After a few weeks of sleepless nights owing to constant hip pain and an immobile foot, I called a Christian Science practitioner. (A practitioner devotes his or her life to healing solely through prayer as taught in Christian Science.) Having had several healings over the years through total reliance on Christian Science, I wanted to handle this challenge the same way, especially since other methods don’t guarantee a complete cure and often simply offer ways to “live with it.” Also, rather than there being any side effects, I knew there would instead be side benefits from this spiritual medicine: In addition to being healed, I would learn more about my spiritual nature as God’s beloved child.
The dear practitioner I called gave me several passages to study in “the books”: the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science. While I prayed with those passages, I also studied many of Jesus’ healings from the Bible. These healings, as well as healings I had experienced in my own life through prayer, assured me that my current discomfort could be healed.
Staying daily in that sweet “secret place of the most High” (Psalms 91:1) brought a desire for a more in-depth exploration of Science and Health to better understand how Jesus healed. As I undertook this deep dive, it led me to many intriguing passages about the illusive nature of pain and matter. For example, I considered the definition of matter in the Glossary: “Mythology; mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the opposite of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief” (p. 591).
