During a period of great turmoil in my life following a painful divorce, I was struggling to regain a sense of peace. Newly single, but with a new full-time job and three children under the age of twelve, I was faced with both responsibility and the opportunity for spiritual growth, yet, at the time, the spiritual growth I yearned for seemed all but impossible as I found it difficult to feel connected to God, or to pray, because of the shame I was feeling over my inability to save the marriage.
Although my job was exciting, old patterns of thought and behavior (shame, self-doubt, and reticence) kept me from excelling. Then, one day I injured my shoulder at a work event. I didn’t give it much thought until a couple of days later when the pain became almost unbearable and my arm movement was extremely limited.
Because the condition was work-related, it seemed expedient to seek medical care. The medical prognosis was that it could take up to a year for my shoulder to heal. I was given several prescriptions for pain, anti-inflammatory medications, and a physical therapy routine.
I began the regimen, but after only one day, I rebelled at the prospect of a long recovery. I was raised in Christian Science and had seen numerous quick healings as a result of prayer. This was the path I knew in my heart was right for me. I stopped taking the medication, dropped the physical therapy, and called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment.
The effect of this spiritual aid was to lift my thought to the understanding that I am spiritual, not material—that I am God’s image and likeness, as explained in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible. This change in my viewpoint, from a material to a spiritual concept of existence, erased the fear of a prolonged recovery, and I joyously began to recognize my perfection now and always as God’s expression. The perfection of God’s children was something that Christ Jesus made plain in his ministry.
The practitioner prayed for me for a few days, till I felt confident praying for myself. For a while, there were periods of pain and limitation, but within about a month, the shoulder was completely healed. It has been thirty years since this healing occurred, and the shoulder has remained normal.
It took a little longer for the tumult in my personal life to subside, but looking back on this period I can see that there was spiritual growth. I never again chose a medical solution for healing, as I realized the spiritual and harmonious nature of health. Family tensions began to ease, and I took on new assignments at work. It wasn’t long before I began attending church again. The sense of shame that had seemed so debilitating lost its hold on me and I felt strengthened in practicing Christian Science.
Speaking of the “new heaven” and “new earth” in Revelation, which are wholly spiritual, Mary Baker Eddy says: “Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 573). Her tender assurance to those who are struggling helps to remind the readers of her textbook that healing is natural and inexorable. The vision of a new heaven and a new earth and the perfection of God’s creation will inevitably come to all of us, as promised.
Melissa Hayden
Portland, Oregon, US
