Testimony of Healing August 27, 2018 Issue

Pain overcome and use of arm restored

Peter Vaughan

Some years ago I had a healing experience that has remained a strong support in my reliance on Christian Science. Over a period of time my right arm had been increasingly bothering me. As time went on I became unable to lift the arm. Not long before, I had begun serving as Second Reader at my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and each time I approached the podium I had to use my left hand to lift the arm onto the desk so I could turn the pages of the Bible as I read. The arm was quite painful, particularly at night.

My mother, who was a Christian Science practitioner advertising in The Christian Science Journal, was helping me through Christian Science treatment. Much of the detail of what we prayed with is forgotten, but I remember that it included ideas and passages relating to the concepts of “arm” and “hand” from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible refers to the “right hand of the Lord,” and we understood that this represented strength and authority. I saw that I could expect to reflect the strength and ability that were inherent in me as God’s image and likeness with all the authority of God.

However, the situation grew worse, until one night I awoke and was unable to find any position that was bearable. I got up, went to the living room, sat in the dark, and tried to pray with ideas I knew well, such as the Lord’s Prayer, “the scientific statement of being” from Science and Health (p. 468), and the twenty-third and ninety-first Psalms. I began singing hymns (quietly, so as to not wake up my wife or the children). But I found I could not focus through the pain. With tears in my eyes, I reached out to God asking for help.

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