The Three "Rs" -- Reverse, Rebuke, Replace
Reality. It’s something we hear a lot about. Any time of the day we can turn to our devices and check in on a reality show. It seems almost mesmeric to watch others' lives unfold.
For many years I’ve practiced Christian Science healing, so the concept of reality interests me – both what it is, what it isn't, and what it means to spiritually understand it. I often ask myself “Is what I’m seeing, hearing, feeling, reality? Or is it something that is actually not real, but rather an illusion, a falsehood, a mistaken belief, completely capable of yielding to what is real, true, and permanent?”
From reading the Bible it appears that Jesus balanced these questions, too. In his everyday life many physical problems confronted him through others, but he was able to heal the physical through what he saw – or spiritually understood – as the difference between the real and the unreal, actuality or illusion. The book of Luke records that while visiting Simon's house his mother-in-law became ill with a fever and Simon and his friends ask Jesus to heal her. As Jesus stood over her, he had a choice. Naturally, he could see that she was physically ill, but in place of seeing her illness as God created he spiritually understood her as, in reality, whole and well. This story interests me because it tells us what Jesus did as well as what he didn’t do. He didn’t say, “Oh, she’s not sick. Don’t worry about her. Let’s keep the dinner party going and we’ll check on her later.” And he didn’t get upset with her saying something like, “Why did you have to get sick tonight? This was supposed to be such a fun evening.” What Jesus did do was rebuke the fever. Did you catch that? He rebuked the fever! And by rebuking the fever he lifted his thought to see spiritual reality, -- what God create, man, God's idea, right there, whole and well, and this healed his patient. It’s noteworthy to me that he did not rebuke Simon’s mother-in-law but purely rebuked the mistaken belief – the fever.
This is a helpful story for anyone who is learning about and practicing Christian Science. Perhaps we've been praying about a problem but haven't yet found our peace and health. It certainly helped me to think on these ideas a few years ago when my familyFac and I were skiing with some friends.
Early in the day I headed up the mountain on the ski lift with a friend. I had decided that I would wait until my friend got off first, but in doing this I realized, a little too late, that I had waited too long and if I didn’t quickly get off I’d be heading back down the hill on the chair lift. Without thinking it through, I jumped. My skis hit the hard ice to the side of the chair lift, flew out from under me and I landed on my shoulder with my arm stretched behind my back. The pain was tremendous and I felt I was in shock. It was difficult to move my arm, my hand or to grip my fingers around the ski pole. Right there, I realized I had a choice. I could accept this accident as reality -- that is God-created -- with the accompanying pain, shock, and semi-paralyzed arm, hand, and fingers, or I could reverse the false claim of pain, shock, and semi-paralysis, just as Jesus reversed the claim of fever for Simon’s mother-in-law, and stand on my spiritual understanding that this accident was not God-caused. Because of other healings I’ve had, I knew that reversing the false belief and rebuking it meant to turn on this prayerfully and cast it out of my thought and then replace the mistaken belief of pain with a true, real, sense of my God-given harmony and safety.
I remembered a statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy the Founder of Christian Science, “You say that accidents, injuries, and disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin” (402). As I reasoned spiritually with this statement, I realized that in reality, that is, in the presence of God where God’s idea, man, dwells there is only one Mind, God. And because there is only one Mind, God, I couldn’t suddenly have another god (pain, fear, shock) that could take over my consciousness. Knowing that “the material body manifests only what mortal mind believes” I could change my thought-bases from belief of pain in matter to the spiritual understanding of harmony and movement. I could spiritually understand myself as God’s idea – already perfect, already whole, - untouched by accident, disease or sin. So, this is where I pitched my battle – right within my consciousness – to overcome the mistaken belief that something bad had happened.
I got up and skied a little more, but found it necessary to spend the rest of the day off the skis praying. As I sat at the bottom of the hill in a cozy restaurant I prayed to overcome the fear and pain. I continued reasoning along this line for a few days and I continued weeding out of thought any sense that a mistaken belief could hold any ground in a consciousness filled with God’s Word, with God’s law. I refused to condemn myself or my friend and rather condemned or rebuked the false suggestions of discomfort and pain. A few days later I found complete movement of arm, hand and fingers. I was completely restored.
Jesus’ method of rebuking the fever – or the pain – or the disease – or the sin – or whatever needs to be rebuked is a method that leads to complete healing, just as it led him to complete healing of himself and others. It has helped me to think of this method as the “Three R’s method: Reverse, Rebuke, Replace.”
And the analogy I use to remind myself of this method goes something like this: If a friend were to point to a dog outside your window and say something like this, “Look at that elephant. It has the longest trunk. I wonder what it’s doing walking the streets?” The first thing you and I would do is look out the window and realize it is not an elephant but a dog. Mentally, and maybe even orally we would say, “That’s a dog, not an elephant. There’s no trunk on that dog. It’s a beautiful German Shepherd!” What we’ve naturally done is reverse the misstatement: ‘That’s a dog, not an elephant’; we’ve rebuked the second statement with: ‘There’s no trunk on that dog’; and we’ve replaced the misstatement with the fact: ‘That’s a beautiful German Shepherd!’
When I’m searching for the true facts of things, for spiritual reality, I actually do the same thing, whether I’m faced with an accident, like the one above, or with a disease or with sin. The rebuking of the mistaken belief turns the belief on itself and I see the spiritual fact. Once the spiritual fact has taken over in consciousness it is manifested. I’ve found this method of prayer enables me to spiritually see what is real, true, and permanent about my being. So, anytime the thought comes that I’m hurt or in pain or limited I reverse it and pray to understand that as God’s child I am not hurt, not in pain, not limited. I reject the mistaken beliefs as fallacious – not based on God’s law or power. And I replace them with God’s great love and ever-caring power. It is a mental battle. But, success is not only possible, it is inevitable.
The three R’s aren’t a formula that is used by rote. Rather, they are reminders how to pray in time of trouble. Looking beyond matter into true reality guarantees that the mistaken beliefs are destroyed in consciousness and can never return to experience. This spiritual watching of thought – to see beyond what matter claims – brings healing. Reversing, rejecting, and replacing can be used as steps of inspired thought that help the necessary yielding to God, good. Each step is spontaneous yet decisive, inspired yet calculated. And each time healing is needed the prayerful work is new and fresh, never stereotyped.
Doing exactly what Christ Jesus practiced: searching beyond matter, non-inclusively of matter, to Spirit, God, being alert to what is allowed into thought and excluding all false conclusions based on matter makes room for Spirit and its qualities to be manifested. Then that which is real and permanent, actual and certain, man’s spiritual self, is found.
