Some time ago, I found myself unable to walk or sit without great discomfort in my legs. With my legs straight out on an ottoman, I managed to mentally hold to truths about my spiritual relation to our Father-Mother God. From my years of studying Christian Science and experiencing healings, I knew that Christlike thought brings us into harmony with the truth of man’s being as God’s perfect, spiritual expression, untouched by evil.
On page 495 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, next to the marginal heading “Steadfast and calm trust,” Mary Baker Eddy writes: “Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.” This statement about Christian Science, the divine laws of spiritual being, assured me that there was no real power that could cause pain in my legs.
Over the next few weeks, I worked closely with two partners in prayer—my wife, who always supports me with her loving prayers, and a dedicated Christian Science practitioner, who gave me specific treatment through prayer. A primary focus of our work with the practitioner was to understand and demonstrate together my true identity as the perfect child of God—that I am not material, but spiritual and perfect. So, we were not working to return to a state of material being I supposedly had before the discomfort set in. It was important to see clearly the “nowness” of my true being. This “now” is not an instant in time; it is the eternity of man’s being as the spiritual reflection of infinite God, good.
