Skin cancer and body pain gone
Several years ago, I retired and looked forward to having more time to enjoy recreational activities, especially outdoors. I’ve always enjoyed running, hiking, sailing, playing tennis, riding a bicycle, swimming.
In a short time, however, a number of physical limitations became apparent. In the past I had always expected and seen quick healing of physical challenges. But these issues were not going away, and they were accumulating. First, there was pain in my hips, then pain in my right shoulder, then a large wart on my left foot, and finally a diagnosed case of skin cancer. Walking without pain became impossible; lifting weights, running, and playing tennis were unthinkable.
I prayed about these issues over the course of about a year. And my many hours of prayerful study were rewarded with a clearer understanding of how man was created in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:27 ). God made us neither young nor old; not subject to a cycle of birth, maturity, and decay; without declining faculties, a narrowing sphere of activity, or a limited future. The prayerful work was enjoyable and the mental progress evident—but the physical symptoms continued.
Further prayer and study yielded additional insights that, in retrospect, were key turning points. In particular, I gained a clearer sense of myself as a child of God. I remembered how much Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy loved children, and how highly they valued childlike qualities such as innocence, purity, spontaneity, sincerity, energy, and joy. Both saw everyone as the child of God; neither ever made a reality out of an old man (or old woman) of God.
Around this time, a friend pointed out that I was talking about myself as growing old. He suggested that referring to myself as an “old doggie” might be amusing, but that it was not helpful from a spiritual perspective. I recalled this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise” (p. 246 ). And then, finally, it hit me: There is no such thing as an old man or old woman of God. We are all the children of God—we are never old men or old women of God. This thought from the Bible came to mind: “And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning” (Job 11:17 ).
But there was more that needed to be brought to the surface. In particular, a hidden error needed to be uncovered and healed: There was resistance in my thought to the concept of eternal life. Why, I had always thought, would I want eternal life? I have a good life now. There have been challenges, but they’ve all been met. I’ve worked hard and done my job as husband, father, friend, church member. At some point, I just want to go to sleep. I don’t need to live forever!
Well, the error in this line of thinking soon became clear. By rejecting eternal life, I was, in effect, confirming limited, declining life; life in matter with an end point. It took quite a while to work through the issue of eternal life. But eventually I began to see it as something to look forward to—as the continuing, everlasting unfoldment of good, wherein I would lose nothing and continue my journey Spiritward. I could, I now saw, continue to love my wife and children and friends forever, never losing the precious goodness of those relationships.
The clincher came when one day it came to me that God would never have created man without the ability to know and reflect Him—no matter the states and stages (or ages and years) of the mortal dream. That would be unthinkable. Nothing can ever prevent, limit, or interfere with man’s consciousness of and ability to reflect God. No human condition. No mental concept. No declining faculties or worn out body. Nothing could ever prevent man from experiencing a full and complete awareness of God. All of these beliefs associated with “old age” were an attempt of mortal mind—“the Adam-dream” (see Science and Health, p. 282 )—to separate me from God. And that, I could see, was impossible.
Shortly thereafter, all of the physical problems—the hip and shoulder pain, the wart, the skin cancer—disappeared (and the latter was confirmed by one of the doctors with whom I’d consulted). This healing took place six years ago, and there has been no return of any of these symptoms. The healing was a wake-up call about the need to “shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight” (Science and Health, p. 246 ), for which I am very grateful.
Chris Wye
Washington, DC, US
