So many Christian Scientists have benefitted from embracing the fundamentals of Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery, and my own gratitude for Christian Science cannot adequately be put into words.
Had I not been brought up by Christian Science parents, both of them wonderful role models for me, I am quite sure I would be in a very different place today.
Mrs. Eddy says very clearly in her writings that Christian Science is not just another therapy - it’s not acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, aromatherapy or any other system in the long list of alternative therapies. No, it’s a way of life, and it gives one an understanding of the relation between the spiritual realm and the material world in which we live.
Mrs. Eddy’s well-known words in the Scientific Statement of Being in Science and Health says it all: “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation”.
The fundamental aspect of Mrs. Eddy’s discovery was the need to change one’s thinking and understanding to a spiritual base. As Mrs. Eddy writes, “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”. Healing is secondary.
My whole working life and retirement has been blessed in so many ways by embracing the ideas and guidelines in Mrs. Eddy’s writings, particularly in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Not just healing of physical conditions, but of discordant situations. These range from:
1. The recovery from a traumatic break-up of a 4-year romantic relationship in my 20’s.
2. Being challenged with an impossible intermittent aircraft fault in my aerospace career.
3. Running out of money in the final years of our sons’ education.
4. Having to make up the shortfall in my pension in the first years of my retirement.
5. Gratitude that throughout my whole working career I never had a day off sick.
I have given testimonies about the harmonious resolution of all these challenges, but now I would like to share a physical healing I experienced this year.
Our next-door neighbour retired a few years ago. Although his career was office-based in Information Technology, he is a physically active person, and on retirement he volunteered with the National Trust, helping to cut back undergrowth in local woodlands, replacing worn footpaths and repairing fences.
After a while, he complained about pain in his right knee, and this became progressively worse in the following weeks and months. In the end he had to have surgery to replace the knee joint.
At the time, I didn’t pay much attention when our neighbour said that knee replacement is quite common in older people. This was the first trap I fell into – accepting the inevitable problems of old age. I had failed to stand porter at the door of thought, and to reject fearful images as Mrs. Eddy instructs us to do! She writes, “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realised in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously”.
In early January of this year, I started to feel pain in my right knee, and although I did some prayerful work about it, the pain worsened each day until eventually I started limping. I tried to conceal the limping so as not to draw attention to the problem, thinking I would have to deal with comments from well-meaning people like: “What’s wrong with you?”
As the condition grew unbearably painful, I became really frightened. The niggling argument which kept running through my mind was this: “You never had physical problems in your working life, that was because you were young and just lucky, but now you are old, this is when age-related physical problems inevitably begin. Perhaps you are deluding yourself with your Christian Science approach – now it’s time to go down the medical route like everyone else!”
Earlier in my retirement I had several wonderful physical healings entirely through prayer and without any medical intervention, including a painful frozen shoulder which prevented me from driving, severe back problems, and a foot so swollen that I couldn’t put my shoe on.
I realised that what I needed to deal with most was a sense of fear and doubt. During this time I clung to three thoughts whenever I was tempted to give up:
1. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, Be not afraid”.
2. My previous physical healings reassured me of the effectiveness of prayer.
3. Mrs. Eddy writes, “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, neither in nor of matter, and the body will then utter no complaints”.
Well, the final outcome of this ordeal was a complete healing of the knee without any need for surgery! You can imagine how grateful and relieved I was to have once again experienced the effectiveness of Christian Science healing.