Meet Scott. During a routine prenatal exam with his wife, the doctors discovered their baby had an erratic heartbeat. After praying as taught in Christian Science, the heartbeat normalized by the end of the exam.

photo illustrated by Abhishek Kumar

A guest post written by Diana Colarossi

December is the “gift giving” month when religious holidays become an occasion for exchanging tokens of love. January, on the other hand, isn’t thought of in these terms – and neither is any other month of the year – but valuable gifts are given every day of the year.

Millions of people give caring gifts throughout the year by volunteering. According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, in America more than 62.8 million adults (excluding minors) volunteered in 2010, logging more than 8.1 billion hours of service. The value of this gift is estimated at $173 billion. Think of what all of those gifts included: gifts of food for those who are hungry, permanent housing for those needing shelter, babysitting for parents so they can work, caring for and finding loving homes for animals that would otherwise be euthanized.

There’s another way to give. Christians are instructed to give the priceless gift that they have received, the love of the Christ. Christ Jesus loved us perfectly, as we were created. He lived and taught others of God’s exalted view of His creation, which healed all appearances of disease, death, and sin.

This teaching of God’s exalted view of humanity enabled Peter and John, in the book of Acts, to heal a man they encountered at a temple. When they arrive at a temple at the time of prayer, they see a man who was born lame requesting alms from them as they are entering the temple. Peter looks at the man and says, “…Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” These two men gave a gift more valuable than silver and gold; they healed him of a lifelong disability. They had accepted God’s view of this man, and it in turn became the gift of healing they gave.

Each day I try to remember to do what Peter wrote in his first epistle, “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Christ Jesus’ magnificent and priceless gift has been given to everyone and in turn is to be given for all time. So, we can be assured that we have a perennial gift to receive and give each and every day of the year.

photo illustrated by Kevin Wong

Article first published on Blogcritics

My daughter, a mother of three young boys, recently asked herself what she could do to help protect the environment and decided as a family they would do what they could. They were chosen as one of the three families in the nation to be spotlighted for their efforts. This past weekend as the film crews were working, I had the opportunity to listen to what they had accomplished. I was impressed with the fact that they didn’t have to dramatically change their lifestyle.

They walked to their local Farmer’s Market for their fresh foods – not to save money but because these foods were fresher and supported the local farmers. They headed up a fundraiser that saved a marine teaching station on the local pier used by school children and the public. They decided not to use chemicals to clean the house; sparkling water bottles were replaced with a sparkling water maker and regular water bottles were replaced with filtered tap water, saving space at landfills. This family was living in a manner that they felt was not only good for them, but also good for their community and the environment in general. They were developing habits and attitudes about their environment and educating themselves in the process.

As I listened to them being interviewed, I noticed that the reporters were not only interested in the discussion of the family’s physical environment, but also their mental rationale. The questions, “Why are you doing this? What did you hope to accomplish? What do your friends think about your lifestyle?” were answered with sincerity and consistency. Clearly they had decided to protect their environment and in so doing let the environment work for them.

Having the environment work for a person is important when it comes to health, too, because health and a person’s environment are intricately linked. In “Better Neighborhoods Linked to Better Health,” Jens Ludwig of the University of Chicago feels that environment could be about as important as health care in fostering families’ well-being. “Investments outside the health care system can be really important complements to spending within the health care system,” he said, later adding, “there’s an effect on these really important health outcomes that’s in the ballpark of lifestyle and medical interventions.” In other words: Environment matters.

As the influence of the environment on health continues to grow, so does the concept that health is more than maintaining the physical body. Instead it is about the whole person.

While pursuing the concept of the whole person, many are seeking to know what mind-body connections, alternative medicines, and complementary therapies are. A 2002 NIH study listed ten complementary therapies used by the public. Of the ten listed, prayer was the most used (43%). Along with prayer being the most used CAM, scientists have been studying the power of prayer. In one such study highlighted in “Tap into the Power of Prayer,” those who pray are able to demonstrate certain qualities to a greater degree than those who don’t pray. The article reports a landmark study in the 1980’s that states, “…prayer was tested in heart patients in a large hospital. Half of the patients were prayed for; half were not. The results revealed a significant therapeutic effect from the prayer.

Isn’t it interesting that an individual has the power to change his environment, which affects his health?

