Kidney pain healed

I am grateful for a particularly meaningful healing through prayer that I experienced a couple of years ago. Soon after retiring for the night, I was awakened by a pain in the area of my kidneys. Changing my sleeping position offered no relief. I began to pray for myself as I was accustomed to doing when I wasn’t feeling well. I affirmed the truth of my being as the spiritual offspring of God, Spirit, but the situation persisted. I then recalled a testimony I had heard in a Christian Science testimony meeting years earlier. The testifier spoke emphatically about his realization that there is “never any healing in the mattress.” That idea roused my thinking.

I quietly got out of bed so as not to awaken my wife and slipped downstairs. Once there, I recognized that there is no healing in the easy chair, either. By this time, I was in distress and very fearful. I had been through a similar challenge years earlier, and it had gone badly, so I was battling an increasing dread about what I thought might be developing.

As I reached out in prayer to God for help in stabilizing my thought, I began to realize that even the worst physical situation or human history could have no real effect on my true, spiritual being.

That simple understanding gave me the presence of mind to listen to God. Immediately, I felt guided to get up and move, even if only for a few steps. I did that, and in a moment a powerful statement from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, popped into my thought. It says, “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints” (p. 14). I grasped that promise firmly and walked around the family room for a minute or two. It then came to me to sit down and quietly embrace the implications of Mrs. Eddy’s bold words. Soon, I remembered the rest of that passage: “If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well.”

I sat peacefully for several minutes. I have always been impressed by the absolute promises given in Christian Science. I know they derive from Christ Jesus, whose words and healings assure us that, by following his example, we can heal spiritually, as he did. So I was not surprised when I found I was totally free of discomfort and completely at peace in my thought.

After a few moments of calm and gratitude, I returned to bed and slept soundly through the night. In the morning, I remembered only the great goodness that had lifted me up during the night and brought healing.

I do not have sufficient words to describe my gratitude for this experience. Yes, I am, of course, grateful for the freedom from suffering, which has been permanent. But even more, I am grateful for the fulfillment of spiritual promises offered in the Bible and explained in Christian Science.

Reid Hausmann
Pottersville, New Jersey, US