This testimony is shared in gratitude to God, and to Mary Baker Eddy for bringing the laws of Christian healing that Christ Jesus practiced into focus for all of us. During the winter of 2016–2017, there was an outbreak of flu and respiratory infection in part of the state where I live. I unguardedly accepted public beliefs of contagion and infection and began to experience coughing and fever.
For the first two weeks, I struggled along praying and studying the Bible and writings by Mary Baker Eddy. As a result of this study, it came to me that I needed to be more productive, more unselfish, in my prayers. I felt I needed to follow Jesus’ instruction to love my neighbor as myself more. For a number of years I had been thinking of writing for the Christian Science magazines. OK, I thought—writing would be something I could do in an effort to bless others. I acquired the writing guidelines and submitted an article. My health improved for a few days, but then deteriorated again. I realized that obviously something more needed to shift in my thought.
I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer, and he quoted from a beloved hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal: “In atmosphere of Love divine, / We live, and move, and breathe” (No. 144). He said that the atmosphere of Love, or God, is pure, and so was I. While I thought about this healing truth, I decided to abandon daily routines and take a spiritual retreat to spend quiet alone time with God at home, and also on nearby mountaintops, where I would sit in the car studying and praying. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” (p. 201). I certainly wanted to let Love extract error from my thought, and to demonstrate my God-given purity.