I was interested recently in a comment my daughter made during a frustrating freeway delay. She said it was not possible to get to a meeting they were to attend. Her seven-year-old son quietly stated, “Mom, you don’t know that!” The mental environment changed and they did get to the meeting on time. It would appear that the frontiers of health and environment are beginning to be redefined with mind-body connections opening new vistas.

Thought is a powerful force.

Photo illustrated by DonkeyHotey

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, February 7, 2012, that seniors who receive Social Security cannot reject their legal right to Medicare benefits.

Court rules that those enrolled in Social Security must enroll in Medicare

A federal appeals court ruled on Feb. 7, 2012 that senior citizens who receive Social Security cannot reject their legal rights to Medicare benefits. The five senior citizen plaintiffs—among whom is former House Majority Leader Dick Armey—argued that they prefer their private insurance plans, and that the policy compelling Social Security recipients to enroll in Medicare violates the fundamental right of the individual to choose his own form of health care without consequence.

According to The Fund for Personal Liberty, “the lawsuit argued that:

• The Social Security Act and Medicare Act state clearly that applying for Social Security monthly benefits and enrolling in Medicare are voluntary and that the applications for each of these programs are not dependent on the application for the other. For the new SSA rules to make enrolling in Medicare mandatory violates the Social Security Act and Medicare Act as well as Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution.
• Forced participation in Medicare infringes on a citizen’s right to privacy and violates that individual’s right to make necessary choices about his or her own health care, and, accordingly, violates the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
• The new SSA rules were put into place without undergoing the required “notice” and “comment” rule-making requirements. The policies should have been published in the Federal Register and open to comment by the general public prior to implementation. Not doing so violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act.”

The plaintiffs announced their intent to appeal the decision “even if it takes them two-and-a-half more years to win the right to make their own healthcare choices, rather than be beholden to a bureaucracy that knows and cares nothing about their individual circumstances,” said Kent Masterson Brown, lead attorney in the case.

You can read about this in The Christian Science Monitor as well. Stay tuned for further updates.

Photo illustrated by Matt Billings

A guest post written by Robert B. Clark, Committee on Publication for Florida

American jazz musician Charles Mingus, speaking of songwriting, once said, “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, is creativity.”

A Fox News Health article, “4 Secrets to Never Getting Sick” gives us four simple to stay healthy:

1) Get plenty of fresh air
2) Relax
3) Wash your hands
4) Get plenty of sleep

The article reminded me of Robert Fulghum’s bestseller (7 million copies) from the mid-eighties, All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten.

Fulghum’s simple wisdom struck a universal chord and reminded us that we have a choice. We can either surrender to the theory that life is chaotic, complex and confusing, or we can focus on the simple rules of living that tend to make us healthy and happy.

The Fox News article, although couched in the simplicity of 4 easy steps, is actually based on scientific research from Yale University and the University of Michigan, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it made me wonder whether we haven’t made health care more complicated than it needs to be. We seem to have become a nation that relies too heavily on expensive, drug and surgery based medicine instead of simple healthy living principles.

But this is beginning to change.

According to everydayhealth.com “About 40 percent of American adults currently use some type of alternative therapy to relieve stress, help manage health conditions, or just promote general wellness.”

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine confirms that over 85% of those alternatives involve some sort of prayer.

USNews reported in 2008 that, “In recent years, a growing number of rigorous studies have shown that spirituality—including prayer, meditation, and attendance at religious services—benefits health in ways that science hasn’t fully explained. Among other effects, regular worship and other spiritual acts appear to lengthen life expectancy, strengthen immunity, improve the body’s response to stress, and boost other measures of physical health.”

Indiana State Rep. Vanessa Summers, writing for the IndyStar this past September, told us that “The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently studied the future of health and health care in America and forecasts the gradual adoption of an expanded view of health by the medical establishment. This view incorporates social, mental, and spiritual factors.”

So where does this leave us? Moving in the right direction—away from over-dependence on crisis oriented, drug and surgery based medicine that we can no longer afford, and toward preventive health care that harnesses the affordable simplicity of healthy thinking, healthy living…and prayer.

Photo illustrated by Beverly & Pack

A guest post written by Lani Meanley Collins

For me, it takes concerted daily effort to overcome the hurry and worry – can I get all the things completed and respond to all the people and the circumstances that demand or need attention? I am reluctantly and humbly coming to the conclusion that the answer is, “No, not alone.” I ask, sometimes minute by minute, “Dear Lord, what should I do right now?”

