THERE WAS SOME INNER RESOLVE, some core of dignity and strength in her. When this woman and others climbed onto the subway train and stood near me, I smiled and nodded at them modestly. The blond young woman with the Lord & Taylor bag standing next to her smiled briefly in reply. But not this woman. She slowly turned away her almost expressionless face—not, I felt, out of any suspicion or self-defense as a woman but out of some inner poise, for her eyes danced a moment and she seemed pleasant, relaxed. She was an Indian woman, black hair with a few white strands pulled into a bun, strong, high cheeks, dark and shining eyes.

As we all swayed together toward the next stop, I noticed she wore sandals that revealed, almost displayed, a slightly deformed toe. But she was not intimidated.

Have you noticed that most of us who endure chronic illnesses or conditions do our best to conceal them? Maybe we think they're outward signs of some inner flaw we prefer that others not know about. But this woman made no apology for the blemish and apparently felt no embarrassment about it, and this caused me to admire her.

It also prompted me to ask myself what can be done about chronic physical problems that defy our prayers and perhaps the prayers of others. Do we just override them with dignity? Must we endure them? Can we prevail over them?

No, we need not endure; and, yes, we can prevail.

The God who is Love never abandons us in our hour or in our years of need. It is as alien to God's nature to forsake Her beloved sons and daughters as it is for a human mother to abandon her infant. God always is showing us the way fully to appreciate ourselves as His unblemished expressions.

We can't give up on seeing this identity. That would be tantamount to agreeing we are hopeless mortals, which we never are — like thinking green is red, which it never is.

Jesus once instantly healed a woman who over 12 years had spent all her money trying unsuccessfully to be healed by conventional material methods (see Mark 5:25-34). One scarcely can imagine what she endured. But she didn't give in to discouragement or self-pity, or resign herself to living with the condition. Not this woman. She resolutely pressed on for healing.

The woman must have prayed, for she was led to approach this man of God. To me, she was meekly reaching out for what is called the Christ, the spirit of Truth, that says we are forever the children, the manifestation, of God, regardless of our physical condition. That Christ had awakened in her an awareness that it was right, in the divine order of things, for her to be well. And she evidently refused to let go of this intuitive conviction. Perhaps in a way she was reaching out for confirmation of her natural dignity, and her tenacious conviction of the rightness of that truth of her identity was rewarded.

I once had a persistent pain in one arm, which woke me up at night. The pain defied every prayer. It went on and on. One day as I prayed about what to do, it occurred to me to read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy with an eye for every statement about perfection. Like that woman, I felt it was right and just for me to be healed. I deserved it, as God's own son. I eagerly took up a copy of the book and a highlighter to read and mark. Just as immediately, the pain ebbed. I had read only several pages over the next few days when I realized the pain was gone. The need was to learn more about the truth of myself as a son of God rather than more about the affliction, which was simply nothing before God's totality.

In prayer for the healing of illness, our need often is to know ourselves as we are known by God, to know we are now and always His creations. The God who is Spirit cannot create likenesses of Himself that are material any more than acorns can produce elms. Even at the moment when the five physical senses indicate we are material, sick, in trouble, to gain the awareness that we are spiritual brings a return to wholeness and healing.

Science and Health says this: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not" (p. 495). Also this: "Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them" (p. 391).

God always gives us the courage we need to glorify Him through right, radically spiritual, views of ourselves. God never resigns us to falsehoods. He forever supplies us with facts about our spiritual wholeness and with the energy and resolve to utilize those facts to penetrate the mists of believing we are materially flawed — an incorrect assumption no matter how longstanding.

I've noticed that the persistent mental suggestions that underlie chronic illness sometimes try to bend our attention away from Spirit, like trees bend away from a steady wind. If we aren't watchful, we accommodate ourselves to those negative suggestions, negative thoughts, that we are and have been mortal and ill.

Maybe you've noticed that folks sometimes "adopt" chronic illnesses. They refer to them as "My this" or "My that," as though they are as natural as hair and teeth, as hope and laughter. But that has never been true, and it defies the underlying truth that we are actually spiritual. No matter how long you have been held in this false mode of self-identification, you can change as instantly as a barn swallow can change its direction of flight. Science and Health promises: "If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right. Matter can make no opposition to right endeavors against sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless. Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from the body" (p. 253).

Jesus once healed a man who had been sick for 38 years (see John 5:1-9). The man apparently had never thought of spiritual healing before Jesus approached him. He just wanted to be well, and he might even have thought Jesus was just someone to carry him to the pool of water that was thought to have healing properties. But when he realized Jesus was offering another method of healing, the man must have been immediately receptive. He didn't cling to his 38-year-old beliefs. Not this man. To me, it was as though he said, "Sure!" when Jesus asked if he wanted to "be made whole."

So can we. We aren't married to chronic illness. Not you and me. We naturally identify with God as His sons and daughters. That's who we are now and ever. We never are comfortless, afraid, or abandoned by God. His energizing love is always as natural to us as song is to birds.