A landmark experience two decades ago taught me how to pray and demonstrate healing. Some growths had appeared on my body, including one on my arm, and I was very alarmed. The Christian Science practitioner I called said she would be happy to pray with me and asked that I not look at the body, but instead strive to express the Christ nature in my everyday life. I agreed to do this.
In a short time, an article reinforcing the need to do this arrived in the mail. It had been sent by the practitioner and included the healing of a tumor. A key point in the article was that a practitioner employed by the patient asked her if she had been trying to get rid of some thing through Christian Science treatment. The patient’s honest answer was that she had indeed been trying to do this for months. The practitioner in the article tenderly pointed out that the primary purpose of Christian Science is, as she put it, “to reveal God’s ever-present, perfect selfhood, and man’s perfect being, which expresses Him.” As a result of hearing this, the woman realized that traits such as self-will, self-justification, and self-love needed to be dissolved by divine Love. Instead of working to change a material condition, “she read less and applied more of what she knew of spiritual truth,” and the tumor dissolved (see Bessie May Teorey, “What is true demonstration?” Christian Science Sentinel, November 24, 1945).
This article was so clear and specific that it gave me the encouragement and courage to begin expressing more Christliness in my own everyday life. It was definitely not easy at first. I had felt a sense of mental heaviness for several years. At times, life had seemed burdensome and pointless. The world truly appeared to be an enigma, and I didn’t really want to be a part of it. And now with this scary physical evidence, it seemed hard not to be consumed with thinking and focusing on material selfhood. However, having agreed to put into practice this new way of praying, I resolved to change my thinking and action.
