John Robert Howell
(Written for the student of Christian Science)
Our loving Father-Mother God never leaves us comfortless, not for one second, and is a solid fortress in which we can always find refuge. We therefore can and should expect quick and permanent healings. Truth, Life, and Love correctly understood and applied area all-powerful and instant in action.
However, it is easy to allow prayer, thought, and study to become perfunctory, uninspired, and rote, even if one seems to be allowing adequate time for these activities. Imbuing each day's prayer and study with listening and receptivity to God's angel thoughts cannot help but unfold healing and progress.
A feeling of spiritual ennui is not necessarily the result of a failure to keep proper ward over the quality of one's thinking, however. It is easy, in short, to fall into any of a variety of mental ruts. These ruts invariably lead back to waymarks one passed long ago or to stale, stereotyped conclusions.
Many years ago I worked in some old oil fields. I was told that oil from the wells had contributed to the World War I efforts of the United States. After a few decades so much oil had been pumped that the original extraction methods were no longer economical. At this point what are called secondary extraction methods were employed. These involved the pumping of water or natural gas into strategically located injection wells, thereby "washing" or pushing the remaining oil towards the production wells.
This worked well for many years, but in time this method too failed to yield economical results. What began to happen was that the injected water or gas began to cut a channel in the subterranean sand directly to the producing wells. The result was, of course, that the producing wells began to retrieve little more than the water or gas injected a few h ours or days before. It became a kind of giant, unproductive circulation system.
The same thing can result, if one mechanically returns to truths, thoughts, and prayers which have proved helpful in the past. Over time one's thought and understanding naturally change and develop, and so must one's prayer and thinking. Adults seldom read for their own pleasure the nursery rhymes and children's stories that produced so much please and delight when they were children. They have outgrown them. The Word of God, though, is ever fresh, apprehensible, and effectual, and as one is willing to humbly accept his innate unity with God, good, he can and will partake of this daily bread.
Christ Jesus' own disciples apparently hit one of these spiritual flat spots in their work when they failed to heal an epileptic child. Jesus attributed it to their unbelief or lack of faith, or, one might say, to their need for greater spiritual understanding and inspiration. This higher state of thought was obviously attainable since the Master had already proven it so by healing the boy. (Matthew 17:14-21)
If unopposed and unchallenged, mortal belief would seem to impose on man a sort of spiritual entropy, a belief that everything eventually runs down. How can one counteract and overcome this false claim? By striving to make the study of the Bible and writings of Mary Baker Eddy more fresh, humble, and insightful. By striving to imbibe what one is learning and live it, thus keeping the study of Truth from becoming merely an abstract and theoretical exercise in metaphysics.
Seeking to attain and maintain a purer, more spiritually elevated thought puts new wine into fresh skins, and so one gets more spiritual traction in his daily experience. Thinking about God and good is not the same thing as actually gaining an understanding of and expressing Him.
The Master Christian has outlined the way all Christians and Christian Scientists must go. And this in time will make healing work instantaneous. Progress will come not in baby steps, but in leaps.
