A number of years ago, on a Wednesday morning, I woke up with pain in my spine, and all my muscles were sore. For years I’d had to walk several kilometers every day to go to work, and my trade demanded a lot of physical effort. I thought, “Has my body reached the limit of what is bearable?” I decided to stay home, and just as Naaman humbled himself and bathed in the Jordan River (see II Kings 5:1–14), I “dipped” myself into the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, so that divine Science, the Comforter, could lead me “into all truth” (see John 16:13).
During this reading, I received “angel visits,” or inspirational messages. These pure, divine thoughts made me clearly see that my whole being was the expression, or image, of God, Spirit; I was not a material object. Just as my brain was not the source of my intelligence, neither were my muscles or spine the mainstay of my being. The universal Principle, God, is the only support of my being. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
After grasping this new point of view on reality, I decided to live it by going to the testimony meeting of my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, where my duties awaited me that evening. I was part of the welcoming committee. This meant that I needed to stand for at least half an hour without sitting down. I prayed on my way to church, “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,” as Paul says (II Corinthians 5:8).
