4. Luke 7
47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
While reading this, I thought back to how much needed to be healed and corrected in my thinking when I arrived here. Over the years, I have been very blessed by being a member of this Church and working with a practitioner. As all those healings have turned to gratitudes and testimonies, and are now bricks laid on the foundation, I have noticed that the lies which animal magnetism tries to masquerade as my own thinking has changed.
At first, I would have to handle thoughts such as “you are too far gone for Christian Science to work” or “you don’t deserve to be healed” or even “following Christian Science is too difficult.” Now what I have to face down has started to include thoughts such as “don’t you deserve to have a normal life?” and “certainly there is someone else that can take this work on” and “haven’t you done enough?”
A while ago, my practitioner brought out to me what Mary Baker Eddy wrote in No and Yes, page 34: “Physical torture affords but a slight illustration of the pangs which come to one upon whom the world of sense falls with its leaden weight in the endeavor to crush out of a career its divine destiny.”
I have found that the longer I am here learning Christian Science and doing this work for God and man, the more error is fighting to hold me down, hold me back, and throw me off course. As I have gone from needing a lot of healing and forgiveness, to less and less, my growth in the church, and in Science, and in love of God and man has needed to increase in order to avoid being crushed out of the career that God has fitted me for.
10. 410 : 14-21
Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love.
I thank God that Mrs. Eddy, my practitioner, and others have made it clear that being here and doing this work is going to have its difficulties, but it is also going to have its rewards. I love learning more about Christian Science and I love being useful to God. What was really difficult was life before Plainfield, as it was hard and without hope. Being here and working to be what God made me to be has given me place and purpose — given me Life! — and for that I pray each day to be faithful and steadfast.
Thank you for this lesson!