Never defined or confined by assumptions based on age

/

Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.

Several years ago, a new executive director arrived at the corporate foundation where I was employed. Although our working relationship started out on a positive note, in time it became evident that my employment there had a limited future. For several months, I responded to job openings, but found that I was not getting responses to applications for positions that I appeared to be well qualified for. According to world belief, I was facing prejudice against people approaching the typical retirement age. 

In my spiritual study I was led back to Skip’s editorial, “Dealing with the dinosaur problem,” (Sentinel, January 4, 1988) which included these helpful observations: “Unlike a piece of machinery or a computer model, God’s man, who is spiritual, doesn’t get superseded each year by newer models that have more training, greater skills, more facile styling. Man is actually the continuous activity of divine intelligence, individually reflecting the divine Mind’s own always useful, productive, perfect economy. Man, as the very reflection of God, who is infinite Mind, has an unending capacity for right thought and action. . . . The limited labels can never tell the whole story. We are always man, the full spiritual expression of divine Spirit, with all the great resources of Spirit. To learn something of ourselves in these terms is to come home to our basic career and purpose, regardless of the activity we may be involved with at the moment.”

One important point of progress resulted from a phone conversation I had with Skip. He told of several examples he’d seen of career changes taking place in what seemed impossible situations as a result of a deepening realization of how things work spiritually. The day after our conversation, I wrote these reflections in my journal: I have every reason to be expectant and joyful as I work to discover what Mind has in store for me. I have every reason because of the innate sense of purpose God gives to me as His child, because ability and opportunity go together in Science, and because progress is the very law of God. This is Love’s divine adventure. It’s time for me to leave behind the darkened sense of uncertainty and instability and go forward in Spirit’s light.

From that point forward there was a renewed expectancy in my work—something that my wife really noticed. As I persisted in the spiritual work of seeing that all that takes place is orchestrated by the one omniscient Mind rather than happening in a material framework of limitation, interest in my applications for employment was shown, including interviews. 

I had three interviews for a leadership position with an organization that had a vision I found very compelling. I was selected as one of two finalists for the final round of interviews. That interview was more challenging than any I had previously encountered. It was a two-hour video conference with the outgoing executive director and three board members, involving three presentations that required many hours of preparation. I had several nights of poor sleep leading up to the interview, and the mortal mind argument was that I wouldn’t be as mentally sharp as needed and might fumble a key question. These arguments were put down through specific metaphysical work, which included “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action” (Science and Health 454:18–21). 

I went into the interview with spiritual expectancy and it went extremely well. However, the other finalist was offered the job. While it was tempting to feel depressed, it was clear to me that no one could shut a door that God was opening; if God was not opening that door for me, it was not one I’d want to walk through. I was also certain that the victory over mortal mind that had been won in that final interview was part of a larger demonstration. 

Around this time, the practitioner I was working with mentioned that a mutual acquaintance was working at The Mother Church. Later I gave him a call. When I told him I was looking to leave my current organization, he responded, “This call may be an answer to prayer.” He told me that a new position was being created and asked me to send along a letter and resume. This was tremendously encouraging, not simply because it would be a good job, but because it felt like I was supposed to be working for the Cause of Christian Science for the rest of my career. 

I soon stopped sending out resumes for secular positions and waited to hear from The Mother Church. What a gratifying moment when the job offer came! As I write these words several years later, I can say that this step has led to the most purposeful and rewarding work in a career blessed with a deep sense of mission. 

What the overall experience says to me is that we need never be defined or confined by assumptions based on age or circumstance. Our purpose is God-given, and we always have the opportunity to awaken to our place in Soul’s unfoldment of good, for God alone directs our lives “in the beauty of holiness” (Psalms 29:2).

It was as if the Red Sea had parted

/

Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.

