Testimony of Healing August 5, 1972 Issue

During a practice with my college baseball team, I was struck...

James H. Eoff, Jr.

During a practice with my college baseball team, I was struck by a sharply thrown ball as I ran across the center of the diamond. I had not noticed that our catcher was practicing his throw to second base, and he must not have seen me. The ball hit me directly on the shoulder point of my throwing arm and seemed very painful. My first reaction was one of anger toward the teammate who had thrown the ball. I quickly ruled this out of my thinking. I declared to myself, "Accidents are unknown to God" (part of the sentence on page 424 of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony"). I held to the fact that my real self can never be injured in any way. The pain lessened, and a sense of peace came over me. Still, I had great difficulty in lifting my arm, let alone throwing a baseball or swinging a bat. I was unable to practice anymore that day.

After returning to my dorm that evening I pulled out a stack of Christian Science Sentinels from my desk drawer and began reading through them, applying what I read to the problem at hand. One of the articles contained a statement by Mrs. Eddy that was especially helpful: "Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action" (Science and Health, p. 283). I tried to keep my thought on God and not on my arm.

The physical problem was gone in the morning. I had no trouble with my arm during baseball practice that afternoon. I was even given a friendly kidding by another player, who said that I must not have been hurt very badly since there wasn't even a bruise on my arm.

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