Article January 29, 1996 Issue

Surprised by healing

Pauline D. Jenner

I Was looking for something. I didn't know what. I think I was looking for guidance really—and I was looking for a bedrock on which to build my life. I had an allergy to soap powders and detergents that I thought was incurable. I was sick of not being able to play the piano or speak in public because I was so nervous. I was sick of being afraid to drive in city traffic, of worrying about the safety of my children, and of being dominated by some significant people in my life. And during a recent illness, the side effects from drugs I was taking were worse than the illness; then the doctor said I was immune to all antibiotics because I had taken so many!

In that frame of mind, I found Christian Science. At the time, I was required to play the piano in public and had turned to a gift copy of Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy to see if there was anything in it that could relate to my needs. I was in for a surprise, because the first thing I discovered was something new about myself, that I was a loved child of God, a unique spiritual expression of Him, not an unimportant nobody. The book spoke to me with such power that some of my fears and anxieties began to fall away while I was reading. Learning about my relation to God was a revelation. Confidence began to well up within me. I glimpsed the possibility of a life filled with love, joy, health, usefulness, and dominion, fulfilling my God-given place and purpose.

I wanted to learn more about Christian Science healing, so I began attending a Church of Christ, Scientist, and so loved what I was learning that I kept going. I learned that Mrs. Eddy, in the late nineteeth century, was healed of a near-fatal injury while reading a Bible story of one of Christ Jesus' healings. She caught a glimpse of life in Spirit, God. She searched the Scriptures and discovered the spiritual laws of God that Jesus proved in his healings—laws that can still be called on today. The all-encompassing Principle that is God governs each of us right where we seem to be governed by material laws of physics, heredity, and contagion.

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