Some time ago, I was studying a wonderfully helpful article that Skip wrote, “Metaphysics that moves the heart” (Journal, September 1984). In it he makes an astounding statement that just took hold of me, “Metaphysics is what God does, not what men say.” It reminded me of a beautiful demonstration that would not have happened without God’s help. 

It was the day of the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church. That year Skip was chairman of the Board, and he was responsible for many things. I offered to drive Skip and Pam to the Church Center and they accepted. As we were preparing to leave their home, I loaded the car with the items Skip needed for the meeting. Once we arrived, Skip said, “Where is my suit?” I then realized that I hadn’t put it in the car. He had to rehearse with the rest of the Board and it was imperative that he wear exactly what he would be wearing for the meeting, due to staging and lighting issues. If he came unprepared, it would hold up the rehearsal. There couldn’t have been a worse time to forget Skip’s clothes!

Skip had to be ready to rehearse in 30 minutes. Initially, this appeared to be a big challenge. Anyone who knows Boston traffic is aware that you always have to give yourself extra time to arrive at your destination. There are numerous traffic lights and usually you just crawl along in stop-and-go traffic. With no traffic, Skip’s house was about 15 minutes from the Church Center, but it normally took from 30 minutes to an hour to get there.  

I told Skip I would go back to his house immediately and return as soon as possible. I jumped back in the car and pulled out into a massive amount of traffic. As I started to calculate the timing, it seemed that there was no way I could make it back before his rehearsal. I concluded that I couldn’t do this humanly: This was a situation in which I really had to be on with spiritual sense. So I turned to God with all my heart. I knew what was going on at The Mother Church was a divinely right activity and nothing could interfere with what God knows and does. I stayed very focused on listening for God’s direction. I didn’t allow any doubt to enter my thought. I knew that God’s time, not man’s, governed the situation. 

I was remembering Skip’s article, “God’s endless measure” (Sentinel, August 20, 1984), in which he states, “Time doesn’t actually govern us, but our thought of it appears to. Spiritual understanding, which comes as we draw closer to God, gives freedom; it takes away old habits of thought. Instead of feeling that the good we want to accomplish is naturally limited by something we call time, we begin to see how natural it is to have the completeness of good. As all that God is becomes more apparent to thought, we understand that the good we’ve been trying to accomplish, hold on to, or fulfill belongs to Him. It is created by Him and emanates from Him. What we’ve been seeing is only a small part of goodness, and the fact is that good is already complete beyond anything we might ask or think. With this realization, we see that our main task is to be a more accurate witness to or expression of what God is doing. . . . In this way we learn to distrust the thought of limitation based on material circumstance, which is in truth all there is to time.”

When I looked up after waiting at the first traffic light, it was as if the Red Sea had parted. The traffic was gone! Then every light I approached was green! I kept thanking God for the entire trip. I arrived at Skip’s house, ran in to get his suit, got back in the car, and continued to reach out to God. The return trip was the same—there was no traffic and every light was green. It took only 10 minutes to get to Skip’s house (5 minutes less than when there is no traffic) and 10 minutes to return to the Church Center. Skip’s executive assistant was waiting for me to give her Skip’s suit. She took it to Skip, and he was able to dress with time to spare.

I am so grateful to God for always being a very present help. This experience was what God did. My part was just listening for His guidance and completely trusting that He would guide me. This experience also taught me about time. 

My most beautiful demonstration has been my marriage

/

Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.

Through the years, quite a few of Skip’s articles have helped me with family relationships, challenges at work, and financial hardships, but the most beautiful demonstration has been my marriage. As anyone who has been married knows, many challenges that you face in a marriage require patience, kindness, sacrifice, compromise, selflessness, and unconditional love. 

Skip talked with both of us before we entered marriage, as we were both his students. He told us that the best relationship you can have with your spouse is that of a practitioner. In our marriage we came to learn more and more what that actually meant, and we would work for one another when we faced health issues or personal problems. We also learned what it meant to work for the marriage itself. 

