Faith: The winning evidence in health trials

I had a hot-wire moment yesterday, where Wire A met Wire B and then buzz... ZAP! I had inspiration-ignition.  There is a certain Bible passage that has bugged me forever. The apostle Paul wrote, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) 

I mean… HUH?

Faith is a word that has often troubled me. Perhaps it is because I have had it tossed at me as a descriptor for what I do. As a Christian Science practitioner, I pray for people. What I do is the equivalent of walking into dark rooms and flipping on light switches. I don’t create light. The source is there. I just help people experience it.

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Sure human faith is involved to the extent that I am trusting my understanding of how the whole light switch thing works. I suppose I have faith that if I do my part, the people I pray for will experience the Light, but it isn’t faith healing unless one would also consider flipping the light switch when entering their homes an act of faith. To me, it is just common sense. If there is a Principle, God or law of healing (Light), present and available, it seems perfectly natural to turn it on our problems. So I do it through prayer.

But I diverge…

So yesterday I came across another passage that has bugged me for years – so much so that I have often passed quickly over it when reading Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health. “When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.” (P. 368)

Okay. Again, HUH?

Obviously an important point is being made if the “more faith” thing is supposed to result in “no fail’ healing results. But honestly, the thought of having “more faith” has meant little more to me than the thought of holding one’s breathe a little bit longer.

OK. That’s the setup. Here is where Wire A met Wire B.

The “more faith” passage came up in my reading yesterday and I took it on as a challenge. What is this statement asking of me? Then I thought of Paul’s words. “Now faith is the substance of…, the evidence of…”

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Wait. Faith is substance. Faith is solid, present, tangible substance. Faith is evidence. Faith is solid, present, tangible evidence.

Buzz... ZAP.

I pictured a court case where a sick person is accused of being ill. If I were the defendant, I would want to put on my best evidence so the judge and jury would decide in favor of "Not guilty". What would the substance of that evidence need to be in order to get the best verdict? Taking a cue from Mary Baker Eddy – more evidence of the truth of being than of error, more evidence of Spirit than of matter, more evidence of living than of dying, more evidence of God than of man.

Examining Truth, Spirit, Life, God to determine the case, what judge or jury could convict?

Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. Truth, Spirit, Life, God is what we look at to determine the case. It is what we lean on to determine health.

The light switch was flipped for me yesterday. The wires connected. The demand to have more faith isn’t a pressure to perform. It is an invitation to examine and lean on the true evidence of God and of man’s relation to Him. In the light of the true evidence no material suppositions can prevent one from healing the sick or destroying error.

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"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings."
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p.vii

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