Sharing this idea of reaching out to God is not intended to exclude anyone. The purpose is to raise thought above the din of “life” to the comfort and security of Life in God (or whatever it is you rely upon) especially when the human fails or disappoints. Lifting thought enables each of us to give gratitude for our many blessings.

In my undergraduate work in Religious Studies, I was fascinated when I found common threads running through many religions. For the majority in the world, the higher, holy being is not called Christ. For some it is not even called God. But the concept that there is a higher or wiser something is part of every religion.

The Christ, or whatever you call that higher something, is talking to each of us all of the time. Are we listening? One of the ways He expresses His love to us is by giving us ideas. Ideas come from Him through many different places, persons, and things, in many different ways. Are we, the nation, the world listening? It doesn’t take everyone – although that would be outstanding – it takes some of us listening. At one time it may be you, and at another time it may be me, listening and moving with Him to help leaven the disquiet in the world.

The Bible says, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” What is interesting is that Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, defines rock as “Spiritual foundation; Truth” in her well-known book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. So, the quote from Psalms could read, “when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to Truth (God) that is higher than I.

My to-do lists (sometimes they feel like worry lists) can sweep me into a state of thinking that is anything but receptive. Are we shutting out inspiration, those angel messengers that speak to us all the time? Or are we letting the angel thoughts lighten the load, guide and move us through our day, leading the way? I cannot think of a single time that I regretted taking a moment to quiet my thought and listen for inspiration.

So the next time you look at your to-do list, or begin to worry about the challenges of a family member, friend, our country, or the world, think about what the psalmist said, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Inspiration will come. God’s love is here, now.

photo illustrated by RamondPhotography

by Don Ingwerson

Article first published on Blogcritics.

Most of us have very efficient ways of compartmentalizing aspects of our life. There’s a time for community service, spending time with the family, recreation, vacations, exercise, and fixing things around the house. These plans make us feel like we’re propelling ourselves forward in a balanced manner – keeping peace with our family members and showing attention to everything that seems important in our lives.

But wouldn’t it be fantastic if all these tasks had a thread running through them that gave us a greater sense of inner peace and satisfaction? In other words, a life that blessed others in such a way that it gives evidence of a spiritual power within. In this vast country of ours, bigger always seems better. And yet, how wonderful it would be if I didn’t feel that the faster I run the further behind I get. Many characteristics that surmount the pressures of bigness or busyness come from very small and seemingly unimportant deeds. These small, insignificant deeds affect daily happiness, create joy, reduce stress, promote satisfaction, and lay a solid foundation for the more lasting qualities that point to the self we desire. This past week my daughter shared with me just such an account. It had that thread I mentioned earlier.

My daughter’s management team at her shopping center has been working to create a memorable experience that shows genuine care and appreciation for each guest so that they will spread the word of their excellent service. One example of this excellent service was when a call was received from a customer who had visited the shopping center the night before. This woman shared how she had arrived home and realized that she had left her Chanel handbag and its contents hanging on the back of a public restroom door. Because someone very dear to her had given the handbag to her, it held great sentimental value.

When she realized she had left it, she was absolutely distraught. She called the concierge an hour after she had left the restroom and was told that her handbag had already been turned in and was waiting for her. At this point, she broke into tears of gratitude. She didn’t even ask what was inside, as she assumed the contents had been emptied. When she arrived to pick it up, she was surprised and delighted to find her cash and credit cards were still inside. This woman then asked who had found her bag and was told it was a member of the housekeeping staff. She was able to thank the staff member and tried to give her a nice tip. The woman who had found the purse explained that she loved helping people and was very happy to have the opportunity to return it to its owner.

The thread of honesty and trust running through the actions of each team member was the foundation for service in this situation. Although this team was not set up for anything other than customer service, health also thrives on these same qualities.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil in Spontaneous Happiness, these same elements of goodness, gratitude, happiness, joy, and satisfaction are very important to the health of individuals.

This story is interesting to me, not because I have been searching for ways to reach customer service goals, but because I have been identifying characteristics that are health giving. In one act, the housekeeping staff member provided an example of what Moses was talking about in the 10 Commandments, Jesus with the Beatitudes, and Mary Baker Eddy when she described man as being a reflection of God as Truth, Principle, and Love.

The shopping center team goals clearly accomplished the external values in this example of providing a shopping center where people cared. Yet it was the intrinsic values of satisfaction, honesty, and trust that activated the thread of those internal values of the individual. Dr. Weil comments, “the scientific evidence of the positive effects on health from feelings of satisfaction and expressions of gratitude is really stunning.”

