Some years ago I experienced a spiritual awakening that gave me a clearer sense of the Christ and brought transformation and healing to many areas of my life.
During several years leading up to it, our family had been going through a period of intense friction. I was contacted almost daily to mediate issues between family members. Being thrust into the middle of these conflicts caused me great mental turmoil.
Around that time, I began having very uncomfortable symptoms of an internal disorder. I remembered hearing a friend describe these symptoms in relation to cancer, and I feared I might have the same problem. I decided to call a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful metaphysical help.
Sensing a connection between the family discord and the discord in my body, I prayed to understand that only what is good and harmonious has reality, and that divine Love is the true basis of all life and action. I saw that the real need was for each of my relatives to feel loved, and I made a point every day of cherishing each one’s real identity in Christ. Seeing them as embraced in divine Love kept me uplifted and turned my thought away from the difficult human picture. This inspired forgiveness.
Affirming that God, not I, was in charge of everyone, I felt led to stop accepting calls to settle family disputes. I knew that we all dwelt in our true home—the kingdom of heaven, the reign of harmony—occupied only by Love’s thoughtful, caring ideas, not by conflicting mortal personalities. I strove, sometimes in tears, to see “… God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea,—as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 577).
As a more Christly view became established in my thought, hemorrhaging and loss of hair stopped. How grateful I was for this sign of progress! I continued praying to see more clearly that I was not a female mortal with diseased material organs. I was the pure reflection of God, composed of both male and female spiritual qualities, such as intelligence, strength, patience, tenderness, and compassion.
One difficult night when I was in pain and couldn’t sleep, a statement from Science and Health came to thought: “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth” (p. 14).
Pondering this truth, I realized that the physical condition had never touched my real identity, forever perfect in Spirit, God. My fear quieted, and I knew I was going to live. Whenever I felt discomfort, I held to this statement, knowing that no matter what the material evidence seemed to be, I was actually safe and beloved in God’s care.
Learning to love my true, spiritual individuality as God’s child was an important part of the healing, because it enabled me to value my uniqueness and stop comparing myself to others. I began to see myself, my family members, and everyone more clearly as Love’s expression.
As a Christian Science practitioner, I continued taking calls from patients requesting metaphysical help. Unselfishly praying for others helped break the mesmeric focus on self, and so many times the inspiration that came to me met not just the patient’s need, but my own as well.
Even though my own healing was slow in coming, I did not even consider seeking medical care. I was certain Christian Science would heal me because I had seen my mother come into Christian Science through the healing of a medically diagnosed tumor.
When she realized she was made in the image and likeness of God, as the first chapter of Genesis tells us, she knew the healing had taken place in her thought, even though the disease was still apparent. Her fear was gone, and within a month the tumor dissolved. When she reported back to the doctor, he could not find even a scar on her body.
I continued diligently studying Christian Science and watching to keep my attitudes about family and life on a spiritual basis. With further spiritual growth, I was better able to express forgiveness, patience, kindness, and joy.
In getting the right sense of body, I found a verse from First Corinthians helpful: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (6:19). This gave me the conviction that the Holy Ghost is the law of God sustaining my wholeness and eternal harmony. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Unity of Good, “This Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which reveals and sustains the unbroken and eternal harmony of both God and the universe” (p. 52).
With less discomfort and improved mobility, one day I took a longer walk in an adjacent neighborhood. Suddenly the pain was so great I was unable to move. It was an opportunity to put into practice all I had learned about the true body being the temple of the Holy Ghost. I felt the Christ strength rise up in me, enabling me to obey this command in Science and Health: “Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him. There is no disease” (p. 421).
I stood still for perhaps 15 minutes, clinging steadfastly to my perfect wholeness as Spirit’s expression. It was so clear that this suffering was an illusion, not part of my true being. Then the pain subsided, and I was able to move normally.
This clear realization of my perfection stayed with me, and from that point on I was able to see the symptoms of illness as lies that could be dismissed. I saw that healing is not about changing or improving the body; it is a transformation of thought.
The complete healing came soon afterward. That was about ten years ago, and I’ve had no trace of the problem since. The discord in my family was also resolved. I continue to rejoice in the consciousness that the Christ presents the only true individuality of myself and others, and that in divine Truth there can be no conflict anywhere, either as a sick body or an inharmonious relationship.
Sondra Nielsen Elkins
Loveland, Ohio, US
