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).
This definition, as well as others, helped me see that I didn’t need to focus on trying to fix disjointed matter, even though the pain felt very real; instead, I needed to find out what was the real substance of my life: Spirit, God—our only and true Father and Mother, who has given us health and wholeness forever.
I also realized that to handle pain, what I really needed to handle was fear. Science and Health explains that “the procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance, or sin” (p. 411). These are the culprits to be dealt with. Since my mother had experienced challenges with her hips, there was a nagging fear that I had inherited this problem. I also feared that old age had arrived with a lasting condition and that I might not be successful in handling it. But from another book by Mrs. Eddy, this phrase stood out: “Christian Science never healed a patient without proving with mathematical certainty that error, when found out, is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 210).
I took several days to read, reread, study, and pray through many concepts from the Bible, considering their spiritual import in the light of Christian Science, and I would like to share some of the arresting thoughts that led me to a complete healing.
A radical paragraph called “the scientific statement of being” found on page 468 of Science and Health boosted my understanding of God’s enduring care and love for His creation. I learned that anything that matter declares isn’t factual; it may be an attention-getter, but it must be counteracted, or “counter-facted,” with the facts of Spirit, God. Such facts include the following Bible-based assertions from “the scientific statement of being”: “Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.”
Another spiritual fact from that logical statement of being is this: “Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.” This led me to ask, “What is actually doing the ‘talking’? What is claiming there is pain or sickness?” Mrs. Eddy states that non-intelligent matter cannot speak; rather, it’s something she labeled “mortal mind” that seems to do the talking. Fixing my sights on matter and its proclamations was a red herring.
So the concept that needed to be understood was this: An erroneous suggestion, proceeding from mortal mind, is opposed to God as divine Mind. That being the case, any dire matter-based predictions are baseless, worthless. Matter had no role in determining my health; no say in the issue at hand; no power to affect my life.
Science and Health states: “Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be self-deceived.” The fact that mortal mind is self-deceived means that it can only produce “fake news”: lies, not truth. The textbook continues with, “If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better.” How could mortal mind, with so-called knowledge that is limited to the physical senses, possibly know and tell the truth about any situation or person? The next sentence in Science and Health reads, “Since [mortal mind] must believe in something besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity” (p. 186).
Every time the body “spoke,” I knew that matter was not what needed healing, contrary to what the physical senses would claim and what our earthly world would say was common sense. No! It was mortal thought, world belief, and fear that needed to be challenged in my thought. I loved reading the definition of mortal mind from the Glossary of Science and Health, which begins: “Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other errors; a suppositional material sense, alias the belief that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless;…” (pp. 591–592).
During this prayerful period, I kept in touch with the dear practitioner, who kindly reminded me to be persistent in being confident in the scriptural accounts of healing and to hourly keep in “prayer mode.” There was daily progress over the course of a few weeks, and I felt assured that this wasn’t a long-term condition. It was beautifully and simply an opportunity to learn exactly what I needed to understand in order to progress spiritually.
The healing of my body’s misalignment came in less than two weeks, with the exception of one toe. After releasing the practitioner from the case, I remained vigilant in my daily Christian Science treatments, and the toe was restored to full normalcy within another week. This healing took place a year ago and has remained complete, enabling me to climb mountains and run daily on a treadmill.
I want to express my joy in overcoming this challenge! It has encouraged me to gain spiritual clarity and get a laser focus on my true being. My gratitude for this spiritually oriented growth knows no bounds, and my mornings begin with understanding more of divine Mind, thus discarding a limited sense of matter-based being.
I am in awe of our dedicated Christian Science teachers and practitioners, who so selflessly give of their time and are so patient and loving with our fears. Many thanks to them, and for Christ Jesus, our dear Master, and for Mrs. Eddy’s sharing with us God’s revelation to her of the Christ Science. I am also very grateful to The Mother Church and its branches for supporting the healing power of the Christ for the world.
Deborah Offenhauser
Phoenix, Arizona, US
