As a young man, I was introduced to Christian Science shortly after enlisting in the United States Coast Guard. I was raised in a religion that required an intermediary or “middle man” for prayer. But Christian Science taught me a new way to pray—that I had a direct relationship with God, who is divine Love or Mind. I could listen to my heavenly Father at any time. No one could come in between me and Him. I learned that my pastor, the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, was always available to me.
A few years later, I was accepted to the Officers’ Candidate School. I was excited, honored, and, perhaps a bit self-important. During my physical exam before reporting for training, the doctors found an irregularity in one of my ears. I not only was removed from the advancement roll, but was also discharged from the service I loved.
I began to prayerfully work with a Christian Science practitioner with the passage “The ‘divine ear’ is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied” (Science and Health, p. 7). This was a comforting message and I expected good, healing results.
Shortly after my military discharge, I took advantage of a new career opportunity that blessed and supported my young family. Here was tangible evidence that God was caring for me. But I still carried disappointment for not being in my first choice of employment.
Over a period of three years, I completely lost my hearing in one ear and felt more disappointment that my prayers didn’t result in healing. But I held to my trust in God and found many blessings of healing for my family through my study of Christian Science.
Last year, I reached another career crossroads. Although my job in legal support services had been rewarding, I longed for deeper satisfaction in my work. It was about this time that a friend at our Christian Science Society encouraged me to develop a volunteer position I love into a career, along with my current business.
My wife and I, along with friends, prayed diligently about my next move. In our prayers we strove to listen for God’s message directing us in His “still small voice” (see I Kings 19:12), and we realized that if our motive was absolutely pure, my next job would evolve into even more rewarding and exciting directions than I could imagine.
I soon entered a new and rewarding career with my own business, helping employers work with the US Department of Homeland Security to be prepared for emergency situations. This wonderful demonstration of a fulfilling job opportunity also served as a turning point in the healing of my hearing.
Just before my new job launched, I awoke one night with excruciating pain in my ear. I asked my wife to call a practitioner to pray for me, since I could barely speak. Within moments the practitioner’s prayers took effect and the pain subsided, I was able to rest and soon the pain was completely gone. And this healing proved to be more complete than I first imagined. When my wife and I were talking the next morning, I suddenly realized that not only was the pain gone, but that my complete hearing had also returned!
More than this, I learned the spiritual lesson that my real sense of hearing had never left. I gained the insight that for many years I had been harboring resentment over disappointments in my professional career, and when the resentment fell away with the love of my new position, so did the deafness. I am so grateful for our Christian Science Society, for Christian Science, and for this healing that has blessed my whole family. Finally, I rejoiced over the past—recognizing that while I’d been forced to give up my career in the Coast Guard all those years ago, I had never really lost my true sense of employment. With my motive pure, and with patience and perseverance, I learned my job is to listen to God. And God will pour out more blessings that we can accept.
Orange, California, US
