Loving and Its Relation to Good Health

        Some years ago, I happened to read something most arresting, written by one of my favorite writers on Christian Science -- Samuel Greenwood.  As you may know, this man was a teacher and practitioner living in British Colombia.  In this particular address, he said that in his many years of helping others through his practice he had found that back of nearly every physical, mental, financial, or emotional problem he had dealt with was a lack of love, both expressed and felt.  And a poet friend in Scotland, when I shared this, replied:  "Not just many, all!"  And he is not an adherent of my religion.

        Whether or not one believes lack of love to be the cause of ill health, I also have noticed this phenomenon in my practice of Christian Science.  And certainly, it has been the case in my own experience when loving my fellowman had started to slip.  I recall one occasion when I foolishly let myself become quite disturbed over some neighborhood controversy.  Opinions, pro and con, were flying all around.  Instead of the love and goodwill I should have been filling thought with, quite the opposite was taking up space.  Who said what got mulled over and over. Not surprising, I began to feel quite ill one afternoon.  Finally, in praying to know what state of thinking needed correcting, an angel thought made it clear:  more love!  It didn't take long when thinking got aligned with divine Love, God for complete freedom to come.  As it always will, when consciousness is cleansed of un-Christlike thoughts.

        The woman who discovered my religion, Mary Baker Eddy, points out in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in her definition of "man" found on page 475:  "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique."
And being the idea, the reflection, of God, Love, should we not be loving?  It is being the opposite, taking in resentment, self-righteousness, ill will, et al that disturbs the harmonious functioning of thought and eventually, our sense of body.  The way out is always available to us, and it involves letting divine Love fill thought to the exclusion of all unlike itself.
What can impact a consciousness flooded with the love Christ Jesus lived and enjoined upon every one of his followers?

        Going around entertaining un-loving thinking can be deadly, and it needs to be gotten at as quickly as possible. The worst thing about such blatant disobedience to God?  A sense of estrangement from Him Who is all Love.  Not that He ever stops caring about us, but God is not going to indulge us while we indulge in a little hate, now is He?

        The Bible makes it clear that to stay connected to our heavenly Father the following is required:  "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."  (1 John 4:16)