About three years ago I was healed of a physical difficulty that I had struggled with for many years. Some years before, I had been a deputy sheriff in Southern California. One particular night I went to help another deputy in arresting a suspect. This suspect had fled on foot into a residence. It was dark and close to midnight. After arriving at the scene, I got out of my patrol car and heard some commotion coming from the front yard of a nearby residence. Thinking that the deputy needed immediate help, I decided to get to the location as fast as I could. I misjudged the terrain and found to my surprise that the yard I was entering was about six to eight feet below the level that I had started from.
Because of my forward momentum, I was unable to stop, and I fell the whole distance. The force of the fall knocked the breath from me, and I remember landing on my left side, which is where my baton was located. This device was made of aluminum and had a protruding knob on the end of the handle. Since the arrest situation was not resolved, my focus was still on ensuring that the other deputy was safe, so I got up. I was uncomfortable and nauseated, and I had trouble breathing. Once the enforcement situation was stabilized, I was able to assess my own condition.
My initial fear was that I had broken several ribs. Because I didn't have the luxury of just sitting quietly and praying, I had to quickly gain control of my thinking. I recalled this statement from Science and Health: "Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real" (p. 397). After silently repeating this a few seconds, I was able to breathe fairly normally. I made no mention of the specific details of my situation other than to say that I had fallen. I was able to drive myself back to the station and clean myself up. The rest of the shift was uneventful, and I continued focusing my thought on the idea that God protects each of us and that He does not send us into any situation that would harm us. When it was my next shift, I went to work as usual. I had some soreness in my side and some bruising, but nothing that prevented my full duty.
