Jealousy resolved, toothache healed

I’m very grateful for a healing I had in the fall of 2012 that showed me so clearly that good does overcome evil. Out of nowhere, a tooth started bothering me, and the pain quickly escalated from moderately annoying to almost debilitating. Eating was nearly impossible, as was sleeping.

I struggled for several days but was grateful for the prayers of a Christian Science practitioner, which did bring some relief. The problem persisted, though, and one day as I prayed, it occurred to me that what I really needed to do was get to the root of the issue. I wasn’t sure how to do this, but I decided I would simply think about who and what God is, and God would show me the rest. I’ve found this approach very effective in the past because it helps focus my thoughts on what’s true and good, instead of whatever evil seems to be looming large.

I started thinking about the seven synonyms for God that Mary Baker Eddy gives in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (see p. 465 ). What did it mean for God to be Principle? What about Mind? I thought about Soul, then Spirit … and when I got to God as Life, a startling thought struck me. God, Life itself, wasn’t just my Life. God was everyone’s Life. That meant each of us has the same source of existence, the same amount of good, the same amount of love. I hadn’t stopped to think about God as Life this way before, but it made sense to me. And that’s when the second startling thought struck me: Since God, the same Life of us all, was blessing each of His children equally, then I didn’t need to feel jealous.

Jealous? Where did that come from? As I prayed further, knowing the goodness and wholeness of the one divine Life, it suddenly became clear that the evil that needed to be dispensed with wasn’t a painful tooth; it was the belief that I didn’t have everything I needed, while others—the lucky people—did. Right then I heard what sounded like an audio recording in my thoughts—an endless repetition of envious thoughts I hadn’t even known I’d had on replay. I’d been feeling so jealous of a few people who seemed more successful than I. But in that moment, the absurdity of the idea that anyone had more good, more prospects, more joy—especially in the face of what I was understanding about God—almost made me laugh. I didn’t need to feel jealous of others’ accomplishments or the success they had achieved in their careers. My Life, God, was as rich, beautiful, and full as I could ever need or want. I felt so loved, and grateful to God for loving me so much and being so good.

Within a few hours after that, the pain left. I had an appointment with the dentist about a week later, and the dentist couldn’t find anything wrong. She gave me a good report. But, of course, I’d already gotten an even better one from God.

Jenny Sawyer
Brighton, Massachusetts, US