Jesus healing a woman with issue of blood - Photo illustrated by Sharon Mollerus

A guest post written by Jennifer Glaser

The Santa Monica Christian Science Church recently hosted an area Interfaith Meeting to discuss the topic: “Science and Faith: Are these compatible, in conflict, or irrelevant to each other?” Although spirituality has been the core of healing as far back as human existence, physical scientists, including those in the medical community, have not recognized it as legitimate method until recently. Increasingly, though, modern medicine is convinced that a holistic approach to science and spirituality is necessary for healing.

This meeting was opened with prayer by a Sikh member who expressed gratitude for all the goodness of Mother/Father God, for all life, and for the opportunity to hold the meeting with friends of many faiths. After the prayer, the discussion of science and faith started with a Muslim member who asked for a Christian Scientist to explain what is meant by the words Christian and science, why they are linked, and how this teaching can heal the body.

This was answered by a member raised as an Orthodox Jew who related how she had witnessed a smashed face injured by a fall that was healed to physical perfection within one hour. There had no logical explanation for the fast change. The teenager who was the victim just said, “I’m a Christian Scientist and so I prayed.” This member just had to know how this “biblical-like” healing had occurred and so began to study Christian Science, to practice it, and became a life-long student – proving many ways that Christian Science prayer can heal all inharmonious situations in life.

After this personal account, a passage from Science and Health was read to explain what science means, “The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man.” The importance of Jesus’ demonstrations of healing and his transcending many physical laws of matter, including the threat that our being is temporary, was shared. Understanding Jesus’ demonstrations allows for the understanding of our eternal and spiritual being as God’s image. It was also explained that the Christ is the nature of God that we can all understand to follow Jesus’ example.

After an engaging discussion, the meeting closed with a sense of joy in being able to share how each person’s understanding was used in overcoming life’s challenges on a daily basis. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share Christian Science with other people of faith and hear how they conduct their lives in service to their communities.

Photo illustrated by Gilles Gonthier

A guest post by Keith Wommack, Committee on Publication for Texas

It was 3:30 in the afternoon. A squirrel rested, unaware he was about to be an afternoon snack for an approaching owl. So, I started my rental car, which startled the squirrel, and he dashed to safety.

My actions saved one, yet, irritated another. Then I wondered about the actions that had landed the young people, I was about to meet, into trouble. What had caused them to act or react?

I was sitting in my rental in the parking lot of a baseball field near the Barbara Culver Juvenile Detention Center in Midland, Texas. I had arrived early and decided to take thirty minutes to collect my thoughts, a little spiritual reasoning.

I was told I would be at the Center for about an hour. Yet, I had no clue about how many people I’d be speaking with. Would it be two or three? Maybe it would be four of us, around a table.

I pulled into the center’s lot, parked, and announced myself into the speaker. The door opened and I walked through the metal detector.

A guard brought me to the classroom where I’d be speaking. I asked, “How many will be here?” He said, “Thirty-one.” I thought, “Wow, you have trouble talking to your own two kids.”

At the front of the empty classroom I paused to get my bearings. My prayer went something like this, “Well, here I am. Thank you for leading me, animating me. Show me how I express your wisdom. Keep reminding me that each one that comes into this room belongs to you. Please, put your words in my mouth.”

Then the procession began. Thirty-one of them, hands behind their backs, slowly made their way to rows of chairs. Thirty-one orange jumpsuits. Four young women. Twenty-seven young men. All in their teens, except two boys, age ten.

Thirty-one. Not one smile. Not one hello. Their body language screamed, “Disdain.”

I was introduced: “This is Mr. Wommack. He’s here to talk with you. Listen up. If you make a noise, disrupt, slump in your seats, or are in any way are out of order you will lose all privileges the rest of the day.” I felt like the vulnerable squirrel.

A quick battle took place in my thought. “What chance do you have in helping these kids? They’re just losers. You’ll never get their attention, don’t kid yourself!”

An angel message took over, “Are they really losers? Haven’t you been learning that each child of Life, God, is really spiritual, and spiritually dynamic? Each expresses the dignity of Life?”

I began to speak, trying to look past the orange. I told them about myself. Then I was lead to challenge them. I challenged them to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. A thermometer just rises or falls according to what is happening around it. However, a thermostat, on the other hand, regulates.

