“…our source of all good is never ending”

This has been an unusual year. It has required special prayer and support of our branch church. There have been several times this last year when I felt so ill that I didn’t see how I was going to be able to do my part. But each time this mortal thought dispersed into nothingness, and Truth shined through allowing me to fulfill my duties.

Another blessing came as an answer to prayer for our home. Due to a substantial change in income, we felt we would not be able to remain in the home we loved, and which was perfect for our family and our work for Church. We spoke with a realtor to sell our house and started looking for another home. In looking we were listening for Mind’s direction and trying to do what was harmonious. In that search, which lasted two years, it became obvious that we were already in our right place. To me that meant there must be a way to pay for it, because infinite Love provides a complete picture. Several unexpected factors that before seemed implausible became the reality of our experience. That changed everything, and we were able to stay. We are settled in knowing that we are in our right place, and that our source of all good is never ending.

“As often happens, that prayer had other effects”

During the pandemic, I have been praying a lot with the idea that there is only one Mind, God. The only ideas that can be transmitted from person to person are God’s ideas. A member at church gave a testimony about praying with the passage “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (SH p. 514:28–30) as she rode the subway to her essential job, and I found that very useful. Every time I meet someone and wonder about whether they could “have it,” I remember and affirm that they are innocent, they are children of God, and the only ideas that can be transmitted from person to person are God’s ideas.

In early December I prayed for a family member. I prayed that God is right here, right now, and that this person belongs to God, not to any suffering. I remember a breakthrough in my prayer when I suddenly realized that it was so obvious that the problem was an absurd lie, trying to keep God’s idea from being expressed. And that is impossible, because God is omnipotent! I saw that nothing can change man’s identity as God’s child, expressing all God’s qualities. “In Thine own image we may see Man pure and upright, whole and free.” (Hymn 12) There was healing.

As often happens, that prayer had other effects. My dad and I went to get a Christmas tree, which although I love doing, had been fraught in recent years. I had been plagued by the belief of indecisiveness that paralyzed me, so I couldn’t decide harmoniously and efficiently. This had been exacerbated by the loud, overemotional music they play. I know this sounds a little silly, but it had been troubling that such a fun and minor event could be sabotaged by a belief of mental upheaval. This year, though, none of that was present at all. There was a sense of joy and lightness, of infinite good. We picked a tree very quickly and easily, and the music seemed funny rather than oppressive. It was very clear that the presence of God was blessing the whole outing.

“…more harmony, more patience, a greater sense of purpose…more peace”

For me one benefit of being on lockdown during the Covid-19 crisis has been the opportunity to refocus on the more important activities in my life and the “letting go” of the less important ones.

Over the past several years, I had found myself “just saying YES” to requests for help and adding “activities” while not giving any thought to or consideration of the impact on me or my family. I realized that something needed to be done.

To start with, I found myself turning to our Pastor: The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy for inspiration.

And I received the guidance I needed.

Christ Jesus’ command “Love thy neighbor as thyself” came to my thought. To truly “Love thy neighbor,” I needed to put this into practice. So I began to be more aware of my neighbors, stopping to say hello, exchanging a greeting or a smile, and carrying on conversations. I found that “time” was slowing down during this Covid-19 crisis… and I could as well. The results were remarkable. I found myself having more meaningful conversations with my neighbors, exchanging ideas, and truly getting to know them better. The benefits have been meeting more neighbors and forming new friendships.

Near the end of 2020, when the idea of preparing New Year’s resolutions came to mind, I took a different approach to setting goals for the year. Instead of beginning with listing all the things or activities or goals I wanted to accomplish, I turned to what MBE has to say about what’s important. A familiar citation from Science and Health came to mind.

“What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.” (SH p. 4:3–5)

That became my New Year’s Resolution and allowed me to identify what “good deeds” I needed to focus on. It didn’t take me long to make a list.

It became immediately apparent that the activities that did not make the list were the ones that I could wind down and stop doing. And that is what I did. A clear path emerged for this winding down, leaving plenty of time to make progress with the “good deeds.”

Some of the blessings so far have been more harmony, more patience (with myself, my family, and others), a greater sense of purpose in my life, and more peace.

I am truly grateful for this experience of turning to our Pastor for guidance and for the blessings I have received and continue to receive.

