One day when I was a young boy, I was running down the street

Eric Sonnesyn

One day when I was a young boy, I was running down the street. I became very winded. I stopped to rest, but I couldn't catch my breath. No matter how I tried, I couldn't breathe well.

My uncle was a lifelong asthmatic; it was easy to conclude that I had inherited the same problem—that it was genetic. My condition was aggravated by severe allergies, and was particularly acute if I got sick during the allergy season. I remember once lying in bed in late August, wondering if I would make it through the night.

My parents took me to the best doctors. Sometimes I was able to get some relief, but never to find healing. Always there were antibiotics in our medicine cabinet, antihistamines, and asthma medicine. I took allergy shots for years.

After college, when I was living alone for the first time, I began to read the Bible. I also began to read Science and Health, and this textbook helped me to see the spiritual significance of the Bible. I threw away all my medicine.

I began to learn about God: a God who is good; a God who loves and cherishes each of His children; a God who is all-powerful; a God who is everywhere; a God who knows everything; a God who is not the cause of evil. I learned that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, fulfilled the law of God by overcoming the great triad of evil—sin, disease, and death.

I learned that true fulfillment is in bringing one's life into conformity with God, through the spirit of Jesus' teachings. When this happens, it is natural that disease disappears, that the consequences of sin are canceled by reformation, and that even death is overcome.

This was very helpful to consider in praying about my breathing problems: "What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose, the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It is profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation, sneezing, and nasal pangs" (Science and Health, p. 175). This statement encourages its reader to consider the spiritual qualities represented around us, and to realize that those qualities are true, good, and real.

I also learned that hereditary illness was not a law I had to be subject to: "The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncrasies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great fact of being were learned,—namely, that nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God. Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear" (ibid., p. 228).

When I was convinced of the truth I had found in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, I was healed of this entire problem, and of all my fear of it. I have been free of all breathing difficulties now for over twenty years.

As our Master promised, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

Eric Sonnesyn
Lake Zurich, Illinois

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