Last spring, at a time when I really needed a healing, I saw that the battle was the Lord’s: The issue was about witnessing how He maintains His own image and likeness, not about fixing the body. The real need was for me to hold firm in my heart and daily life to my commitment to God, as Jehoshaphat did when threatened by enemy forces (see II Chronicles 20).
For a couple of weeks I’d been going deeper in my study to understand more of St. John’s vision of the new heaven and new earth, and “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2). I’d also been doing a study of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy loved mankind so much she spent her life working to wake suffering humanity to God’s loving presence, which continuously provides and cares for each one of us.
I found what Mrs. Eddy says about John’s vision of the new heaven and earth very helpful. She writes, “When you read this, remember Jesus’ words, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 573–574). Her encouragement that this state of consciousness is a present possibility because the kingdom is within made me realize I could see this, too.
During this period of metaphysical study, while getting ready for work one day, I suddenly found my back in intense, unrelenting pain. I couldn’t stand up straight nor walk, sit, or lie down without intense pain. It was beyond awful!
I called my Christian Science teacher for prayerful treatment. I didn’t understand why this was happening to me with all I’d been studying and learning, especially since I’d been working to prioritize God in all arenas of my life.
At first I wondered if I had been thinking wrongly. My teacher showed me that the very question, “Am I not thinking correctly or handling this properly?” starts from a false premise of being separate from God. It suggests that there’s another mind, influence, or power, and that’s not possible. I quickly realized I didn’t want to go down that road and worked to know that God is my only Mind, and that all I could think was what God was revealing and thinking.
Instead of wondering about what needed to be fixed, I realized I needed to challenge the presumption that I needed to fix anything and thereby start from the premise of my completeness—my oneness with God as His image and likeness.
I realized I didn’t need to be unhappy or disturbed by the situation—to feel vulnerable or victimized. I worked to keep my joy, claiming God’s presence and declaring that I was in the kingdom of heaven now, regardless of what the material senses were telling me. I went about my previously mentioned study and office work, and anytime pain called for attention, I turned my thought to God.
The next night I awoke and wondered, “Am I healed yet?” I realized this very question started from the premise that I’m in a material body trying to fix it. I shifted my thinking from a standpoint of wondering to a standpoint of dominion and declared, “I am whole now.” I knew God was giving me the understanding and strength to know and claim this reality.
It got to the point where I felt that the pain was irrelevant. I knew I was in the kingdom now and that nothing could keep me from seeing it and knowing it. I kept joyously doing my work and embracing the opportunities God was giving me.
Our Master, Christ Jesus, demonstrated his dominion over evil’s temptation to turn stones into bread. In other words, to use God to get good from matter. Jesus knew that God sustained him and that whatever he needed would come to him directly from God. After realizing this, I let go of trying to figure out how to get comfortable physically.
It became even clearer to me that my work was about dwelling in the consciousness of Love, dwelling in God’s kingdom, seeing my completeness as God’s spiritual image and likeness. I began to see that this whole issue was claiming that God, our Father-Mother, could not maintain His or Her own image and likeness.
On the third night I slept through the night, and the following day I was walking straight and erect with no pain and with complete freedom.
Jehoshaphat, when threatened, “set himself to seek the Lord” (II Chronicles 20:3) and rejoiced in the fact of God’s omnipotence. I followed his example and found my peace in knowing that my salvation was dependent on God alone—and the spiritual fact of present perfection—regardless of the human circumstance. I am so grateful to God for His love and for what Christian Science teaches.
Jodie Maurer
St. Louis, Missouri, US