“…an entirely different view of reality”

This year, perhaps more than any other time in my life, I have been grateful to be a Christian Scientist. This year, unlike any other, the world has clamored continuously (at full volume) about the reality of disease. (Sidenote: I was Googling synonyms for “reality” and one of the few synonyms that appeared was “materiality.”) The most recent Parisian garment has taken the whole planet by storm, for the first time in most of our experiences. This insistence on the actuality of a virus that has constantly morphed in terms of its suggested causes and effects, has tried to push past the porter at the door of thought through a variety of different avenues, including every media source and all levels of government. The constant demand to self-identify with and scrutinize our mortal bodies has permitted mortal mind to have a heyday! More than the usual airtime such claims vie for, aggressive assertions of this particular falsehood have seemed to hang over the entire world like a guillotine blade.

I have been so grateful to hear an entirely different view of reality from Mary Baker Eddy, The Mother Church, and various other Christian Science sources. Mrs. Eddy commands us to look away from the body, to realize the only suggested power of disease is in mortal thought, and that God is truly the only power. Mrs. Eddy’s understanding that contagion is mental and not physical has been such an important counterargument to the world’s focus on human ways and means, including mask-wearing, handwashing, and physical distancing. Also, her realization (echoed by many current periodical writers) that a main cause of disease is fear is such an important recognition and refreshing rebuttal to any of the symptom suggestions that have come to many of us at various times these past months. Having a Christianly scientific method to refute every false suggestion, allowing us to see them for what they are, without power or reality, has been so comforting, as well as strengthening. I have certainly been thankful for Christian Science and the truth which was revealed to Mrs. Eddy, following in Christ Jesus’ footsteps.

“Who are you going to trust, the matter physician or the Great Physician?”

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was fortunate to have a doctor that had many CS patients and preferred home births to hospital births. He also worked with a CS nurse so was familiar with CS.

Because my husband was not comfortable with a home birth, we decided to have the baby at the hospital. At one point during labor the doctor came in and heard the nurse, my husband, and me saying “The Scientific Statement of Being.” He said, “You don’t need to bring out the big guns – she’s just having a baby!”

After our baby was born, she was considered jaundiced, so they placed her under lights as this was supposed to help the condition. There was a quarantine at the hospital at the time, and no visitors were allowed but it permitted me to stay with her. I don’t remember being fearful, but I simply wanted to go home with my new baby. I was in constant contact with my practitioner by phone.

After three days I woke to a glorious rose-colored sunrise. This broke the mesmerism of being under the hospital rules. I asked to leave. I think because I trusted our doctor and admired his care that I had been waiting to be discharged, instead of insisting. But that morning, almost as a voice, the thought came, “Who are you going to trust, the matter physician or the Great Physician?” It is hard to describe the freedom of thought I felt when I made that decision.

When the doctor came to approve the discharge he said with a twinkle in his eye, “It is about time you decided to leave.”

The time in the hospital allowed me to pray and work with the practitioner. By the time I left I had no fear of the jaundice diagnosis or any ill effects. I saw the baby as a complete, perfect idea of God. Our daughter had no need to return for doctor visits; we relied on the Great Physician to meet any needs that came up and consequently experienced many healings.

I am so grateful for Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and the many dedicated practitioners, teachers, and Sunday School teachers.

“I knew that God would direct me”

Over the years, I’ve been shown in many ways that no matter where we are or what we are doing, God is always with us, guiding us, guarding us, and leading us. This has been proven to me in so many ways especially while driving my car. One of the more memorable incidents happened one night while my husband and I were driving down a very busy route (two lanes on each side of the road with a jersey barrier dividing the east and west sides of the road. I was driving the car and was in the fast lane, next to the barrier. Occasionally, there would be an opening for someone to cross over to the other side but not an extra lane to use for this purpose. 

This night, it was pouring rain, the visibility was poor, and there was a lot of traffic in both lanes on my side of the road and quite a bit of oncoming traffic as well. Suddenly, the car in front of me decided to turn left at an opening without any notice.  To human sense, I had absolutely nowhere to go. Immediately, I said out loud, “Divine Mind governs all!” And I knew that God would direct me on what to do next. At that point, I felt God’s love and care for us, and it was like he was taking over the wheel. The car which was turning turned just enough for me to squeeze by, but cars on my right were coming at a very fast speed so I couldn’t move over a lane.

