In the early 1980s I began having a pain in my hip. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, but over a period of several weeks the discomfort increased, and my normal mobility was becoming quite limited.
Finally, I realized that I could no longer ignore this situation. I asked myself what it was that enabled Jesus, in his healing work, to say "Arise, and walk" (see Matt. 9:5) with such power that people would do so immediately and freely. The answer came that it was his awareness of the allness and goodness of God, Spirit, and of the perfection that already existed in God's creation. And he was not at all fooled by any false suggestions to the contrary. A passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy came to my thought: "Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body" (p. 411). I remembered a definition of cherish as being "to hold dear." Right then I determined that I was not going to hold this uncomfortable problem as "dear." Because my perfection was already present, I was going to endeavor to walk as normally as possible that day, cherishing perfection as the fact. By the end of the day, I was completely free of the discomfort and was walking freely. I have not been troubled with the problem again.
By the end of the day, I was walking freely.