Early in our marriage, my husband and I had to learn how to communicate with each other. We had challenges with staying calm during disagreements, and many times we ended up yelling at each other and saying hurtful things. Through Christian Science, we learned to be quiet and walk away during these disagreements, to go and do our spiritual work, and to let God communicate to each of us what needed to be said. 

Several of Skip’s articles were particularly helpful during times of challenge in our marriage. “No last straws” (Sentinel, September 17, 1984) taught us both that there was no circumstance or disagreement that could separate us from God’s love and ultimately, each other’s love. These sentences from that article describe it best: “As we go forward in prayer to understand the allness of our God, we find good ahead of us, awaiting us, and around us. And this good isn’t simply what we can channel through ourselves, so to speak. It is in accord with the divine law that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’” 

“Are we selfishizing or are we ‘walking in the light of God’?” (Sentinel, August 21, 2017) was especially helpful to me in working about the idea of personality. It helped me to let go of a sense of being wronged by a personality and to let love flow in where that hurt seemed to be. In this article, Skip writes, “Mrs. Eddy saw the varied forms of personal sense to be the very opposite of Christian Science, and that which would hold back the natural growth and progress of the Church she founded. She knew these stubborn impressions would yield to the love and natural unity that pour through churches and families, and carry the whole Cause of Christian Science forward, as they are doing today.” This helped me to see my husband in the light of Love rather than personality. It was not always easy to let go of “stubborn impressions,” but because it was a continuous labor of Love and unselfing, it became natural to see my husband as the perfect child of God. 

Some of the other articles that helped our marriage were “Thinking right and ‘thinking otherwise’” (Journal, March 1992), “No ‘good reasons’ for fear” (Sentinel, June 22, 1987), and “What God knows” (Sentinel, December 16, 1991). From these articles we learned that when we went to God in prayer and gave Christian Science treatment for each other and our marriage, there was in fact harmony instead of discord, love instead of anger, patience instead anxiety and fear, selflessness instead selfishness, kindness instead of hurtfulness, health instead of sickness. As the years passed, we learned to provide tender and unselfish care for each other, and I can genuinely say that everyone who has witnessed our love for each other has said that it is beautiful. As Mrs. Eddy wrote in her chapter on marriage, “Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love” (Science and Health 57:18–19). 

I turned to God for comfort and peace

/

Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.

When my husband passed on, I immediately felt sadness and a sense of loss. The idea of continuing the rest of my life without him by my side was overwhelmingly incomprehensible. But as I have done in every difficult situation in my life, I turned to God for comfort and peace.

When I read Skip’s article “‘Drear subtlety’ or double portion?” (Sentinel, June 25, 1984), I knew he had written it from a place of personal demonstration. So much of the article resonated with me in terms of the array of emotions I was feeling. It also helped me uncover the lie in  questions such as If my husband failed to be healed through prayer, how can Christian Science really be effective? I kept pondering Skip’s statement: “it is the nature of God’s all-inclusive spiritual reality dawning on thought that brings us healing and assurance.” 

Skip’s article quotes Mrs. Eddy: “The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health and morals far beyond its present elevation, and would enable us to hold the banner of Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life eternal” (Science and Heath, 426:23–28). As I worked through this, I found that I was comforting family and friends when I made phone calls informing them of my husband’s passing. And as the days passed, I was having a clearer sense that God was going to use me to bless others as a result of overcoming this great sense of loss. 

Every day since my husband’s passing, I am reminded of the fact that his life continues on and that he is experiencing far more good, health, joy, and happiness than he did here. I know that he would not want me to stay in a constant state of sadness, fear, loneliness, or loss, but would want me to learn and grow spiritually from this experience. 

As I write this, it has been several weeks since my husband’s passing, and I can honestly say that I am demonstrating a healing of grief. The strong sense of sadness did not last past two days. While I have moments of missing him greatly that bring tears, I am able to move out of those moments quickly and remember the good that is going on for him and for me, and remember that I will see him again.  

