I am now a "snowbird." This winter, while we were in Florida, I became extremely uncomfortable with a back problem. For several days I could neither sit, stand, nor lie down without excruciating pain. It wasn't long before other people in our small golfing community began to hear about my situation, and several lovingly offered my husband various remedies for me to try. I graciously rejected these because I have had Christian Science in my life long enough to know that this was not really about my back or any other body part, but was about a misconception about man and his relation to God. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "Disease is an image of thought externalized" (p. 411). So, knowing that it was my thought that needed correcting, I set about listening for God to reveal to me what needed healing.
It soon came to me that in this close community, where people know that I am a Christian Scientist, I had been feeling especially burdened by believing that I had to be the perfect example of a Christian Scientist, proving its efficacy at all times. I love Christian Science, and I want everyone else to love it, too, or at least to respect it as the viable, credible way of life that it is. But to think that anyone would respect it less just because I wasn't always demonstrating it perfectly would be like saying that just because I couldn't solve a calculus problem, the principle of mathematics would be thought impractical! This I recognized as egotistical.
At this point I asked for treatment from a Christian Science practitioner, who promptly, but kindly, reminded me that I could leave the future of the Christian Science movement to God. This was a freeing thought, and very quickly the pain subsided. I was back on the golf course in two days.
