A couple of years ago, I was walking through a field at camp when a bee stung my foot. There was a lot of pain initially, but I was already prepared to turn to God because I had been praying as I walked. My immediate thought was “No, I do not have to accept this. Nothing can ruin the good being expressed today.”
I recalled a quote from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. She says this about complaints from the body: “You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the human mind says of the body, the body, like the inanimate wheel, would never be weary” (p. 218).
This reminded me that matter is inanimate; it cannot feel or complain. Anything that would tell me I am material and separate from God is a lie—just like when a hypnotist lies to convince you of something that isn’t true. The only real animating power is the divine Mind, God, and my true spiritual identity is the reflection of that Mind. My body can’t tell me anything because material sensation is causeless and spiritual sense is the only reality.
