Last winter everyone in my household began complaining about cold or flu symptoms, except me. Then, one morning, I woke up feeling feverish and congested.
After lunch I excused myself and went to my room to rest. At the time, I was Second Reader at my Christian Science branch church, and it looked as though I would not be able to read the next morning. It was already Saturday afternoon, and I thought it was too late by then to ask anyone to take my place. We had a small membership at the time, and several of our members were out of town, which made it harder to find a substitute at the last minute.
At that point, I realized this condition was not only disruptive to me, but also to my church, and I felt that I had to protect the mission and purpose of church in my prayers. Since its primary mission is healing, I thought it would be truly ironic for a Christian Science church service, which is a healing service, to be disrupted, or even cancelled, because of sickness. This thought was a wake-up call.
