Dorothy Polatin - The Christian Science Journal, Jan. 2008

I had an experience in my sophomore year of high school that really challenged my ability to feel God in my life. I swim on my high school swim team. I’m always nervous before races, but this particular year, fear paralyzed me. I felt nauseous throughout each race. I swim the long races—200– and 500–meter freestyle—so that’s a long time to feel sick and sluggish.

As always, I turned to God for help, but my prayers were empty. I felt as though God had forgotten me. I even called a Christian Science practitioner for help, but I completely fell apart at Sectionals and States—two big swim meets. This situation caused me to greatly doubt my ability to pray. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. I never doubted God, but I did doubt my ability to practice Christian Science.

My mom was a great help. She assured me that God had not forgotten me and that I would be able to find healing. However, she told me not to wait until the next swim season to pray about this. So the summer between my sophomore and junior year was spent in prayer and study. Every day I read the Bible Lesson, which consists of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health. I also read the Journal and Christian Science Sentinel magazines and listened to Radio Sentinel. I saw how other people, who often had much worse problems than mine, prayed and were healed. That was greatly encouraging.

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James Spencer - The Christian Science Journal, Aug. ‘07

The Prayer That Heals Defining Christian Science treatment is a humbling task because its Principle—divine, eternal Love—is infinite, and therefore the outpouring of that Love has endless facets and limitless applications. Treatment is—must be—always fresh and new, like sunbeams pouring out of the sun. It can’t be stereotyped in any way. In fact, it’s not really Christian Science treatment if it even hints at ritual, thoughtless repetition, or formula.

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Julie Furbush - Christian Science Sentinel, June 4, 2007

I didn’t realize my way of approaching my life-schedule was messed up . . . until my life-schedule got messed up.

My whole plan was to go to India to study abroad during my junior year of college. I’d jotted it down (with a permanent marker) on my mental calendar—about four years before the travel date —and fully intended to follow through with it. I admired the Indian students who passed me in class or on the subway. And I was appropriately in love with the idea of trekking through the country, seeing the colorful Hindu prayer flags, and eating naan (traditional flatbread). 

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Jane M. Brueckner - The Christian Science Journal, Feb. 2006

During a bus tour in November 1999, I fell while carrying my luggage in a hotel. It was a hard fall and so painful that I felt it wise to go to the emergency room. The diagnosis was a broken shoulder.

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Ali Tozier - Christian Science Sentinel, Oct. 1, 2007

My mind was churning as I contemplated and planned. What could I do next summer? It was only the fall of my sophomore year at Williams College, but I was already forecasting months ahead of time. I felt that if I was on the ball, I could do anything.

I’ve been told more than once that I over-think. Whether I’m behind the starting block at a swim meet or planning my major field of study, my mind is usually running like a faucet—and it can be hard to shut it off.

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Heather Harmon - the Christian Science Sentinel, July 2, 2007

A few summers ago, I was a counselor at a summer camp for Christian Scientists.

One evening, my cabin of six middle-school-aged girls went bumper tubing on the lake—a water sport where you ride in a tube that’s attached by a rope to a powerboat. The girls were having a great time, laughing as they took turns in the tube and enthusiastically bumping along the waves. After everyone had had a turn, my co-counselor and I decided to take a ride together.

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Kevin Henneberger - the Christian Science Sentinel, Dec. 17, 2007

A few years ago, I didn’t know where my life was headed. I’d just begun college, and I had a growing feeling of uncertainty about the future, which turned into a fear of the future. I didn’t know which major to choose or which friends to hang out with, and I found being a college student was more of a struggle than I’d ever imagined.

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Jyoti Bajaj - The Christian Science Journal, Oct. 2007

My life changed after I came to know Christian Science two years ago when one of my neighborhood friends told me about Science and Health. After I began reading the book, I came out of my problems one by one, and I experienced lots of blessings.

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The Christian Science Journal, Nov. ‘07

Six 20-somethings respond.

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. — Psalms 106:1

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Patricia Tupper Hyatt - The Christian Science Journal, Jan. 2000

PEOPLE IN VARIOUS SCHOOLS of medicine are reevaluating the conventional concept of body. They’re prompted to consider how beliefs affect body, and some are exploring the possibility that body might be something very different from what has been previously believed—not just how the body operates, but the very essence of it. They ask, If the body isn’t a machine distinct from mind, then what is it? And how can one gain control over it?

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