Testimony of Healing October 5, 1998 Issue

Severe pain healed

Robin Noel Widgery

In my early years, two episodes helped win my commitment to Christian Science and set my feet on the "narrow path." After high school I enlisted in the Army. For the first time I was on my own. After basic training, I began to experience severe abdominal pain that interfered with my work. Although I prayed and studied the Bible Lesson (found in the Christian Science Quarterly), the problem persisted and grew worse. I even began to consider going to the base hospital. At that point I came face to face with the fear that Christian Science might not be able to heal. me, and the belief that medicine could. I recall the mental struggle that took place within me. Either God can heal or He cannot. I recognized that this was the moment for me to establish my life on the Christian principles taught by Christ Jesus, and I rejected the option to report to the hospital.

My study of the Bible and Science and Health was redoubled. The base chaplain, who was a Christian Scientist, gave me a pamphlet that I found very helpful. It stressed the idea that what appear to be physical problems are false beliefs, entirely mental in nature, and that they need to be ejected from our consciousness. We must then protect ourselves against their return by embracing the right idea, the spiritual truth of God and man. It helped me to go through each day thinking of these actions as mental duties I must perform. I was reminded of what our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, said in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (p. 392). I was learning the importance of guarding my mental home from the encroachment of false, worldly beliefs. The pains soon ceased, and they never resumed.