When Bouts of irregular heartbeat began, I didn't pay much attention to them at first. Each time they started, I'd pray, and my heartbeat would return to normal. But soon they got worse and more frequent, and lying down became uncomfortable. I was also afraid. As is my practice, I called a Christian Science practitioner to help me pray about the situation, but after a few days without any noticeable progress, I felt discouraged.
To make matters worse, one night I severely burned my hand when I accidentally grabbed a smoking frying pan while cooking dinner. I was in pain and angry at myself for having done something so stupid.
But on the heels of the self-condemnation and anger came two thoughts, which were grounded in the spiritual truths I'd been learning from my study of Science and Health. The first was: "There are no accidents in God's kingdom, which is where you really are." And the second reminded me: "You are not stupid, because you are the child of the all-intelligent Mind—God Himself."
I called a friend and she assured me that God loved me and that I could see myself the way God saw me—as spiritual, not material. By the time I hung up, the pain had diminished, and I felt able to focus on what was spiritually true about me. This meant challenging the assumption that material conditions had the power to dictate what would happen to me—that I'd have to suffer because I'd grabbed the hot frying pan with my bare hand.
I again decided to call the practitioner for help as I prayed, and the ideas he shared with me bolstered my confidence that since God was the only cause and I was His "effect," then the burn, which could never have happened to God, really couldn't have happened to me. My unchanging relation to Spirit gave me full immunity from the effects of the accident.
I could see myself as God saw me—as spiritual, not material.
I took these ideas to bed with me that night, and they continued to reassure me that my spiritual identity was untouched by physical circumstances. They also comforted me when the irregular heartbeat started again. Sure of God's care for me, I felt that everything would be OK, and I fell asleep.
There was no pain in my hand the next morning. I was able to go to work and do everything I needed to do. As the days progressed, I continued to receive help from the practitioner. One idea that was particularly helpful during this time was this passage from Science and Health: "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts" (p. 261).
I'd had a hard time resisting the urge to check on the progress of the healing by looking at my hand, but this quote reminded me to stay focused on what I knew was true about God—and therefore, what was true about me. This is what I knew about God: that He could not be conscious of pain; that since He's all-power, His was the only power that could ever affect me.
I became very disciplined in how I was thinking about myself. Every time the injury came to mind and I was tempted to examine the burn, I chose instead to challenge the thought that an accident had happened.
I forgot about the injury, and so it wasn't until a few weeks later when I was washing my hands that I noticed there was no trace of the burn. Not long after that, I also realized that the episodes of irregular heartbeat had stopped entirely.
Alexandria, Virginia
