Article March 12, 2012 Issue

You don't have to live with pain

By Rosalie E. Dunbar, Senior Editor

About ten years ago , I began to have trouble with my back. At first I thought it was just a temporary difficulty, but gradually the pain became worse and my back seemed to be growing weaker. For quite a while, prayer that insisted on my spirituality enabled me to continue doing all the things I normally did. The difficulty was that I couldn’t seem to get beyond that point to a total healing. 

I love the strong verbs that Mary Baker Eddy uses in her chapter on “Christian Science practice” in Science and Health. In addressing illness, pain, or trouble of any kind she declares that students of her book should resist, overrule, contend, dismiss, dispute, contradict. And this is just a sample of the powerful words that can guide someone praying for healing. They offer quite a contrast with the passivity that one is usually led to accept, if, for example, one is taking a pain killer. There, one waits for the drug to take effect before the pain can be alleviated. 

Even among those who address pain through prayer, the human tendency may be to “get by,” as long as the suffering isn’t “too bad.” Sometimes this is motivated by the hope that the pain is a momentary thing that will pass by itself. Other times, the suffering may become such a part of one’s life that one simply accepts it. Gradually, one may adjust behavior to accommodate the pain—not walking as much or lifting heavy objects, and so forth. I understand what this is like because I did it myself.

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