I challenged them to be healers, spiritual healers. I explained that by what they will learn in their spiritual journeys they could be regulators, thermostats. They could turn situations higher, holier. Everyone they will meet would be happier and healthier because of having met them.

I told them that Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, healed others when his shadow fell on them. Just so, the shadow or powerful mental weight of their growing spiritual maturity and understanding would help others. The more weight they put into the side of good, the more good they will do. They will use laws, spiritual laws, which heal minds and bodies.

The next hour and a half flew by. What started out as 31 orange jumpsuits, turned into 31 precious friends. They smiled, they laughed, and they clapped.

At the end, a young man asked, “What is it like to come in here and change someone’s life?” This dear one, when he first walked in, looked like the most defiant and difficult. The way he sat, arms folded and scowl on his face, I thought he’d be the last to ask such a question. Yet, what a question!

The smile on his face and tenderness in his eyes told me that he was taking up my challenge.

As I drove away from the Center, I was filled with a spiritual sense of life. I felt and understood that each life was a blessing. Life doesn’t have to be vulnerable or confined. Life is about new beginnings. We have choices.

Find Keith on Twitter:@TexasCS
Related post: 5 Simple Things to Help You be a Healer

Photo illustrated by lawtherjamie

A guest post written by Bonnie Prest

With the holidays behind us, Christmas seemed to have come and gone as quickly as ever! However, as fleeting as the holidays were, they still showed me something new this season.

My husband Tim passed on at the beginning of 2011 and I have spent the balance of the year getting a better perspective on the situation – a spiritual perspective. Although I made some good progress during the year through prayer and study of the Bible, it wasn’t until the holidays rolled around that what I really needed to know was revealed to me.

Tim’s employer always hosted an annual holiday/recognition event before Thanksgiving. My husband and I found it was a great way to kick off the holiday season with gratitude and appreciation of others. But this fall I attended alone. It was a challenging weekend, not only for me, but for others as well; the company had recently been sold and this was to be our final company gathering. The night of the party emotions were running high, but I was still warmly and genuinely comforted by so many who knew Tim well.

During the course of the evening, I ended up talking with one of the employees who had worked under Tim. He had been a constant source of concern for my husband because he frequently “bumped heads” with a fellow employee in his department. In great sincerity, he shared with me something very special: now, whenever he and his co-worker would begin to argue, they would almost immediately stop – because of Tim. My husband had tried to impress upon them cooperation and genuinely respecting each other. This young man also shared with me that he never respected my husband more than he did now after his passing. He valued more than ever what they had discussed together about his future and his outlook on life.

Needless to say, what he said had a real impact on me. Even as I write this, I feel my heart soften.

As Christmas approached, I thought about this conversation more and more. I realized that Tim’s life was drawing on the same life-source as Jesus, and Tim was also expressing individually the same Christ-spirit expressed by Jesus. As Jesus still influences and impacts lives today, so too does my husband. Maybe not on the same level, but nonetheless in the same way. I had to ask myself, “You never grieve over Christ Jesus, so why are you grieving over Tim?”

Even if I can’t see him with my physical senses, Tim’s Christ-spirit is very much alive and well today. In the Bible Paul says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Mary Baker Eddy, who strived to follow Christ Jesus’ healing example in every way, defines Christ as the “nature of God” and says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to follow the Christ-example . . .” She later wrote in the Christian Science Journal, a monthly publication she founded, “No change has been wrought when we say, ‘My friend has just died;’ the friend is saying in the full consciousness of existence and with its same surroundings, – ‘I never died. It was but a dream I had; for life is going on with me the same as before . . . their mistaken views of life have parted us; their belief that life ended with me, or took upon itself a new form, has prevented their understanding the reality of my present existence, – hence our separation through these opposite beliefs . . . Further communication between us is impossible, until their belief changes through the footsteps that mine has done and becomes like mine. This change will be named death, but that is their belief of it, not ours who have rent the veil that hides the mystery of a moment.’”

Jesus’ ministry, healing of the dead and his own resurrection, defines this Christ-spirit, which he so absolutely demonstrated in his final ascension. I am so grateful for this true understanding of Christmas and of my husband’s individual Christ-spirit, which lives now and always, and can be appreciated and experienced by seeing life even now through a spiritual sense of life and the lens of Christ – as did Tim’s co-worker! I found it was time I gave up the belief that we must be sick and die to “go to the Father” and instead we go to the Father through spiritual growth and the continuity of life.