Defense against the flu
Earlier this year, a global flu pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization. For the past few months, news reports have announced the expectation that a second wave of the H1N1 flu virus in a severer form will be coming this fall. As someone who has relied on Christian Science for healing, I have found great comfort and release from fear in the promises of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings, especially her textbook on healing, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
Both books bring out the importance of resisting the influence of fear in the face of disease. In fact, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Fear is the fountain of sickness, and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease" (pp. 391-392).
The news media unwittingly promote disease through constant reports that make people fearful. Our protection lies in turning to God, the one Mind, and understanding God's allness. This also enables us to resist getting caught up in a tide of opinion and fear. As the Bible declares, "... the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him" (Deut. 4:35). In the allness of God's universal harmony and goodness, there can be no sickness of any kind, because only good is present.
The Bible also describes man – both male and female – as made in the image and likeness of God. As God is Spirit, our true substance is spiritual. As we understand God to be harmonious, perfect Life, we see increasing evidence of unchangeable harmony and perfection in our own lives. Only what originates in God has reality in the man and woman of God's creating. When we understand even a little of God's ever-present perfection, we recognize that only good has power, only good can touch us. Evil – whether in the form of disease, germs, microbes – cannot enter spiritual being.
Not long ago, I had an opportunity to apply these ideas. Our local community chorus, of which I am a member, had been practicing for four months in preparation for our spring concerts. The final week was ahead of us, with two long rehearsals followed by three concerts At the prior rehearsal, it seemed as though half the chorus was sick with something. A few days later, I started feeling ill with congestion, and the thought came that I might lose my voice. I was thinking, "Oh no, not now! Not this week!" The chorus needed me, and I didn't want to let them down.
As I turned to God for healing, I realized that I had been accepting the illness reported by others as a reality instead of praying to see that no one could be affected by disease – whether or not it was contagious. I began at once to refuse consent to the claim that anything could enter my being that could make me sick. I affirmed that I dwell in the healthful, germ-free atmosphere of God, Spirit. I declared firmly that congestion was no part of my being as God had made me, and that in the allness of God, nothing exists that could disturb the absolute harmony of my being. I also prayed for the chorus in general, to know that every one of them was safe in God's allness.
The next day I was well and went to our rehearsal. I also noticed that there was no suggestion of sickness among any of the other chorus members.
Each of us is totally spiritual, the sons and daughters of an all-loving God. As such, we dwell in the wholesome, healthful atmosphere of Spirit, in the allness of God's goodness and love. There, life is entirely spiritual, harmonious, and filled with well-being. Realizing these truths enables us to prove our freedom from disease.
