YOU CAN BE HEALER March 1, 2010 Issue

Our biweekly series on how people have nurtured their public practice of Christian Science healing.

MY HEART'S DESIRE

THOMAS ASHER——SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

"IT IS FIRST the desire above all else," wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "to be Christ-like, to be tender, merciful, forgetting self and caring for others' salvation" (Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, p. 195).

My desire to become a Christian Science practitioner began during college, when I had several experiences that caused me to see God as a vital, present, healing power. For example, I was encouraged by an instantaneous healing of food poisoning. One minute I was in agony and couldn't stand up; the next minute, after two friends prayed with me, I was completely well.

One experience really got my attention. I was hiking up a steep ravine with several young children and praying with the hymn that begins, "Shepherd, show me how to go" (Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 304), when I saw a large boulder rapidly bounding toward us. Quickly I put the children behind me and faced the on-rushing boulder. In a moment the boulder took a large bounce and landed on a pointed boulder perhaps fifteen feet uphill, shattering into smaller pieces that sailed around us. One piece gashed my hand, but none of the children was hit, and with prayer, my hand readily healed. Returning to the top of the ravine, I silently vowed that I would not be the same person as before. I would keep God at the center and not on the perimeter of my life.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

WHAT PRAYER CAN DO FOR HAITI