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Living harmoniously and friction-free
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: “The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas” (p. 123).
A few years ago I learned an important lesson about this resolving and replacing. For several weeks I had constant shooting pain at the side of my knee, making it difficult to walk normally. Fear of immobility nagged me, and I prayed diligently to get a clearer conviction that divine Mind, not matter, was governing my movements. I affirmed what Eddy says in Science and Health that “Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action” (p. 283).
Over the weeks, I prayerfully denied the suggestions of pain and theories about what might be causing it, such as joint deterioration, heredity, injury, and so forth. Matter-based thinking would argue that this condition could only be resolved through knee surgery or other medical solutions advertised in the media. But I affirmed that I could rely on God, the great Physician, to make whatever correction was needed. As the Bible says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
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