Recently I was reminded of a healing that felt big to me. 

One evening while I was in college, all the joints in my body began to hurt when I put pressure on them. It was painful to get up and to sit or lie down, and I couldn’t sleep. I tried calling both the Christian Science practitioner I usually worked with and my dad for prayerful support, but I couldn’t get hold of either of them. This left me feeling very alone. 

As I was frantically trying to figure out how to get rid of the pain, a question that my dad had recently asked me came to mind: “How much time are you spending ‘educating’ yourself about the material, physical senses, and how much time are you spending ‘educating’ yourself about spiritual sense?” 

I knew that the solution to my problem would be to turn my thoughts around and purposefully spend time learning about God and my spiritual identity instead of just wallowing in how I was feeling. With that change in focus, I looked up a question that is asked and answered in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “What is man?” This part of the answer stood out to me: “Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God’s image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, . . .” (p. 475).

The solution was to purposefully spend time learning about my spiritual identity.

I knew that I was God’s child and that I needed to “stand porter at the door of thought” (Science and Health, p. 392)—to pay attention to what I was taking in and not give time and attention to any ungodlike thoughts, such as repetitive feelings of being hurt or angry or thoughts of me or anyone else not being good enough. In the Glossary of Science and Health there is a definition of God that I have always appreciated, and it related to my prayers in this situation: “The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence” (p. 587).

That week I became more purposeful about my homework, my time at school, and my thoughts in general. I wanted to make sure that all my assignments were completed in a way that expressed qualities I associated with God—particularly with those seven synonyms for God in the Glossary.

I’d been learning that my substance is spiritual and that I reflect all the qualities of God, who is divine Spirit. So I ensured that each assignment I worked on was truthful, that it had the spirit of Life and a unique purpose (expressing divine Soul), and that the presentation was done in a loving and principled way. I started watching the thoughts I was having in my free time and mentally resolved to repeat only the good. 

As the week went on, I was comfortable if I stayed busy at school, but when I was home alone, the pain would come back. I learned that if I couldn’t come up with any good thoughts to think, I could choose a hymn to pray with or sing to myself instead of getting stuck with thoughts of pain and lack. If I was going to repeat something, it was going to be good! This approach helped bring peace. 

I don’t remember exactly how many days this problem went on, but before the week was over, I had a much clearer sense of doing all my activities and assignments in praise to God, and I was much less distracted by suggestions that came to thought that I knew were not from God. 

The pain faded away, and there has been no recurrence of it in the many years since, but I have definitely held on to the lessons I learned. Educating myself spiritually set me on a path of celebrating God’s goodness that continues today.