Testimony of Healing November 10, 1997 Issue

Some healings stand apart because they provide such an important...

Nancy Hidding Pollock

Some healings stand apart because they provide such an important foundation for other healings. One of these occurred when I was a senior in high school. I was playing volleyball in a physical education class when another girl fell on me as we were both going for the ball. My ankle made a cracking sound, and I was unable to stand on that foot. After my mother took me home, I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. The practitioner recommended that I study several passages in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, but I was so uncomfortable that I didn't think I could focus on them. Instead, I played a tape of hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal. (In the back of my mind was the thought that since I had often been healed after falling asleep to this tape, I would do the same now, and then I wouldn't have to make the effort to pray while I was in pain.) I did fall asleep, but I woke in a great deal more pain. Clearly, I needed to do more than just passively wait to be healed. I needed to pray for myself. My family was due to leave on a vacation, and I was afraid that I would miss all the fun if I weren't healed quickly! By now I was feeling pretty desperate: I hurt, I was worried about my vacation, and I thought I needed to have a dramatic healing because so many kids at school knew that I was a Christian Scientist.

I frantically read and reread the passages the practitioner had recommended to me, and I read the Lesson-Sermon (found in the Christian Science Quarterly) a couple of times for good measure. It soon became very obvious to me that what I was doing had nothing to do with inspiration or prayer. The problem was that I didn't think that I was capable of enough inspiration to heal this difficulty.

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