Clearing 'hurdles' with God
I was about to take the rigorous physical examination required for those seeking to become pilots in the United States Air Force. Although I had no experience as a pilot, I had met all the initial requirements. The last “hurdle,” so to speak, was the physical.
As part of a family of Christian Scientists, I knew the importance of prayerful mental preparation for any activity, and had given time to prayer on this “big day.” Our family had a favorite citation from Unity of Good by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. It reads, “… God is our helper. He pities us. He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers” (pp. 3–4 ). I leaned on this thought with confidence.
When I was ready to leave, my dad, who had been a military pilot himself, smiled proudly, shook my hand, and wished me well. My mother hugged me and gave me some wise advice. She told me that on the way to this examination, I should prayerfully consider the very first examination given in the Bible, when “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31 ).
“That includes you, honey!” she said. The thought of being included in God’s creation made me feel not only very good, but also very confident. That confidence would soon be tested.
In the examination waiting area, the Air Force medical technician looked very impressive. His crisp uniform had a badge that depicted a staff with a serpent wound around it. I asked what it meant and he told me that the image represented the rod of Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine and healing.
The “med tech” called out candidate names as he completed assembling our paperwork. When he handed me my folder I went into the examination area for the physical. In less than ten minutes I was ushered back out and told to go see the med tech. He opened the folder and remarked, “You’re colorblind!” I was incredulous. I thought I saw things in color just like everybody else.
“What am I going to do now?” I asked.
He smiled and said, “Well, you can be lots of things in the United States Air Force. But I’ll tell you one thing you’ll never be—a pilot!”
He gave me a “medical rejection for flying duty” letter and told me to report to my recruiter for further evaluation.
On the drive back home, I couldn’t think about anything but my failure. The image of Aesculapius’ snake on that med tech’s badge kept flashing in my mind as a symbol of the diagnosis. The material senses were declaring that the diagnosis had been made, and there was nothing to do but acquiesce. I had to confront and change this by turning to spiritual sense and the allness of God, Spirit. That would lead to healing.
I needed to abandon the illusory focus on the material selfhood of men and women. This could not be true of God’s creation. Instead, I had to bear witness to God’s unlimited, spiritual selfhood, and myself as the individualized spiritual idea of God.
Jesus pointed out the importance of this step, when he said, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true” (John 5:31, 32 ). The mortal sense of self must be given up—abandoned for the clear-sighted spiritual idea of God’s creation.
As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear,—this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, ‘whose builder and maker is God’ ” (p. 428 ).
When I got home, my parents comforted me, but refused to join me in doubt and self pity. “Let’s think prayerfully about this,” they said. My mom asked if I remembered the first examination in Genesis that she had told me about before I left. I said I did. Then she asked, “So is God’s view of you any less good now than it was when you left this morning?” This line of thought awakened me to a more spiritual viewpoint.
I had to bear witness to God’s unlimited, spiritual selfhood, and myself as the individualized spiritual idea of God.
In response to my mentioning the lingering image of the medical technician’s badge and his comments about my never becoming a pilot, my dad said, “You know, that mythological snake of Aesculapius represents a lie of limitation that goes back to the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve. In that allegory, the serpent suggested to Eve that there was a part of creation that God didn’t want them to see. Eve bought into that suggestion, and—according to the story—led Adam away from God.”
My dad challenged me to think more deeply about which story of creation I intended to believe. He recommended going to the definition of serpent in the Glossary of Science and Health. Here’s part of the definition that I prayed with: “Subtlety; … the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie of limitation; finity; …” (p. 594 ).
The medical exam was claiming that my eyes were inadequate to distinguish all the colors in the visible light spectrum. If I believed that report, I would be accepting that I could be separated from God, and that I was not God’s reflection, but a limited mortal, subject to material conditions instead of God, Spirit.
In Science and Health I found this idea about seeing colors spiritually: “From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses” (p. 512 ).
Thus I began to challenge colorblindness as a lie of limitation based on limited mortal thinking. I was giving it up for the vision that God created when He “saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” I was seeing myself as God’s idea, perfect and complete.
I decided to have the color vision test administered again by a local ophthalmologist who occasionally visited our branch Church of Christ, Scientist. Before I went in for the exam, I thought about this idea, again from Science and Health, “The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship” (p. 316 ).
I left the image of Aesculapius’ snake behind and felt God’s love overcoming the lie of limitation. I became willing to be part of God’s plan to guide “every event” in my career.
The ophthalmologist showed me one sample disk of the color vision test that was in use at the time. He said, “Some of these disks have two numbers in them. In this one, a person with normal color vision should see only the number 5 revealed in the disk. A colorblind person will see only the number 2.”
I saw both numbers! The ophthalmologist said that being able to distinguish both numbers was not impossible, but very unusual. He said, “If you see two numbers in any of the disks in the test, pick the number that is a different color from the background and you’ll be demonstrating that you have good color vision."
When he administered the complete test exactly the way the Air Force had given it to me, I scored 100 percent correct. He wrote a letter to the Air Force recruiters and they rescheduled the physical. This time I passed everything, including the color vision test, without difficulty.
I went on to become an Air Force pilot with a career that lasted for over 25 years, followed by a second career as a commercial airline pilot with an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate, the highest rating a pilot can obtain from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The spiritual lessons I learned in working out this healing with Christian Science were life changing. They gave me courage and confidence to challenge any medical opinions laid before me. They taught me how to see through the mythology of matter-based thinking, to conquer with spiritual understanding the matter-based limits of Aesculapius, and to grow in the ability to overcome “the lie of limitation” with Truth.
