Me: “Sing? Did you say sing? How could you say that at a time like this?”
Mom: “Oh, honey, you know the devil hates a song. Sing a hymn with me!”
Me (to myself): “So she wants a song, does she? I’ll give her a song. Let’s see how she likes that old drinking song …” – and I started to sing one.
At this point, Mom started to laugh. She even had to pull over and stop the car, because she was laughing so hard! Finally I started laughing, too. This continued until a sense of peace filled with happiness settled over both of us.
Then from Mom came the “I told you so,” which started another bout of raucous laughter. “OK, OK,” I said, “I get it!” So we sang a hymn from the “Christian Science Hymnal” that begins, “In heavenly Love abiding” (Anna L. Waring, No. 148).
I felt the presence of harmony. That day, as a senior in high school, I was lifted out of a very intense sense of hopelessness and could see a clear path out of recurring depression. Humor had broken the spell of gloom, and singing a hymn had raised me up to a more prayerful state of thought, where I was ready to entertain the presence of divine Love, God. I recognized the ever-presence of spiritual harmony right where despair had threatened.
So it was true what Mom had been telling me about the unquenchable joy that God is always providing. God was imparting it, and from then on I knew that we can consent to it – and express it.
Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, put it this way: “This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man – governed by God, his perfect Principle – is sinless and eternal” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 304).
I love the thought that sorrow is not the master of joy! I wondered how substantial those dark thoughts could have been if they could vanish into thin air like that. I found in their place a profound sense of peace – which I’ve learned is always there. Going forward, I would not be so easily fooled by defeatism.
No matter how fierce the darkness may seem, joy and its attendant humor can play a vital role in healing, breaking through mental darkness so that we can see and feel the good already present.
Once when she was a toddler, one of my children burned her hand. I immediately lifted my heart in prayer as she ran off crying. I ran after her to comfort her and make sure she was OK, while endeavoring to see her as spiritual, and therefore invulnerable.
I reassured her that God was a very present help and would not allow her to suffer. She turned to me with a quick look of disapproval and said emphatically, “I know that!” She had experienced healing before and had already felt God’s love mightily in her life. In this case, I felt that she was demanding that I show my trust in God, too. As a spiritual idea of God, of course she knew divine Love – she was the expression of it!
With her comment, her face looked so stern for a three-year-old. I couldn’t help myself and started to laugh. She snuggled up close to me, joined in laughter, and before long fell asleep. I felt assured that she was no longer in pain.
I marveled at how that humorous moment allowed me to feel deeply the comfort of Christ’s message “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). And it enabled me to prayerfully explore and affirm how fully God’s love surrounds us, how perfectly He made us in His own image, and how flawlessly spiritual we are in His eyes. I continued to pray with her in my arms until I felt completely at peace. The next morning she bounded down to breakfast with clear hands – no pain or blisters that had been there on one of her hands the night before, not even tenderness.
Joy is an attribute of God and a natural, permanent part of His creation. We merely need to allow it to find expression in our lives. In this way, it can play a vital role in healing. Joy can help to bring a deep and certain sense that we belong to God and have nothing to fear but everything to live for and rejoice in.
Adapted from an article published in the Nov. 9, 2020, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