“Uncompromised, unchanging divine Principle, Love”

/

Question 3: Share a transforming experience like Saul to Paul which came about reading Skip’s article(s).

Of Skip’s many editorials, one that stands out to me is “Uncompromised, unchanging divine Principle, Love” (Journal, June 2010). That editorial describes how two situations involving claims of sin and guilt were healed through Christian Science treatment. 

Here is what Skip wrote about one of those healings: “. . . a Christian Science practitioner recognized he couldn’t possibly provide any help by starting from the basis of a person’s ‘real’ sin and guilt. So he prayed deeply to understand more of the man’s complete spiritual innocence since he is entirely God’s expression. . . . That became far more real to him than the confused and bitter human scene. He also knew from experience that prayer on this basis was the shortest, surest route to bringing out whatever awakening and reform is needed.”

At a time of great extremity in regard to a claim from my own past, that explanation was incredibly helpful and brought healing. I knew it was the basis from which I had to work for myself, and as I did, I won my way to freedom.

It was like a light bulb going on in my head

/

Question 3: Share a transforming experience like Saul to Paul which came about reading Skip’s article(s).

The most transforming article for me was “Finding the real cause—why you or someone else can be healed” (Journal, May 1987). This article helped me tear away old theological teachings from my former church and get to the heart of Christian Science and its healing. These impactful statements got me thinking rightly about Christian Science healing: 

  • “To get to know the actual image of God . . . is to become acquainted with the only man there is. It is to find nothing lacking in this man—nothing excessive, nothing unbalanced, nothing habitually naive, nothing aggressive, nothing fearful, ignorant, or sinful. 

  • Since God is the only cause, and mortal mind is not genuine cause, we are left not only with no bodily causes but no cause of any kind for pain and sickness. If there is no cause, there can be no effect.”

  • “The battle does not lie in trying to get an abstract metaphysical truth to do something to a concrete human reality.” 

For a long time, I had struggled to understand that Christian Science healing doesn’t come from our own ability or understanding, nor does it include praying for God to make something better. Reading this article helped me to understand the cause of physical healing. It was like a light bulb going on in my head. I remember saying to myself, Why hasn’t it been this clear to me before? 

From that point forward, my spiritual progress was elevated each time I was faced with a new health issue or a personal circumstance that needed healing. I have had healings of persistent bunions, colds, a sprained ankle, a bladder infection, nausea, light-headedness, stomach ache, neck ache, headaches, and ringing of the ears. In addition, many difficult situations have had harmonious outcomes. 

I can do what is required of me

/

Question 3: Share a transforming experience like Saul to Paul which came about reading Skip’s article(s).

Reading Skip’s articles has urged me to claim for myself that I can do what is required of me. At every turn, Skip reminds us that it is not a matter of human will, but of knowing ourselves as we actually are, God’s loved and completely spiritual expression. I’m not sure I’ve had a Saul-to-Paul transformation, but I do have a better idea of what’s needed and a greater willingness to engage in the work with more consistency. 

I remember one Association address when Skip (with his wry smile and quiet sense of humor) said something to this effect, “God doesn’t have a very good reputation—don’t we want to do what we can to improve that?” So as wimpy as my results sometimes seem, I still press on, knowing that with God all is possible. Although I have not completed reading Skip’s articles, I look forward to reading them all and gaining more of what our dear teacher so lovingly set out for us for all of time. Very grateful indeed.

Class helped me to move into a whole new life

/

Question 3: Share a transforming experience like Saul to Paul which came about reading Skip’s article(s).

My Saul-to-Paul transformation began when I went through class instruction with Skip. I came to Massachusetts a shy, self-conscious, self-depreciating, fearful person who had difficulty making decisions. I didn’t really know who I was, and I didn’t feel I had any worth. I had survived a childhood of regular illnesses due to a mother who often made me ill so she would feel needed. Then I ended up in a bad marriage. I was able to express love to others and help when needed, but the hidden feelings about myself were just dragging me further and further into a sense of depression and doubt. I had always loved God and I felt him with me. But somehow, I didn’t feel deserving of His love.

