Prayer heals dancer's injured foot

Ginger Stevens

A few years ago I was participating in a ballet class—something I enjoyed doing several times a week. Toward the end of the class, I was doing a step that involved leaping through the air. As I landed, I came down incorrectly on one foot and twisted it badly. I sat on the floor of the studio, rather stunned and in pain, while several people offered assistance and suggestions. I remember those few moments well because of the quick change of thought that occurred. I saw how important it was to turn away quickly from the physical picture of injury. I had to make a definite decision right then to rely on God.

I requested that the class continue and sat quietly through the remainder of it, claiming my spiritual identity as God's child, and accepting the fact that no apparent change in matter could have any effect on my real being. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember feeling peaceful. Some friends were visiting that day, and I had looked forward to seeing them. After class, I went ahead and visited with them. I was able to put on boots with the assurance that pain was no part of my being.

For the next two or three days, though, I couldn't walk very well and required help from my family in accomplishing routine tasks. But there was steady improvement. Within a week I was on my way to a ballet class again.

Within a week I was on my way to a ballet class again.

That was the end of it. There has never been any further pain or weakness in that foot. What made this more remarkable to some of my friends in the dance community was that at my age (I was considered old in the dance world), an injury like this would be expected to result in chronic pain and problems. This has not been the case.

Science and Health refers to Christ Jesus' statement "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him" (Matt. 5:25). Mary Baker Eddy explains: "Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick" (p. 390).

As I thought back on the experience, it was clear that the foundation for the healing was laid in those few moments immediately after I fell. Then it was a matter of consistently turning away from the physical evidence and expecting healing. How grateful I am for the freedom that comes from the study of Christian Science.

Ginger Stevens
West Linn, Oregon

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December 6, 1999

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