In the course of finding new employment after twenty years with the same company, I had a physical examination. Now, I had prayed about the fact that my true and only being acts in obedience to God's law and operates in perfect harmony with ever-operative and harmonious Mind, God. I had expected the exam and tests to confirm this, and they had ... almost. The results of one test showed the action of the heart was not fully normal. However, I was told that in order to determine whether the problem was sufficient to limit my activities, I needed another test!
Every trace of the abnormality had disappeared.
At this point a number of things became clear. I realized that the tests and pronouncements, while motivated by the doctors' desire to help, were an imposition of materiality on my thought, and I could choose not to accept the fear material belief was suggesting. I also realized that I could no longer count on merely "feeling good" about the spiritual nature of my true being; I needed to radically understand it and demonstrate it. I had to "take possession" of my body and "govern its feeling and action" as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (see p. 393). I prayed to know that I do not live because of a material heart; but that every function of my being is spiritual and acts in obedience to God's law. I live because I express Life, God. I knew that medical pronouncements could not apply to God, omnipotent good, and therefore they could not apply to me.
