Late in 2019, I developed a respiratory problem that made breathing difficult. Also, about this time, one of my legs became swollen and uncomfortable to walk on. I slept a lot, and I also prayed, but neither sleep nor prayer seemed to help much.
My condition soon seemed so alarming that some family members were unsure if I would survive, commenting that I was “quite out of it.” Then, I did what I should have done early on and called a Christian Science practitioner for metaphysical treatment. Mary Baker Eddy’s admonition is well taken: “If students do not readily heal themselves, they should early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves, they need only to know that error cannot produce this unnatural reluctance” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 420).
The practitioner and I prayed together for close to a month. After about a week, I was able to stay awake as needed. Later I was able to move more freely, think more clearly, and write again—something I had been unable to do. I also found that I could put weight on my foot.
An important lesson I learned was to stop looking for the origin of either problem and to stop monitoring progress by looking at my body. Trying to find both causation and progress in matter only made the difficulties seem more real.
This statement in Science and Health, bearing the marginal heading “Self-completeness,” was particularly helpful: “As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness” (p. 264).
I realized that our true, spiritual identity is among the “objects” embraced in this passage. When we think of objects, we normally think of physical things. Here, prayer helps us see God’s reality instead of the limited material object. Through prayer, my growing understanding of my spiritual identity and that of those around me expanded into self-completeness. Healing—revealing what is always true—thereby resulted.
The complete healing took a couple of months, but several rapid improvements came in spurts, showing me that it wasn’t just a physical condition getting better with the passage of time—the prayer was indeed effective. The breathing difficulty and the problem with my leg were both healed completely, and I’ve had no further difficulty with either.
This experience was an opportunity to clean out a number of baseless fears and old mental habits. I also learned better how much I am loved by my family. They are all grateful that I am still very much with them. And in fact, we are a closer family now and work even better as a team, praying together and finding new ideas that bring daily healing to all of us.
Craig Kronman
Orinda, California, US
