For years I suffered from constipation, bloody stools, and hemorrhoids. I prayed to be healed of these painful conditions, and at times I also received treatment from a Christian Science practitioner. Periodically I would find temporary relief, but never lasting healing.
Among the healing ideas in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, I found this one very encouraging: “Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter does not” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 413). A well-meaning family member had advocated for a regimen that involved eating certain vegetables on a rigid schedule. But I saw that I did not have to be afraid that I was breaking any so-called health law and therefore destined to suffer, just because I wasn’t eating a particular kind of food at a particular time. If the divine Mind regulates our conditions, then food has no intelligence to move or cause movement.
One day, as I stood at the kitchen sink peeling and washing carrots and cucumbers, a sentence from Science and Health, which I had posted on the refrigerator door, surfaced in my thought: “The so-called laws of health are simply laws of mortal belief” (p. 184). All of a sudden I realized that the belief that my health was dependent on some material factor was just a false, mortal belief. Matter did not determine my health, nor did it have any power to maintain it. As spiritual ideas, made in the image and likeness of God, divine Mind, we are already whole and pure.
