Infections and growth gone
Several years ago, I developed a large and painful infection in my gum. Praying diligently as I’d been taught did not seem to help, so I called a Christian Science practitioner. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us, “In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death” (p. 242 ). Along these lines, the practitioner and I prayed together to correct some undesirable character traits—which I felt included self-righteousness—by remembering that I reflect only God, good. The infection dissolved with the “solvent of Love.”
At about the same time, a painless growth that had been on my body for many years became infected, and though I again prayed diligently, the spiritual answer that had brought healing to the first condition did not seem to resolve this one. There was more to be learned. Mrs. Eddy says that the Christ is “the true idea voicing good … dispelling the illusions of the senses; …” (Science and Health, p. 332 ), and so I daily prayed to hear and do the good that the Christ is voicing to us, and to have all the illusions of the senses dispelled.
One morning, shortly after waking, I realized that I had been bothered for a while by some circumstances in my life that seemed unfair and unwise to me. I had been mentally accumulating facts to counteract these circumstances, but they were human facts, human reasoning—they were not true spiritually. It became clear that I needed to address this accumulation of errors in my thinking.
As soon as I reminded myself that divine Mind, not human reasoning, governs my experience, the growth immediately began to heal—but it did not go away completely. I thought: “Wait a minute! There’s more to go. I want a complete healing, not just part of one.” Then I recalled how the condition on my gum had vanished and realized that I didn’t need to decide how any healing should take place. This growth, too, could simply disappear. When one wakes from a dream, there are no aftereffects from that dream, and there did not have to be any here, either.
I spent some time recalling that the “three C’s”—complaint, condemnation, and criticism—can be detrimental to our spiritual growth. When I’d first heard (from a friend’s testimony one evening at church) of the importance of not indulging in these patterns of thought, it seemed a very high standard to measure up to. But on thinking more about it, I realized that God’s creation is perfect, and there is nothing in it to complain about, nor is there anything to criticize or condemn. The Bible reminds us of Jesus’ purpose: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17 ). Jesus’ life is my guide, and I felt that I could best follow his example by healing anything I was tempted to criticize or condemn. In other words, my job was, and is, to see only the perfection of God’s creation in every circumstance, in spite of all the evidence my senses are providing.
As I continued to pray about this situation, the infection was completely healed, and the growth itself disappeared as well. It is wonderful to be free of these conditions, to be freed from the false beliefs that caused them, and to know that God is in control. I am very grateful to Mrs. Eddy for her discovery of Christian Science, which reveals to us the most effective way to heal all disease.
Frances Wetzel
Sun City West, Arizona, US
