A few years ago I accepted an invitation to go sailing with friends, something I usually didn’t do, because motion sickness made boating difficult for me. I had prayed about this before but hadn’t been able to overcome it. This time, though, I felt the problem could be healed with my friends’ help. They were Christian Scientists, too, and were very willing to pray with me to meet this challenge.

It was a beautiful day for sailing, but I started feeling nauseated just standing on the floating dock waiting for the motorboat to take us to the moored thirty-foot sailboat. My friend could tell I needed to refute the false belief of seasickness with greater conviction. He reminded me that I did not need to accept this sensation as a reality or an indication of a doomed day. He suggested that I think gratefully about the fact that neither he nor his wife felt sick, which proved that the motion of the waves had no power in itself to make anyone sick. That thought was a big help. 

We all boarded the boat and took it through the channel going out to open sea. I felt increasingly sick, just as in the past. However, this time the conversation among the three of us was centered on the power, presence, and love of God. My friends spoke so lovingly about the ocean, the surrounding islands as we sailed past them, and the birds in the sky.