Many years ago a rather large growth appeared on my back. I immediately prayed to heal something so unlike harmony or Life, God. My fear of the growth went away, but the growth itself didn't. At that point I wrongly considered the growth acceptable, believing that it was benign. I had not completely understood its fundamental unreality.
While the growth continued to enlarge, my attitude and treatment of the situation were superficial. I was more concerned with what it looked like than anything else. Soon, it was difficult to hide completely, and still, because it caused me no pain or inconvenience, I was willing to live with it.
How wrong I was. Nothing erroneous is acceptable or harmless, because it is not of God. In time, I had great pain and temporary loss of movement in my right side. I now believed a benign physical condition had turned into an aggressive and malignant one. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sensation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate and so leads to disease." And in the same chapter, "If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can discover it by reversing the material fable, be the fable pro or con,—be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them."
