhaps a tiny amount of divine Love back then. I can see also how those errors could act as a “law of sin and death” because of how close I came to being tricked into taking my own life. I am so thankful I lost that old life and gained this one. God is so good!

I am very grateful for all that I have learned here in Plainfield about pure Christian Science, for all the practitioner support I received over the years, and I am grateful for all the healings and changes in character I have had in my time here. It is a constant blessing to be here.

The Importance of Words

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Many years before coming to Plainfield, I was watching that old show Judge Judy, and in one episode she told one of the people in her courtroom, “words are your tool, sir.” That impressed me enough that I realized I must have been watching that show only to gain that one insight, so I turned it off and never watched again — but that thought stayed with me.

Coming to this church, and learning how important words are in Christian Science, and, as John says in the Bible, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), it became clear that I needed to change my toolset of words, and work to eliminate and replace words that seemingly reinforced false beliefs and “poor thought-models.” (S&H, p. 259)

So I began by switching out the word “chance” for “opportunity,” and the word “fortunate” for “blessed,” and the word “unfortunate” for the understanding that there was no demonstration in that instance, and knowing that the feeling of anything being lucky or unlucky is just the failure to see that God is All and how in Him there “is no variableness” (James 1:17).

This increased vigilance about the words I use, translated into making me more vigilant about thinking correctly, has helped me immensely over my time here. It has stopped me from feeling that “things just happen” or that I, or anyone, could ever be “a victim of circumstance,” — and has made me understand God’s perpetual goodness and my perpetual accountability to God as I go about my daily life.

How wonderful to know it is not luck or chance that brought us here, and that our past history did not make us either unfortunate or fortunate; but, once we learn to understand Christian Science correctly, it becomes clear it is God alone who is working His purpose out in each of our lives. Only Christian Science gives us the ability to see Truth, Life, and Love at work, and to recognize each day the God-given opportunities to be His reflection and gain every blessing that God has laid out before us.

Plainfield Church, a Shining Light

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Recently I realized that it has been over ten years since I first arrived at Plainfield Church.

This milestone has me thinking about everything that learning Christian Science, and being a member of this church, has brought into my life. There have been healings — an amazing number of healings, — blessings, and countless opportunities since arriving here, so much so, that I just don’t feel much similarity with the person I used to be.

Everything used to be intensely difficult without this wonderful way of life to rely upon. And, I wouldn’t say life is easy here in Plainfield; but there is a big difference between that hopeless existence I had before, and how I now have gained much faith in God and understanding of Science, where joyful progress is being made daily.

I feel great gratitude to God, for Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy and the instruction and example they have left for us, for the early workers, this church and my practitioner, and every member of this church, past and present, whose combined work has gone into making Plainfield the shining light that it is. It means so much to me, and I just know that the needs of all mankind will bring them here as well, and each will be blessed.

Defeating Error’s Resistance

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On a recent Saturday morning, we did a remote broadcast for our Bible Study. At around 9:50 we started the live stream so we could be sure everything was working and ready to go. Then, at 9:58, just as we were going to start, the internet went down and shut off the live stream. I tried to fix it, but after a moment there came a quick inspiration letting me know that error was not resisting the broadcast, but rather the Bible Study itself! This Bible Study was going to bless others, both now and for a long time on the website and YouTube. The Bible Study was the important thing, and all I needed to do was call the teleconference and put my phone on speaker so we could get started. If I were to delay any longer in doing that, then I would have been being used by error as a part of the resistance.

As I called in, the internet came back on, but the signal was still very weak. But it was just enough to start the recording and occasionally mute a caller if necessary. As soon as the Bible Study was finished, the internet came back at full strength and has been fine since. This was not a coincidence!

On page 170 of the Divinity Course and General Collectanea, known as The Blue Book, Mary Baker Eddy gives the Rules for overcoming animal magnetism: (for anyone new, animal magnetism is the belief in a power apart from God):

1. See what it is trying to do.
2. Know that it cannot do it.
3. See that it is not done.

This whole experience has taught me to make sure I get step one right. If I had stuck with the thought that error was working to stop the live stream specifically, all my efforts to handle it in steps two and three would have been misdirected.

I am very grateful for all I am learning about Christian Science in this church, and from my practitioner. Every bit of this teaching has practical and immediate benefits for my life and my work, including the ability to remain calm during what seems to be an emergency. It is wonderful to be a part of this mission for the world.

Love is the liberator.