Article November 1, 1999 Issue

HEALTH—"HARMONY AND ... NOTHING ELSE"

Lesley E. Gort

During the time when I was conducting services at my church, an inharmonious situation came up that directly involved me. I left the church that evening feeling hurt and shocked. By Sunday, I was struggling with a very painful hip condition. I managed to fulfill my duties at church, but we were due to fly off on a family holiday the next day, and I had no idea how to cope with all the walking that would be required. Thankfully, I was able to use a wheelchair at both airports, but, of course, that didn't solve the problem of getting around during the trip.

That evening my husband pointed out to me this sentence in Mary Baker Eddy's book Rudimental Divine Science: "Health is the consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, theabsolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else" (p. 11). The second half of this sentence arrested my attention. I thought to myself, If health is "the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else," then that is all I should have in my consciousness. I'll just have to turf [toss] out of thought anything unlike harmony, because I need to be free!

Instead of paddling around in my thinking looking for inharmonies, I affirmed the spiritual fact that, as God's child, I reflect what Mrs. Eddy calls "the everlasting harmony of Soul" (Science and Health, p. 390). (Soul, here, is another term for God). This acknowledgement brought to the surface some inharmonious thoughts that needed to be healed, in particular my lingering bad feelings about the situation that had occurred at church. I denied the validity of any inharmony in God's universe—or in my consciousness—and replaced thoughts of discord with spiritual truths about God and His creation.