The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
This article was originally published in the December 2011 issue of the Christian Science Journal. In it the writer, a member of the Canberra Christian Science community, shares how she overcame loneliness and cultural differences when she moved to a remote area of Indonesia to teach English.
She writes: My first two weeks in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, were traumatic. …
It took two weeks, but finally I turned to prayer. And then I felt I had something familiar to lean on. I loved the idea of setting aside time for God every day at sunset, which most people around me did. The local mosque sat just across the road, and I decided to mentally join in the melodious call to evening prayer. My room faced a vividly green rice paddy, and I would sit on the balcony to read and pray, looking down at the men praying in the mosque, and watching sparrows flitting in the rice paddies, waiting for the enormous, jungled mountains to fade into darkness.
Finally, I felt the peace I was searching for. I glimpsed that God, Truth, is relevant in every nation, culture, and situation. I prayed to recognize those around me as my brothers and sisters, our differences dissolved by the understanding that we all shared the same Father-Mother God. As I continued to pray, my perspective gradually changed, and my loneliness and frustration melted into love and fascination.
Click here to read the full article where the author explains the spiritual reasoning that led to this being a happy and rewarding experience, and one where she grew in her appreciation of the true brotherhood of man.
In this 3 minute podcast Christopher talks about how hearing a woman tell her dog that he was ‘So good’ reminded him of God’s love for us and the promise that we are made in God’s image.
Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
This article was originally published in the August 2021 edition of the Christian Science Journal. In it the author explains how her son endured several years of severe bullying by a work supervisor. However, when he turned to prayer for a resolution there was an immediate and permanent turn around in the situation.
“Now, three years later, even though my son has moved on to another position, these two still have a warm and supportive relationship. My son counts him as a close friend, a confidant who can be relied on, and someone who values him as a person.“
Click here to read the full text of this article where the author explains the spiritual reasoning that led to this happy resolution.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
A few years ago my husband wanted to give me a surprise for our anniversary. He knew I loved horses and that in my youth I had gone on a few short trail rides which I loved. This year he had the romantic idea that escaping our city life for a weekend of riding horses through the bushland in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney would be a good plan. My husband has never been a horse rider and knows very little about horses.
When he presented me with the gift vouchers I was filled with some very mixed emotions. I could see that he was trying hard to please me – that was nice. But, an eight-hour ride through very rugged territory, when I hadn’t been on a horse for about twenty years, seemed daunting in ways he couldn’t imagine. I prayed about this. I reasoned that all good ideas come from God and God’s ideas don’t have a downside. I also know that the beliefs I hold about life determine the nature of this material experience. I tried to stay focused on a conviction that my true nature is spiritual, not material. Only matter feels pain, not spirit.
My husband, as a novice rider, was given Fred, an elderly plodder. However, he had told the stables that I could ride well and I was given Jeda, a young thoroughbred-cross who really wanted to turn everything into a race. I’d been on the horse for about fifteen minutes when I realised that the saddle was horribly uncomfortable; it had two hard ridges that dug into the bones in my bottom.
During the eight-hour outing we spent nearly seven hours in the saddle. The countryside was amazing. We rode across green paddocks with cows, through mountain streams, up and down steep hillsides and along winding forest trails. It was truly beautiful. At every point in the day my Jeda wanted to race ahead and I spent the whole day calming her and reining her in. Even when we were waiting for slow Fred to catch up she pulled and pranced. She was exhausting!
It was late afternoon when we arrived back at our accommodation. I was so sore I felt physically sick. I fell on the bed and thought I would never be able to move again. Every muscle in my body screamed and protested. I thought I had mentally protected myself before the ride but I realised that I hadn’t really given up the idea that this activity could be punishing. In Christian Science, we are taught that what we let into consciousness, is what we experience. So while I lay there on the bed I had a mental reassessment.
A passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy helped me to gain some peace. She asks: Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non‐intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, made that weariness (p217:31). I realized that I had given myself permission to be affected by this ride, so mentally I took back that permission.
Within a very short time I was up and getting cleaned up to go out to dinner. There was not a single twinge anywhere – I walked straight and tall and pain free. We had a happy night and the rest of the weekend was active and harmonious. There were absolutely no after-effects.
I am continually grateful to Christian Science which teaches me that I don’t have to give in to material laws. All right activity can be undertaken without penalty.
A Daily Lift by Jutter Hudson, a Christian Science nurse
In this 3 minute talk Jutter describes how she used the idea of a circuit breaker to interrupt the constant flow of disturbing news regarding the pandemic and other world events. This helped her handle these ideas calmly and enabled her to feel she could be a force for good in the world. She gives an example of a healing of a family member that resulted from this circuit-breaking thinking.
A new 3 minute inspirational talk is shared each day Monday-Friday. To listen to more click on the Daily Lift tab in the menu above.
