One morning in November 1977, while I was straightening the room, I took some bottles of medicine off the night table and asked myself, "Is this what life is all about? Do I hope to continue under such conditions? It cannot be. Tell me, Lord, what the way is." And my eyes filled with tears.

This anguished call was soon answered, for through a relative of my husband's the redeeming message of Christian Science came into our lives. We accepted its healing promises wholeheartedly, because we sensed that Christian Science would give us the spark of Love, the shining light that had been missing from our existence.

After our marriage in 1954 we had gone to live on a military base where my husband worked. Though the climate was very hot, we enjoyed outdoor activities to the full. But suddenly I was affilicted with kidney trouble. The condition was attributed to a virus brought on by the climate. Thus began a form of captivity, for my life started to revolve around my failing health. Everything seemed to make me ill—exercise, inactivity, heat, cold, food. The doctors gave me extensive treatment. On some occasions I even lost my reason and wanted to die, for I thought I was a nuisance to all but my patient husband.

But when we embraced Christian Science, God's infinite goodness lifted me out of the darkness, that horrible nightmare, which for so many years had tormented our home. Now I studied to understand that God's man is not subject to material laws but rather to divine law, the law of infinite Spirit. I asked a Christian Science practitioner for help, and she was able to guide me very lovingly.

These citations, which the practitioner gave me to study, were especially cherished. From the Bible (Isa. 60:1, 2): "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." And from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 412): "Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony."

With so much to inspire and strengthen my spiritual growth, I found that my healing of the kidney condition came naturally. However, for a long time after the healing, I was afraid that if I stayed very active the illness might repeat itself. But one day, while I was speaking with the practitioner, she helped me understand that as God's idea I had never really had that illness. The disease had been exposed and destroyed as a lie of mortal belief. Therefore it had no capacity to repeat itself. The fear of kidney trouble disappeared, and I have remained active and healthy.

How different our lives are now, thanks to divine Science! For all our wonderful blessings, my husband and I give praise to God. With our dear Father's help we will go forward, learning more of His goodness every day and sharing it freely with others.

MARÍA JOSEFA LINDO de CARRILLO
Bogotá, D.E., Colombia