Five days before I was to have Christian Science class instruction, I drove my motorcycle into a road divider. Upon collision I was thrown clear of the motorcycle. Someone who had seen the spill rushed over to me and asked if I needed assistance. I realized that I could not move my left shoulder. This fellow helped me take off my helmet, raised up my motorcycle, and showed me where I could phone for additional help. A friend whom I contacted picked me up and returned me to my apartment. When he first saw me, he was quite concerned, and asked to which hospital I wished to be driven. I reminded him that I was a Christian Scientist and assured him that when I got to my apartment I would call a practitioner and thus would put the situation under control.
From the moment I spoke to this consecrated practitioner, he made it quite clear that our task was to realize the impossibility of this whole episode in God's good kingdom. He also reiterated something that was to be of great comfort, namely that first this situation was an opportunity to glorify God. Healing my shoulder was essential but secondary to this goal. For the next few days I prayed constantly, studying many references from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, particularly those focusing on the error of belief in accident.
The more I worked metaphysically the greater the sense of joy I felt over the beauty of the truth I was declaring, the truth of my spiritual, Godlike being. However, at the same time there did not seem to be any noticeable improvement in the condition of my shoulder. I knew better than to try to push or probe the physical ailment. It is impossible to declare something as erroneous and then try to see if it has improved. Yet I occasionally yielded to this temptation, and once when I looked in the mirror and saw my shoulder appearing to be grotesquely out of place, discouragement overwhelmed my thought.
