Giving written thanks for the following testimony is 20 years overdue. One day, I discovered a lump in my breast. At first I was shocked and then fearful. I finished my workday in this mental state, and when I got home I called a Christian Science practitioner to give me treatment through prayer. We prayed for a few weeks, and the pain, which started shortly after I discovered the lump, faded, but the lump remained. 

During the next couple of years I would think about the lump, but not take the time to really pray about it. Then a few situations in my life came crashing down. I was extremely depressed and everything seemed so dark. I found myself questioning if good was really more powerful than evil as I had been taught in Christian Science, or if it wasn’t the other way around. 

A few days later, I found that I had a painful lump under my arm. This served to wake me up. To be healed in Christian Science, I was going to have to want to live and stop entertaining all these hopeless thoughts. This was quite a challenge. 

I contacted a practitioner and told her of the situation, although not about the deep depression. She sensed exactly what I needed and spoke to me about God’s great love for me, and how much God cared for me, His beloved child, who He was tenderly mothering. This was just what I needed to hear, and a sense of peace came over me whenever we talked of God’s love. 

For the first few months, it seemed that one thing after another would upset me and present itself as a distraction. I eventually learned that my happiness and peace of mind were dependent on God and nothing bad could touch them. There were also many different physical challenges associated with this condition, and as soon as one disappeared another would pop up in its place. As I continued to pray about this condition, I learned that anything inharmonious, imperfect, or painful, anything unlike God, is error, no matter where it is or what it tries to say. And it is powerless to move around because God is the only power. The first lesson I learned was how greatly thought governs our experience. I also learned that mortal mind, or material sense, couldn’t tell me anything about myself. Mortal mind never created anything real. This enabled me to look beyond the symptoms.

When I would wake up in the night, afraid and unable to sleep, these words from a hymn would come to me: “Cared for, watched over, beloved and protected” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 278), comforting me and enabling me to fall back to sleep. I found that I could be totally rested after only a few hours of sleep by communing with God, listening to what He had to tell me about my spiritual self, and affirming my true being in God’s likeness. 

Many days I felt too ill to eat breakfast or go to work. I did both, trusting God, and found that I felt fine. At the time, I was a professional ballerina. My dancing required nine-hour rehearsal days, which were physically demanding. I learned to pray consistently throughout the day. Although at times I felt lost in doubt, confusion, and pain, I always saw that God was leading me on to each new step, guiding my progress, and revealing what I needed to know at each stage of growth. I found that as I leaned on God, I had the stamina and strength to do my job. My dancing became stronger and more consistent than ever, which many commented on. 

During the two years it took for the complete healing, I had many other demonstrations along the way. For example, a wisdom tooth that had become stuck on the notch of the tooth next to it, straightened out and did not need to be pulled, as the dentist had thought. I also had an eye exam for new contacts and my eyesight had improved. A badly sprained foot and ankle, probably including several torn ligaments, were healed at such a rate that I could start jumping in four days and stand on my toes in six. And I didn’t miss the performance we had been preparing for.

Many times as the weeks and months wore on, I was tempted to think that healing had somehow passed me by because I still had struggles and difficulty. I would then look at all the other demonstrations of God’s power and goodness that I was experiencing and see healing was ongoing. After the first year of praying about the lumps, I had class instruction in Christian Science. I was also led to audition for a ballet company, which resulted
in a recommendation to another company that I had auditioned for previously, but had seemed uninterested in me. My original feeling that this previous company was the proper place for me was proved true as I was hired and given many opportunities, rising to the rank of principal ballerina, and staying with them until my retirement. 

The complete healing of the lumps occurred when I clearly accepted that this condition had absolutely no intelligence, no power, and no reality. A few weeks later, a wave of pain came back at me and the thought came so clearly it was as if I had spoken it, “I just can’t believe this anymore.” That was the last of it. I had needed to stop relying on the material senses to tell me when the healing was complete and instead accept in my thought that the healing had already occurred because my thought had risen above material sense. The lumps soon disappeared and I was healed.

In the past when I read in the periodicals of a healing taking place over a span of years, I would think that it must be a horrible waste because it seemed such experiences took away years from a “normal” life. After experiencing it myself, I can honestly say that it was the most peaceful, joyous, renewing experience I have ever had, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health, “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (p. 574). I am so grateful to have such solid proof that God is the God that I have learned about all my life. 

Kristen Wenrick Strange
Louisville, Kentucky, US