When Skip entered the room on the first day of class, he exuded a wonderful sense of love and caring for all of us. This love just poured out of him, and I knew it was of God. Each day this love grew, and it included Skip and all of my classmates. I was finding that because I was God’s child, I did have purpose and worth! It was becoming more and more clear that I was dearly loved just by being His child. The circumstances I came from didn’t define me because I was held in the image and likeness of God. Every day of class was a new life for me. That life was always there, I just needed to awaken to it. 

Each day I was presented with a physical challenge, but class kept lifting me higher. It truly was transforming me. To my surprise, I received knocks on my door requesting metaphysical support during class. I wasn’t sure I had learned enough yet, so I turned wholeheartedly to God.  I was learning about healing and God’s constant care, so I knew I had to do the work. After praying for the patients who came to my door, I often stayed awake into the late hours working on my assignments so I would be prepared for the following day’s lessons. Five patients were prayed for and healed.

Many things were trying to get in the way of my spiritual progress. But Skip’s article “Lambs whom some wolves might wish they’d never met” (Sentinel, July 15, 1991) was a moving and wonderful help. First the title drew my attention, as most all of Skip’s titles do! I love what Skip says, “The innocence of those making every effort to follow Christ and live spiritually is not weakness and vulnerability. Instead it is an empowering that comes from the fact that when one is willing to live in obedience to God, one is not simply living morally; one is being brought into accord with the very Principle of the universe.”   

Later in the article Skip writes, “The Master didn’t promise that his followers would experience universal friendliness, though he advocated their universal love of others. In fact, he spoke of the despising he himself had encountered. But he also said to those who were striving to live closely with Christ, Truth, ‘Nothing shall by any means hurt you.’. . .His world had one God, one power, which is good. And so his lambs had strength and protection that wolves could not imagine.” I took this article to heart.

The class experience truly helped me to move into a whole new life. God provided everything I needed, just as he always had. For four years I travelled from my home in Michigan to Massachusetts for Association. Each visit was definitely “coming home,” as Skip would so lovingly welcome us. It was so hard for me to leave. Soon after, God led me to file for divorce and move to Massachusetts. People in my old life told me I couldn’t stand on my own and I would be a failure, but because of God’s great love and Skip’s wonderful teaching, I was led into a brand-new experience. 

Once I moved to Boston, my needs were continually met. A dear Christian Science practitioner and her husband allowed me to stay in their home until I found a place of my own. They expressed so much love to me and became my family. Their children and grandchildren gave me the position of Auntie. I was able to take up practice office hours in our Association office twice a week. 

Although my background was in teaching dance, I was immediately hired to care for a woman who was no longer driving. After the passing of the woman in my care, I was introduced to a woman who needed around-the-clock companioning. I am now in my nineteenth year of caring for her. This situation has allowed me to purchase my own home and live independently without any financial concerns. 

In addition, I spent 19 years being on call for Skip to assist in practical needs in his home and office, including metaphysical support for any projects that arose. Seeing lives so deeply devoted to God and the Cause of Christian Science made a great impact on my life. Through the years I had the privilege of witnessing many healings and experienced many of my own.  

I am so grateful for this experience. Starting from a place of feeling that I had no worth, I was shown the way step by step. I had to forget self, drop fear, and love more. Complete reliance on God gave me the strength and courage to go forward. God has been with me all along, and He is so much a part of my life that I can’t imagine being unaware of Him. He gives us purpose far beyond what we could have outlined for ourselves. In his article “Simple prayers” (Sentinel, August 18, 1986), Skip states, “Through prayer we learn God’s immediacy. We learn that our life isn’t a dull material story but a spiritual adventure.”