Conquer Fear and Live Courageously!

In The People’s Idea of God (p. 10), Mrs. Eddy writes, “Mental Science alone grasps the standard of liberty, and battles for man’s whole rights, divine as well as human. It assures us, of a verity, that mortal beliefs, and not a law of nature, have made men sinning and sick, — that they alone have fettered free limbs, and marred in mind the model of man.”

I’ve read an interesting book entitled Dying To Be Me, which is, briefly, about a person who was very afraid of getting cancer. She got it, and she died of it. It was all recorded by the medical doctors, pictures, records, and all the things that the medical does. She passes on, and she sees her father who had passed on before her. The father tells her it’s not her time and that she is to go back and to be courageous and help others, so she does. She re-enters her body, and much to the surprise of the doctors, there’s absolutely no evidence of cancer, or that she ever had it — even though they have all these pictures of it. She recovers quite quickly; in fact, they had to take her out of the intensive care unit because she was so happy and laughing. She gained weight rapidly, and since then she has gone around and told people about this experience.

One of the things that impressed me most about this story — and this is a person who didn’t know anything about Christian Science — she said that it wasn’t the cancer that killed her. She said it was her beliefs, her fears, her belief, basically, in a power other than God. This is what Mrs. Eddy says in this statement, and she says it throughout Science and Health. It is our beliefs that do us damage. And what are our beliefs? It is believing that there is a power apart from God. It is a belief that we are subject to sin, disease, and death. These seem to make these false rules and laws that we become afraid of. All of this is what is the problem. Once we get an understanding of God, who God is, and this understanding replaces these beliefs, we find a freedom that we didn’t know possible.

So, I am grateful for this book. It has helped a lot of people, people who are doubtful about Christian Science, because it gives clear examples of how you can be healed. And of course, this woman, when she came back, never feared again. She certainly didn’t fear cancer, she didn’t fear death. She didn’t fear anything, because she knew that there is a wonderful, benevolent, divine God looking out for us all. She knew it, and it became understanding, and the beliefs left her experience. I am so grateful for Mrs. Eddy who explains this Science so thoroughly and completely. Thank God for her. Thank God for Christ Jesus, our Independent Church, and that we can practice this Science continually in our lives, day by day.