I woke up in the middle of the night with great pain in my lower back. After I called a Christian Science practitioner, who agreed to pray with me, the pain subsided right away. But the next day, the problem came back with a vengeance. An obstruction seemed to be preventing my usual bodily functions from working. It became impossible to sleep. I could only get comfortable by lying on the floor with a pillow under my back.
The practitioner recommended that I study the statement in Science and Health that reads: "Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death" (p. 242). Though I studied diligently, the obstruction remained. I got discouraged and felt like giving up.
In desperation, I told the practitioner that I wanted to switch to another practitioner, and he was very gracious about letting go of the case. When I called a different practitioner, the first thing he suggested was that I study the same passage from Science and Health. The pain and sleeplessness continued, though, and he began to ask me to pray the Lord's Prayer with him when I called him on the phone.
