About nine months ago, I went for an eight-mile run with a dear friend along the Charles River in Boston. The particular route is a favorite of ours. It winds its way along the river and past some of Boston’s most historic areas. There was an additional reason the run was very special.

In the summer of 2017, my family and I were enjoying a day at the beach. As I was playing with my children in the shallow water, a muscle in one of my legs seemed to snap, and I fell back into the water. 

As I slowly made my way back to our spot on the beach, I had only limited mobility. I felt sharp pain when I tried to use my calf, which was misshapen. I am used to praying when faced with difficulties, and my immediate prayer had a calming effect. It acknowledged God’s all-power and ever-presence. I affirmed that there had never been an opportunity for anything to disrupt my eternal relation to God.

This assertion was based on a passage in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The passage states, “There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error of any sort” (pp. 232–233). In my experience, it’s been helpful and healing to trust the truth of passages in Science and Health and see their spiritual relationship to passages in the Bible. In this instance, a related passage from the Bible was, “Nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19).

My prayer in this instance was most effective when I was clear that my relation to God isn’t the harmonious relationship between two separate spiritual beings or entities, but rather, that I am (as everyone is in their true identity as God’s image) the very expression of God, divine Spirit. My identity is inseparable from God, and I reflect Him. The eternal substance of my being is the manifestation of divine Soul.

The perfect and constant inseparability of God and His creation doesn’t allow any opportunity for error, which is a material misperception of divine reality. Science and Health states: “God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through this action of thought and its results upon the body, the student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the grand verities of Christian Science” (p. 384).

As the day progressed, there were opportunities to “enter [my] protest” against the belief that I could suffer. I was committed to truly feeling the presence of God. Since our family trip to the beach was on the Saturday of a holiday weekend, I had a few quiet days for prayer and spiritual study before returning to my weekly routine. 

At one point, the symptoms were daunting, so I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful treatment, and we also had a helpful conversation. This quieted my fear and encouraged me to continue in prayer. Soon I remembered a passage from Retrospection and Introspection, another book by Mrs. Eddy. It says, “The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged” (p. 22).

To expunge, according to Dictionary.com, means to “blot out; erase; obliterate,” “to … wipe out or destroy.” This sharpened my prayer. If there had never been an opportunity for error, I reasoned, then there had never been an opportunity for an accident, either. Science and Health states, “Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection” (p. 424). If there had never truly been an accident, there could never truly be the effects of an accident. In reality, I am totally spiritual, so I can’t be damaged and in need of fixing.

There was an opportunity here to remember my inseparable relation to God and His ability to maintain every aspect of my perfect identity—which, according to Christian Science, is the activity of the Christ. Science and Health explains Christ as “the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error” (p. 583).

I made significant progress the first week. My mobility was back to normal, and I was able to return to work. Over the next several weeks, the shape of my leg muscle was restored, and in about six weeks I was back to running. That run with my friend along the Charles River was a testament to the effectiveness of Christian Science. I am very grateful. 

Eric Bashor 
Natick, Massachusetts, US