Our lives are the gift of divine Life, God, and Life is always what’s truly going on. It’s Life that we are naturally drawn to, and we are benefited by steadfastly holding it in thought. Despite this, however, there are times when we can feel a pull to focus on death – if grieving a personal loss, when reading reports of a war with mounting casualties, or even when coming out of a movie centered on a tragic fatality.
So how do we get back to and follow that natural pull to Life if we’re feeling a fascination with mortality? I was alerted to the need for this at a time when I had developed an unhealthy appetite for true crime stories. I saw that I was filling my thought with death experiences in a way that was bringing me insecurity, not satisfaction, and undermining my clarity and confidence in God, Spirit, as the Life of all.
What brought me freedom was realizing that the desire to be a help and a healer for others was more compelling to me than any morbid impulsion. Turning instead to influences that would lead to the understanding of Life as God, which is the only sound basis for pursuing joy and goodness, I soon found spiritual interests vastly more satisfying. In this refreshed mental environment, ideas on important subjects became less cloudy, and my time was filled with finding fulfillment in divine Life and in praying for others.
The reason we are drawn to Life is that we are the children of divine Life, God, and our true, spiritual identity finds expression in a deep desire for divine good. We thirst to know the real, spiritual nature of our lives the way a plant requires water. So when someone is troubled or curious over death, this longing can be quenched by gaining a deeper understanding of what is true and eternal.
While grief or concern at someone’s passing can lead to a fear that the Science of eternal Life is inconsistent or impractical, prayer can guide us to the living waters of Christ as we listen for God leading us to the healing response that will meet the need.
This was the case for a student of Christian Science who broached the subject of death with her Christian Science Sunday School teacher. The teacher realized that bringing the question to Sunday School showed that the student yearned for a spiritual and trustworthy response. So, with the tenderest care, the teacher explained that through spiritual sense, we begin to see that life is our real and eternal condition.
Spiritual sense is a capacity that’s natural to us as children of God, Spirit. By it, we know God as the divine Life that is holding us all safe in Life. Spiritual sense awakens us to know death as spiritually impossible. And the spiritual understanding of immortal being is available to us right now. This provided the student with exactly what she needed to settle her concerns about death.
Christian Science shows that the actual state of existence for us all is immortality and goodness, not mortality and evil. Knowing God to be the source and maintainer of all that is good, real, and permanent overcomes fear and brings healing. Christ Jesus proved this through his many remarkable cures and his own resurrection from death and taught the power of this truth to his followers. He said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” and “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death” (John 8:32, 51).
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy pulls no punches when it states, “It is a sin to believe that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life, and this Life must be brought to light by the understanding that there is no death, as well as by other graces of Spirit. We must begin, however, with the more simple demonstrations of control, and the sooner we begin the better” (pp. 428-429).
Cleaning out whatever influences promote mortality rather than Life in our thinking is a good place to begin. Each one of us is made in the likeness of God and forever reflects the permanence, freedom, health, and continuity of divine Life. It is a joy to be drawn to this spiritual fact – to know Life, God, as the source and maintainer of life for all.
Adapted from an editorial published in the July 15, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
