The first time I heard the words “Christian Science,” I was in tenth grade, and a classmate had just asked me if I would like to attend Christian Science Sunday School with him. I talked with my parents, and they encouraged me to go. The Sunday School teacher gave such clear and compelling explanations of Christian Science that I still remember some of those explanations to this day.
For a number of years after that, I attended church frequently but only dabbled in practicing Christian Science—I relied on it for help and healing in some situations but not others. I did not become a church member because I participated in a modest amount of social drinking, which I was not prepared to give up because I thought it was necessary for my job.
Then I had a life-changing experience in the form of a series of ear infections in one ear. These would occur roughly every three weeks, and our family physician did his best to help. He had me use the best antibiotics available at that time. All this, however, was to no avail. The last time I saw this physician, he told me that my eardrum had been ruptured so many times that he didn’t think I would ever have normal hearing again.
