Several months ago, on a Friday or a Saturday, I began experiencing debilitating pain and immobility in one arm. The discomfort kept me awake at night. It was a difficult weekend. Despite my prayers, by Monday night I was in great distress.
Earlier that Monday, I had mentioned the condition to a Christian Science practitioner who was praying for me about another matter at the time. He said he would certainly include this in his metaphysical treatment for me.
That evening, however, I still had trouble sleeping. As I began to pray again, what came to me was a statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy in that week’s Bible Lesson: “Maintain the facts of Christian Science,—that Spirit is God, and therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and you will win” (p. 417).
I knew this statement from memory, and I thought about it for some time. What were the facts of Christian Science I was absolutely convinced of? I knew that God, being Spirit, cannot cause sickness or be sick; neither can matter—what Mary Baker Eddy calls “a subjective state of mortal mind” (Science and Health, p. 108)—because it has no substance or intelligence. But I was still in pain and felt far from “winning.” I asked myself how I might find the dominion promised to God’s children in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible.
Then I remembered this part of the statement I had been working with: “All causation is Mind”—with a capital M, meaning divine Mind, not mortal mind. And I realized I could, and needed to, maintain that Mind, God, was my Mind, as I am Mind’s reflection. In this perfect Mind and its idea there is no disease. Suddenly, I saw that my spiritual dominion comes from abandoning the belief that we have a limited mortal mind that can cause sickness, and acknowledging that the one perfect, divine Mind is our only cause. That’s how I would “win” and experience my God-given dominion over matter.
On the heels of this recognition, another passage from Science and Health came to thought: “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well” (p. 14). By the time I finished reading the passage, I realized my body wasn’t complaining. It was as if I had turned off a switch. I was completely free of pain and immobility, and was free the next day and thereafter.
We expect quick healings in Christian Science, and while I’ve had many healings, this one was immediate.
Joann Smedley
Scarsdale, New York, US