But again, it felt like I wasn’t driving, and our car moved a bit to the right and we were free to go past the whole situation. My husband told me how impressed with how I maneuvered, but my comment to him was, “It wasn’t me that did it; it was God’s work.”

“… the pain in my chest disappeared, and it has never returned”

As we all adjust to the fact that Skip has progressed on to a greater experience of divine reality and divine Love, below is a healing that shows how the teachings of the Association continue in consciousness and weave a constant thread of comfort and instruction through our lives.

Recently, I have been thinking of the tender care Jesus expressed toward his students as he himself was preparing for the crucifixion and beyond. Jesus was aware that the ensuing disturbing events looming on the horizon would greatly challenge his disciples and all of his followers. Pondering Jesus’ special attentiveness to his disciples as the crucifixion drew near, I was deeply touched. He knew exactly who would betray him, who would be faithful, who would be fearful and challenged, and who would fall away. His instructions warned them of the attempted disruption to peace, security, and progress. He affirmed to them that good could not be destroyed, and that his teachings would not only live on in thought but increase the understanding of the disciples. Jesus reassured them that a Comforter would be forever present in their lives: “But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26) I believe all of us have already experienced the special love and shepherding of the Comforter since Skip has gone on. The presence of the Comforter in our lives is the fulfilment of Jesus’ departing prayer, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through [the disciples’] word.” (John 17:20) The following healing is one such example of the Comforter active in consciousness.

One day last fall I decided to take a walk in a beautiful park near my home. About halfway through the walk I started to experience a growing pain in a strange location of my hip. Not thinking much of it I continued my walk all the while denying in thought any validity to pain. However, as I continued walking, the difficulty grew steadily and rather quickly, so that by the time I reached my car, I could barely walk or get into the car without excruciating pain. I managed to drive the short distance home and get myself to bed in order to rest and pray. In the morning I called a practitioner as I was only able to get around with the use of a walker. Over the course of the night the pain had moved from one hip to the other, making it quite clear that the challenge was completely mental and not physical. I had not injured myself by falling, tripping or twisting anything, and that added to the conviction that the problem was mental, as it always is. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events or the course in the development of thought, but thus began a six-month journey toward healing. I do know that I prayed deeply and thoroughly with the lesson every day, usually working with the Bible Lens notes and sometimes taking hours to do so. I grew in the beautiful conviction of God’s loving care for me every day. I was especially drawn to the concept of God’s covenant with His beloved children, in which He kept constant watch over them, providing protection, guidance, and fulfilling every need. In return they promised to keep his commandments. I loved the idea that this covenant was binding in a legal sense and is still active today. This was especially poignant since I had recently been forced to quit my job for ethical reasons and was living on savings I had accumulated while employed. I spent much time being grateful for the provision I did have which enabled me to commune more closely with God in this special way. Often during this period, I would work with the practitioner with the fact that animal magnetism had no power to impede or stop progress, as this was a very aggressive claim in thought. While still in some pain I would attempt some cleaning around the house. Then suddenly out of nowhere I would experience an attack of great pain, abnormal fatigue and/or extreme weakness. This would incapacitate me for 1 or 2 days. The practitioner and I would pray to know that animal magnetism could not come out of nowhere to attack because it does not exist, and nowhere is not a real location from which to attack or reside. It’s all just a bunch of powerless nothing. It did not have the power to “take me out,” so to speak. This was nothing but error’s hatred of and attempt to impede spiritual activity. 

As I continued to pray, I was comforted by reading Skip’s articles and immensely grateful that he had the foresight to have them bound for us several years ago. In his article, “Who knows enough to heal?” Skip explains that this is “… a question that confronts most of us in one form or another....The reason the question is so prevalent is that it’s the perennial question of a mind that believes it resides in matter. This may be less a real question than a habitual attitude.” 

Continuing, the article affirms “…that Spirit always knows enough. And man as the expression of Spirit knows enough. In terms of human experience, we could say that anyone who is letting go of the belief of a self in matter for the actuality of the one Mind that is God will know enough to heal.” This article squelched the suggestion that I was failing as a Christian Scientist since this healing was taking a long time. The claim that my God-given purpose and activity could be attacked and taken from me had loomed in thought for many years; and here I was dealing with it again. However, this time the claim came in the form of a physical challenge. 

