How I Found Christian Science December 12, 2011 Issue

I can't help but share it

Susanne Sims—Honolulu, Hawaii

As a teenage Catholic girl, I read Doris Day’s autobiography. Though her life and celebrity was very exciting and inspiring, it was actually her faith in Christian Science that left the most memorable impression on me. Turning to God, rather than material means, when facing a health challenge seemed a courageous and almost radical path, yet one that I would eventually follow myself some 37 years later.

Two years ago doctors informed me that my mammogram had come back with a “suspicious” reading, and a biopsy was being recommended. I chose instead to work with a doctor who offered me an alternative of Chinese herbs, immune building remedies, and other natural anti-cancer supplements, all of which totaled 45 pills a day. I became acutely aware of just how arduous this regime was, and I knew that it was ultimately unsustainable.

Several months later, I stepped off the airplane after a five-hour flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, and within minutes, I found myself standing in a Christian Science Reading Room. It just happened to be located next to where I had been instructed to wait for the shuttle to my hotel. I had never been to a Reading Room before, and I like to say that God delivered me there on a plane. As I wheeled my heavy suitcase inside at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, it was as if God’s own hands held open the door for me. 

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