The shaking stopped

Andie Raffles

“I can’t seem to get it to stop,” I explained to my softball coach, as my right hand trembled uncontrollably.

I was a right-handed pitcher, and this lack of control made pitching impossible. So I sat on the sidelines, unable to play. That night I told my parents about the situation, and we did what we’d done many times in the past: We prayed. Praying the way I’d learned to in the Christian Science Sunday School had always helped me, so I was confident I would be healed.

LISA ANDREWS—STAFF

As my hand was still trembling after school the next day, I decided to call a Christian Science practitioner for additional help. He directed me to this passage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “There is no involuntary action. The divine Mind includes all action and volition, and man in Science is governed by this Mind” (p. 187). I prayed with the idea that no matter what appeared to be going on, there actually couldn’t be any movement outside of God’s, divine Mind’s, control, so my hand couldn’t shake uncontrollably.

The trembling did stop, and I was grateful. But every so often it would reoccur. Each time, I would come back to the idea that there can be no involuntary action, and each time the shaking would stop.

I sat down to pray for complete healing.

After about four years of the intermittent trembling, one day the shaking in my hand wouldn’t stop. I ignored it for a few days, assuming it would go away. But it didn’t. So this time I sat down to pray for complete healing. I picked up a copy of this magazine for inspiration, and as I read, I was struck by an article in which the author described the importance of a shepherd’s staff, which a shepherd uses to guide and protect the sheep.

OK, I thought. If God were a real-life shepherd holding a staff, and the staff were precious and important, God would probably hold the staff in His right hand (if the shepherd were a righty like me). And if God held the staff, it wouldn’t shake in His hand, because God is all-powerful. His grip would be firm, strong, and unshakable. So since I’m made in God’s image and likeness, as it says in the Bible, I couldn’t have a trembling hand, either. It’s not true about God, so it couldn’t be true about me. With this realization, the trembling stopped. It’s been ten years since this definitive moment, and the healing has been permanent.

I am so grateful for this healing, for Christian Science, and for the inspiration the Sentinel provides.

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