The title of this post comes from the Apostle Paul’s powerful admonition in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (II Cor. 5:8)

It’s a powerful truth that if spiritually understood brings about healing.

Being absent from the body and present with the Lord—with God!

But here’s a question: Does this only apply to the physical so-called body or is it more than this?

Doesn’t this mighty assertion also refer to being mentally absent from all the beliefs of the flesh—of the “body” of material thought?

Beliefs that would argue that life and intelligence are in matter!  Deceptions that are the whisperings of the serpent—the carnal mind!

And the falsities that the world is constantly and aggressively putting before our thought via all the illusions of imaginary material health laws, of the delusive mazes of psychology and psychiatry, of the intense coercions of atheism, humanism, secularism, and sensualism, and of the myriad philosophies and religious systems whose doctrines and dogmas support and insist on cooperation with these very falsehoods—the falsehoods of mortal mind!

Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

Outside of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of God and man, impudently demands a blessing. (Science and Health, p.545)

And isn’t that exactly what these lies, these systems, are trying to do—impudently demand our blessing?

Now, within Paul’s declaration there’s an implied prerequisite—a requirement that we need to take seriously.  And it’s one that requires us to honestly examine our thoughts and motives.

“So,” you might be asking, “what is it?”

Well, it’s simply this! Are we really willing to be absent from the body—from the host of material lies that have manacled us?  Or are we content to merely spin our wheels in a comfort zone of superficial words and actions—a comfort zone that lies entirely within the very falsifications that have enslaved us?

A comfort zone that is instead absent from God and present with the body!

It comes down to this: Are we willing to change our thinking and behavior?  Are we willing to reform and repent, to give up our golden calves, and strive to live a more God-like, Christly life?

A life that brings about healing!

A life that is in fact demonstrably present with the Lord!