No more crippling pain
Up until a few years ago, thoughts of age had always been foreign to me. It wasn’t until my retirement that I gave it much consideration. But then I started realizing how many of my family members, friends, and acquaintances were passing away.
During that same period, I began to feel strange sensations and pain up and down my leg. It became a daily afternoon experience. For a few months, I had to do all my chores in the morning, because as noon approached, I found myself unable to drive, walk, or sit. This brought on feelings of fear, depression, and helplessness. Then the condition progressed to all-day excruciating pain, loss of balance, loss of weight, and paralysis on one side of my body.
In spite of this, I had been only casually reading the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson, along with other Christian Science literature. One day I read this statement by Mary Baker Eddy in Rudimental Divine Science: “It is only a lack of understanding of the allness of God, which leads you to believe in the existence of matter, or that matter can frame its own conditions, contrary to the law of Spirit” (pp. 10–11 ). I knew then I had to refute this claim of pain and immobility—not just by believing the truths we are taught in Christian Science, but by truly understanding them, and then applying that knowledge to eliminate the lies.
Being confined to my home made it easy to settle in for some deep spiritual study. This time was so fulfilling that I found myself eagerly reading, rereading, and rediscovering the writings of Mrs. Eddy. My phone and Internet happened to be cut off during that period, so I wasn’t interrupted and was able to really concentrate on my studies. As I read and took copious notes, the pain and passage of time seemed almost irrelevant.
A testimony in the Sentinel about a healing of sciatica was particularly inspiring (see Victor Wegelin, “Indications of sciatica dissolved,” April 4, 2011, p. 25). It describes symptoms similar to what I was experiencing and relates the story of Jesus healing the man with a crippled hand (see Luke 6:6–10 ). The writer likens Jesus’ command “Stretch forth thy hand” to the stretching and expanding of our spiritual thought process to overcome any belief of decay, disintegration, paralysis, or pain. That became my active spiritual path.
I realized that I didn’t have to heal a physical ailment, but rather, now I could see the unreality of this lie and allow only the truth of God’s harmonious action into my thinking. The condition was never in matter, but in so-called mortal mind. I understood that God would not, and could not, inflict any of His creatures with pain, paralysis, or inactivity.
An article I read in the April 2011 Journal, “Wake Up to Healing!” (p. 31), was very helpful. Author Mary Trammell writes, “Let’s not be fooled. This situation we’re praying about—real and threatening as it seems—is actually a dream. A dream concocted by what the Bible calls the ‘carnal mind.’ A dream of pain or sadness, of life somehow separated from God. But such a separation is impossible. God’s right here with you, and you’re with God forever. At this very moment, your divine Father-Mother is seeing you as His likeness, flawless, spiritual, totally free. And you can see yourself this way too. You can wake up to reality. You can wake up to healing.”
And that’s exactly what happened! The following morning, while washing dishes and listening to one of my favorite CDs, without thinking I started energetically dancing in time with the exuberant beat of the music. With that I knew I had my healing. No more pain, paralysis, inactivity, depression, or anxiety. I could say with the Psalmist, “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girdeth me with gladness” (Psalms 30:11 ).
This healing took place in August of 2011, and I have had no further signs of that trouble since. I am so grateful, not just for this remarkable proof of God’s ever-present care for His creation, but also for the months of precious time spent researching and discovering my true spirituality, harmony, and ageless being.
Phyllis Perron West
Torrance, California, US
