Twisted ankle quickly healed
A number of years ago, I was the co-director of a Youth Camp in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park on the beautiful shores of Whitefish Lake. Each year we took a three-day canoe trip to the park’s “interior”—inaccessible by car or motor boat. This particular summer, the group included about 20 people, using several canoes and one kayak.
Early on in the trip we had a 1.7-kilometer portage—a section where we had to carry our canoes from one body of water to another. After my first dropoff, I returned to the beginning of the trail to get another load to carry when I suddenly twisted my ankle. “Oh no!” I thought. I still had two trips to make, and there were two more portages to go before reaching our campsite.
Fear immediately began to set in. I didn’t want the whole trip spoiled, nor did I want to be a burden for others. It was an ideal opportunity to pray. So I reached out earnestly to God. I don’t remember the exact ideas I prayed with, but it was as simple as knowing that God is Love and that Love is surrounding me. From my study of Christian Science, I knew that man is made in the image and likeness of God, as explained in the first chapter of Genesis.
This prayer helped me to take my thought off the ankle, and correspondingly, I found I was able to continue the portages without too much trouble. But that evening at our destination site, I started limping severely.
I went to my tent and studied the Christian Science Bible Lesson, which consists of citations from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. I was so tempted to just fall asleep in my cozy retreat, but I knew I really needed to do the “mental work” that would lead to healing.
This “mental work” to me is really following the biblical command to “work out your own salvation” (Philippians 2:12 )—using this opportunity to grow spiritually, to overcome challenges through better understanding my own nature as God’s reflection. Often it can be tempting not to stand up to fear. I love the story of David and Goliath as it clearly illustrates the rewards of relying on God to guide us as we face what feels like our own giant challenges. I needed to tackle my “Goliath” right then and there—the fear of being crippled for the remainder of the trip.
So I studied and prayed for about two hours, digging into the Bible and Science and Health for inspiration and spiritual insights. A breakthrough idea dawned and resonated with me, and I noticed a sensation of the immediate mending of the injury. The idea was that God, Spirit, was my support and that I was inseparable from God as one of His spiritual ideas. Matter really is no part of me since I am God’s perfect, spiritual creation.
The concept of flexibility was also of great help to me as I prayed. My ankle was a picture of inflexibility, but I knew that wasn’t the real story about me. Flexibility is expressed spiritually and can’t be opposed by material circumstances. God, Spirit, is powerful and substantial and long-lasting; matter is none of these things. With that idea, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and emerged from the tent feeling completely unafraid and fully confident that I was healed. I knew I was God’s flexible idea and could lean on the substance of Spirit to maintain and sustain me.
Later, I sat on at the edge of a rock as the loons called hauntingly and beautifully
on the small lake. I remember looking up to the evening stars twinkling clearly and brightly above. I could feel that a change, like an attitude adjustment, had gone on in my thought. The next day I was consistently strong, and my ankle was completely flexible and able to function normally and painlessly. I even did two more portages in which I solo-carried a canoe over my head—something I’d never done before.
Over the next few days, I participated in many more activities, including volleyball, with no problem. The ankle had healed so fast and thoroughly that I felt nothing but amazement and gratitude for Christian Science.
Dean Wolfe
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
