Last year I faced an incapacitating pain in my leg and hip. It came out of nowhere and inhibited walking, sitting, getting in and out of a car, and even sleeping. Because of the intensity of the pain, I was at first quite fearful and despairing. It came at a time when I was very busy serving others in various capacities.
I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment and was immediately assured that our Father-Mother God’s presence was right there for me and that I could only hear His voice, drawing me closer to Him and away from the claim of a painful condition. As Christ Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them” (John 10:27).
I also found an interview online called “Mental surgery: The healing power of divine Mind” (Nathan Talbot, cssentinel.com, September 23, 2014). Listening to it, I felt the presence of God, divine Mind, and an adjustment in my consciousness. The speaker mentioned this Bible promise from God: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). If God is putting His law in my inward parts, I thought, then that means He is putting His law of harmony, balance, alignment, freedom, mobility, fearlessness, health, substance, agelessness, normalcy, and dominion in my inward parts.
Recognizing this as the law of my being provided the foundation for my healing. I lost a sense of hopelessness and fear that very morning and began to focus on drawing closer to God.
I prayed to purify my purpose and motives for my activities. I challenged human ego and dismissed nascent speculation on what had caused the pain, as well as the fear that this was something I would have to live with. Empowered by the Bible verse, “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (Psalms 56:4), I rose above concern over a malfunctioning body to my innate confidence in the power of God.
I was able to attend to the demands asked of me over the next two days, periodically pausing to breathe in inspiration and reject the notion that this problem had a course to run. I also embraced this statement by Mary Baker Eddy: “Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it ‘every whit whole’ ” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 371).
Family members sent me messages of support as well, including spiritual insights that further lifted my thought.
I was grateful for small steps taken, for my husband’s gentle care, and for being able to fulfill my obligations. By the end of the fourth day I had no more pain and had full use of my leg and hip. At one point I had worried that I would never hike or bike again. But I am happy to say I resumed all of my activities. The next week was Thanksgiving, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s love, and for Christ, His divine message, ever present in consciousness.
I have always loved this passage in Science and Health: “Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (p. 162). I certainly experienced this “change of base” and Mind’s harmony.
I am humbled by the peace that God’s presence provides. I am grateful for spiritual guideposts in the Bible, and for the clear understanding of divine law explained in Mrs. Eddy’s writings. I am also very thankful for the effective prayer of the practitioner, as well as the compassion and support expressed by my family.
Kristin Jamerson
Mercer Island, Washington, US
