About a year ago, I woke up in the morning with a sharp pain in one hip. This made bending down very uncomfortable, and even simple actions, such as putting on trousers, were difficult.
I began reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy from the beginning, and prayed by reasoning through the truth of my situation from a spiritual standpoint. I reasoned that divine Mind, God, is the only cause and creator, not matter, and that this Mind can neither cause nor communicate the sensation of pain.
The pain lessened as I went about my daily tasks, but turning over in bed was not fun. When I got up the next morning, the pain was as acute as ever. Then I remembered what my Christian Science teacher said about this statement from Mrs. Eddy: “If students do not readily heal themselves, they should early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves, they need only to know that error cannot produce this unnatural reluctance” (Science and Health, p. 420). I recall that my teacher stressed the word readily and made a point of saying that this meant to act without delay.
I wanted to be obedient to this directive to ask for help. As I stood before the mirror, getting ready for the day, I recalled a recent conversation I’d had with a Christian Science practitioner. She’d helped me pray about another situation, which had been healed. The practitioner had told me that I was “every whit whole” (John 7:23). I drank in those words during those moments before the mirror and claimed them for myself, knowing that God created every part of me as spiritual and whole. At that point I knew that I was healed. The hip pain stopped immediately and hasn’t returned since.
I felt as though I had been obedient to the directive to call an experienced practitioner, even though, in this case, an actual phone call hadn’t taken place. Simply recalling that healing idea that I am “every whit whole” was just what I needed.
Since then, I’ve continued reading Science and Health and daily strive to understand more clearly that God is All. And as God’s creation, I am expressing His infinite nature. Knowing this makes it easier for me to see that healing takes place, not as a change in matter, but as a dropping away of misconceptions we hold about our true being. We are “healed” (made whole) by seeing that we have always been so and will always continue to be so. Every whit.
San Francisco, California, US