During this prayerful time, many of Skip’s articles magnified divine reality and brought greater clarity to thought. After a while the attacks of illness became less severe and less frequent. The pain in my hip decreased immensely to the point of being negligible. I was able to walk without a walker and move my hip and leg in ways that had previously been very painful. Soon, I was able to fulfill a physically active schedule during the day. The healing came to a head about three weeks ago after having a very demanding few days changing out all of the furniture in my home office to make it more functional. As I worked late into the night setting up the electronics for the computer and the phone, I was very happy to find everything up and running the first time around. I had a brand new office, and it was now functional! Internally I was doing my “happy dance,” so I retired for the night. But when I sat on the bed, I experienced a very sharp chest pain right over my heart. Mortal mind was shouting, “Sorry you don’t get to be happy!”  I applied some cursory metaphysical truth and thought, “I’ll feel better in the morning after I get some rest.” Well, in the morning I did not feel one bit better! The aggressive suggestion loomed that I was having a mild heart attack! Immediately I remembered Skip’s many comments about animal magnetism’s impersonal resistance to progress. I called the practitioner, and again we affirmed that animal magnetism had no reality, identity, nor activity from which to attack and stop progress! In the course of the conversation the pain in my chest disappeared, and it has never returned. I have since been able to carry out full and demanding schedules with much activity and without pain or illness of any kind. 

During this healing I felt the tenderness of the Christ instructing and guiding me with the teachings I had benefited from over all these years. It certainly did “teach [me] all things and bring all things to [my] remembrance, whatsoever [Skip had] said unto [us].” (John 14:26)  I am so grateful that the teaching continues on...forever!

“God gave me EVERYTHING I needed and never left off one detail or provision”

We have spoken so often of not just saying “using Christian Science”; but rather LIVING IT.  When living Christian Science every aspect of one’s life is governed by that divine Spirit, including angel messages being delivered throughout the day.  The key is: Are we tuned in and listening?  Do we obediently follow the angel messages?

When we give time in the morning for prayer and study, we are starting our day by opening thought to nothing else but what God has for us, including his daily plan.  The daily prayer includes “give us this day our daily bread.”

Once you receive the inspired thought God doesn’t stop there; he takes it all the way.  As I’m sure we have all experienced, some answers are immediate and some require patience and trust as part of the demonstration. The ideas that follow in daily prayer – and even time during the day to tune in and listen – give us next steps to get the idea to completion.  God always takes us all the way!

In the past years, as I’ve been forced to trust God’s plan as there were no human answers. I found the first human step I could take was to get up earlier and earlier, devoting time to study and silent prayer, especially in the dark hours of EACH morning BEFORE checking a phone, email, or any other thoughts begin.  

With this practice, there have been countless times that God has not only given me the plan but the clear steps to follow to the outcome. I now trust this with certainty.  

One such time came in the middle of the pandemic. It was not only for me but also for another one of His children, my dad.

I had moved away from my family home a few years back. Human history had needed to be expunged.

One dark morning I heard so clearly that I needed to make room for my dad. Dread came over me.  I knew that God is Love, and to me that thought was not a loving one. I prayed and dug deeper. I knew to trust this voice; it was not my own but God’s angel messages being delivered from God to man (me).

Shortly after this angel message, I began getting phone calls from people who were concerned about my dad.  I had been prepared. I checked in with him after each call, and I was chastised for my disrespect and insanity.  At one point I looked up after hanging another tongue lashing and said, “Really?”

Obediently, the next morning I sat in silence. The next direction came clearly telling me to get on a plane and go see him. While we were humanly being told to stay home, I found myself getting on an airplane.  In a time where I was laid off with no money to travel, the provisions were delivered humanly after each silent prayer. I was obedient.

There were times of deep frustration; answers came one step at a time, and I had no idea of how the story would end. But the daily provisions that accompanied each step were clear and present.  

I made the trip without incident or fear.  I talked with God throughout the entire trip and was answered clearly and quickly.  God covered every little detail like the most proficient event planner I’d ever seen.  I truly was going on blind faith – no wait!  I was going on proven Science!

