Permanent freedom from bladder infections

Cynthia Guy McCallie

For years, I battled recurring bladder infections. I would go to a doctor for medication, but became discouraged when the infections kept returning year after year. I wanted healing that was permanent.

About this time, although I'd been raised in Christian Science, I began trying to study on my own, without being asked to study by parents or Sunday School teachers.

It was about six years ago when the infection flared up once again. I had just begun an intensive course of instruction in Christian Science, and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to continue the course because of this flare-up, which I feared might have spread to my kidneys.

I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked her to pray for me as I decided what I should do about attending the course.

She helped me see that nothing could stop me from learning about God's love for me, about the universal truths from the Bible, and about my identity as God's perfect and healthy child. She assured me that God was always looking after us, and that because He was the only real power, nothing could harm me or cause me to have pain.

I felt very comforted by these ideas, and as my prayer showed me more clearly that I was a spiritual being, the symptoms of infection abated. But then they returned a few days later. I realized I had to understand that this spiritual identity was permanent—it could never change. As the practitioner and I prayed, I got a firmer trust in the fact that my health was a permanent fact—as God's child, I would always inherit from Him infinite, indestructible life and health, not illness and pain. This statement from Science and Health says it all: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought" (p. 495).

The teacher of the course shared with me the idea that I should "cling steadfastly" to a view of God's goodness all around me and of myself as having, inheriting, all good from Him. She helped me understand how to "cling" to the fact of God's presence as if I were clinging to a cliff, knowing for certain that I could not be severed from God's loving care. I began to understand that I did not have to be swayed by the physical ailment. By doing this—clinging to the idea that I was inseparable from God's love, not falling from and then returning to His care—I could feel a calm. It was the calmness of finding myself forever in the stillness and harmony of God. And I was able to complete the class, and didn't require medical attention as I had in the past.

Soon all the symptoms of the bladder infection disappeared. But I still feared that they would return again, as they always had in the past. So I continued to pray. And through this prayer I saw that nothing that God did could ever be reversed. God loves us so much that He would not allow us to slip from His care for even one moment. There is only the permanency of His love.

I lost my fear, and the infection has never returned.

Cynthia Guy McCallie
Boston, Massachusetts

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A day of remembrance and assurance

November 11, 2002

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