Dancing to the right tune

I grew up with church music that tended to be solemn, and there’s still a lot of that around. But today there are lots of lively hymn tunes to get the feet tapping—modern ways of expressing praise to God, provided we are alert to respond to the right rhythm in our lives, to the ideas and revelations constantly being imparted to us by our heavenly Father. It’s all too easy to be lured into moving to error’s tune, which is what happened to me some years ago.

We had two small boys under five, and my husband was making great strides in overcoming an illness that had brought us to study Christian Science. We were to some extent “resting on our laurels” after clear signs of his progress when my back suddenly seized up one morning while I was making a bed. I felt excruciating pain and could scarcely move my body or walk upright. A neighbor was at that time having protracted medical treatment for a slipped disk, and I recognized I was having all the symptoms she displayed and had described to me. 

I immediately contacted a Christian Science practitioner, and we began vehemently rejecting the evidence of immobility, knowing God’s support was ever present. With the practitioner’s help, over the next two to three weeks, I was able to get around and do what was needed, avoiding discussing the difficulty even with well-meaning friends.

Although the pain remained, and I couldn’t even lie comfortably without support from a pile of pillows, our family felt it right to go ahead with a planned week’s holiday at a friend’s cottage in Wales. It was there, while standing at the stove one evening stirring a pot, that I realized I was constantly moving to try to find comfort—letting the pain dictate to me. Then three thoughts came: 

• Stop dancing to error’s tune! 
• “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (Psalms 56:4 ). 
• “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13 ).

The next time the pain flooded in, I resolutely stood still and spoke Psalm 56 out loud, refusing to budge, mentally listening for God’s guidance. Shortly, a wonderful sense of warmth enveloped my back, and I could feel the pain fully drain away. I felt a wonderful sense of relief, and I could hardly believe it when I was then able to move in complete freedom!

Apart from an occasional, quickly dispatched twinge when I stood up after sitting for a while, that was the end of the problem, and I was soon back on the tennis court. Most important, it was a remarkable healing that further strengthened our family’s willingness to trust all to God.

Over the years, I have found that when we react to any adverse circumstance with fear or resignation, as though it were a “real problem,” we are tapping our toes to error’s tune. But, as my healing showed, we can always stop, listen, and dance to the right tune. We can rest confidently in Mary Baker Eddy’s assurance that “eternal Truth is changing the universe,” and see the light of Truth and Love “changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 255 ). 

Jean Jillings-Warner
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England