I am grateful for a physical healing I experienced from Christian Science treatment. During December 1991 I began to feel very ill and weak, and over the weeks there was great difficulty in breathing and my lungs were congested. I was not able to go to work. I telephoned a Christian Science practitioner for treatment.

Each day I was home from work I was able to spend a couple of hours during the morning studying the daily Bible Lesson. As I read and considered each passage, I tried to understand how these spiritual truths applied to my present needs and challenges. This study time was an important spiritual arousal, refreshment, and oasis for me.

Another important part of the healing, for me, was the daily telephone conversation with the practitioner. This time of spiritual inspiration and specific truth-sharing gave me an opportunity to get assistance in correcting the thoughts and attitudes that were burdening my thinking and that needed specific healing. I realized that I had been holding many negative thoughts about myself and my job. The combination of these had made me feel discouraged and had limited my outlook. I had come to believe I was not really needed in my job and that my efforts were not appreciated. I felt that there was no opportunity for advancement.

The practitioner I contacted shared different Bible verses with me during my daily telephone visits. One verse that stood out to me was from Revelation: "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (3:8). This helped me to realize that a human supervisor or co-workers could not retard, prevent, or obstruct my true career advancement. I began to realize more fully that God never forgets me. Each physical symptom was addressed, and the verses shared with me specifically challenged the error. The promise of a sweet and fearless sleep mentioned in Proverbs (3:24) was helpful when at one point very disturbing and inharmonious thoughts attempted to plague my thinking at night and disturb my rest.

Other Bible verses I studied helped me see that I did not have to submit to a humanly outlined prognosis or worry about future breathing problems. The practitioner encouraged me to welcome into my thought an inspired sense of God's creation, and then know that I could express this spiritual reality. Real breathing was more than just a physical function of inhaling and exhaling. He helped me realize that my life in God is not a series of organic functions. Truth empowers my experience, not muscles or any mortal belief. It was my spiritual birthright to feel renewal. One example of the spiritually based transformation of my thinking was that I began to feel a genuine desire to be back at work.

I had been away from work for three weeks. I began to realize that I really was needed at work and that being there was an occasion to glorify God by expressing his qualities, such as thoroughness, accuracy, alertness, honesty, teamwork, humor, patience, and love, to those around me. Both the physical healing and the healing in my thinking did come. After I reported back to work, my thought about my job had changed. These are the words that describe how I felt: "I am satisfied, I am content, I am challenged, I am fulfilled, I am grateful, and I am happy." And I was.

I am truly grateful for the blessings that Christian Science has brought to my life and to members of my family over the years.

Peter B. Cooper
Bass River, Massachusetts