Testimony of Healing February 24, 1997 Issue

When I stop to ponder my gratitude for Christian Science, so...

Virginia Stevens

When I stop to ponder my gratitude for Christian Science, so many blessings come to mind. Perhaps the greatest of these, to me, is a growing freedom from fear. A few years ago I had an experience that made me especially grateful for this. Over a period of months a pain had developed in one of my arms so that it was difficult to lift the arm higher than my shoulder. At first I simply didn't pay much attention to it, assuming it would just go away. That didn't happen, however, and I began to develop a fear of what this might be. Still, I didn't pray specifically about it, and the fear would keep coming up in thought.

During this time my husband and I were to go on a river rafting trip with some friends. I remember getting into the raft on the first morning of this adventure with some apprehension. There were rapids up ahead, and I wasn't at all sure that I wanted to do this. Quickly, however, the comforting thought came that I didn't have to accept that suggestion of fear, that if God is divine Love and is ever present, then anything unlike divine Love can't possibly have power. Going through the rapids turned out to be great fun, and I was looking forward to more. The next day someone asked if I would like to take a rubber kayak for a while. Initially I felt the same feeling of anxiety, but, once again, I saw that this was an opportunity to overcome fear. I accepted the offer, which turned out to be a wonderful experience.

There were more incidents on this trip that gave me an opportunity to look fear in the face and assert my dominion over it. I found myself jumping off rocks fifteen or twenty feet above the water at one point and body surfing down a rapid. There is an interesting statement in Science and Health that illustrates the power of this mental action of facing fear: "By looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle" (p. 378).

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Recently I was visiting my dad