The UH Christian Science Organization speaker Susan Ward Jostyn spoke of overcoming the fear, financial issues and relationship problems at the first of two CSO lectures Monday in Room 105, AD Bruce Religion Center.
At the lecture, titled ‘Getting Out of the Box,’ Jostyn said she was healed from hair loss through the Bible verse.
‘I was really grateful in how God helped me. God is not confined to one box and doesn’t just love people in that one box or category,’ Jostyn said.
While in her time of healing, Jostyn said she focused on the idea of living in God so everything could be safe and stable in her life.
Jostyn used a toy car to symbolize ‘the boxes’ and ideas, such as stereotypes and misconceptions with which people label one another.
At the second lecture, ‘Introduction to Christian Science,’ Jostyn talked about what it is to be a Christian Science follower and said Christian Science lives are ‘adventures in the good life.’
She said medical healing can come through Christian Science prayer, saying it came into her life when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament while playing lacrosse in college.’
Jostyn said she had an MRI done and wore a brace, but elected not to have surgery.
‘I turned to God and the pain went away,’ Jostyn said.
Lecture attendees participated in a series of exercises. In the first exercise, an ‘oil of gladness’ exercise, everyone in the room took time to smile at one another.
The smiling was followed by a gratitude test where Christian Science practitioners and non-practitioners closed their eyes and bowed their heads for 30 seconds to express gratitude for God.
‘(Christian Science) healed me, uplifted me through all manner of tribulation,’ entrepreneurship senior Cathryn Cotrone said. ‘It has also saved my life in more than several instances: on the freeway, in flight and in Southeast Asia.’
A Christian scientist has the tools to live a joyous productive life free of the burdens imposed on mankind by the media and all manner of misguided individuals, she said.
Cotrone said she found the lectures informative and interesting.
Some people in attendance had never heard about Christian Science until the lecture.
‘It was interesting. From my own research, I already knew what Christian Science was. The lecture helped clarify a few doubts and questions I had about it,’ economics senior Magdiel Martinez said.
‘My favorite part was about gratitude. It helped me to focus on what to be grateful for rather than what’s missing in life,’ he said.