As I sat with my dad in his apartment it was immediately clear he could not stay there. I was surrounded by angry people with invoices to pay, letters to answer, and I felt as if I had just stepped into the angry mob.  I asked to be excused and went into the bathroom which was my proverbial closet to shut the door from mortal mind’s opinions.  I called the practitioner that had been supporting this trip.  

I must stop here and acknowledge our loving and amazing practitioners that selflessly support the Christian Science movement and the actions of God’;s children as they move through human conditions.  I’m so grateful!

The rest of my trip was reminiscent to me of Jesus moving through the angry mob undetected.  I had assessed the situation and knew that my dad, also God’s child, was not in his right place. To have resources simply to live on, I had been waitressing during my layoff.  I returned from the trip exhausted to work and quite afraid as I had no idea whatsoever of where provisions would come to help my dad, much less to allow me to take another day off from work to deal with a situation on the other side of the country.

Again, God provided FULLY.  Our restaurant closed for quarantine, and once again, I got on a plane obediently using that “time off” to do what God was instructing me to do.  Church and Association members with whom I had not spoken in years heard about the situation and provided flight miles and financial gifts to help; they provided EXACTLY (to the penny) what was needed for each trip.  Without any fear I flew back and forth while God’s plan unfolded before all of us. 

I worked as much as I could to ensure bills would be covered and flew when the restaurant closed.  Exhausted one night after a 12-hour shift, I literally got on my knees and asked God what he wanted me to do. I knew I was at a human crossroads.  The state in which dad lived was now called in, and I was given a short timeline.

Just as the state was about to take my dad from his home, God revealed the last part of the plan. Another booming voice gave me the name of an old childhood friend I had seen a few years back at a camp cleaning weekend.  Obediently I went to my phone and realized I didn’t have his number, but we were Facebook friends. God is even up on technology!  I sent him a message, and he called back quickly, revealing that he was part of a Christian Science care facility in my state.  

The facility was so loving. I was given permission to bring him to the facility when no one else was admitting patients.  We followed all guidelines. Each thought came naturally.  Dad could not fly at this point, and he needed to have 14 days in quarantine. God gave me a good laugh as he gave me the idea to drive my dad across the country in an RV!

I quickly started human planning (and less listening). I booked the airline tickets as driving an RV seemed not only funny but impossible.  I told my dad the plan, and he refused.  I woke up that next morning and was given a clear directive to rent an RV with a bedroom and bathroom.  Again, I actually laughed out loud, and looking up I said, “You must think I can do way more than I can to think I can drive him across the country in an RV!” – and 10 days later that was exactly what we did.  Funded 100%.

I knew that if God said I could, I would be able to do the drive. The day before I flew out an old friend from my dad’;s area called to see if I needed anything. I joked, “Well I could use some company as I drive my dad across the country in an RV.” Within a second he said, “I have vacation time, I’m in!” Days before the state was going to take my dad he was in his new home, a Christian Science facility.

Eight months later my faith in God’s messages is clear.  The needs were HUGE, and everything from power of attorney, money, food, moving of three storage units, and a home, were provided for quickly and completely. 

In years past I had the looming thought I might need to deal with this, and it was honestly one of my worst fears.  I brought that fear to God.  I never let go.  I trusted Him although the entire human picture was completely impossible. God gave me EVERYTHING I needed and never left off one detail or provision.  

I am grateful not only for my own provisions in a completely impossible human situation but also for the many healings my dad has experienced since being moved into the most loving Christian Science atmosphere.

“The only evidence here is of Mind knowing all”

This testimony stands as a testament not only to the healing experience described but also to overcoming resistance to write this or anything affirming the power and might of Mind in contrast to the considerable objections of mortal thought.

In the early days of my career, I found that my job brought unusual problems for me to solve. I took a new job, and the first day I was handed a bunch of printer parts and told to drive an hour to a customer with a broken laserjet printer. I had absolutely no experience in fixing printers – none – the most I had ever done was change a toner cartridge.  The printer was successfully repaired with a little phone support, and I grew in the job with increasingly difficult problems to solve. One day the University of Washington called, described their whole vast network of switches, routers, firewalls, and servers over the phone, said that half a dozen people had given up on solving the issue, but would I come and fix this network right away?  While I was able to fix the problem, and I did know that something was at work beyond me, I recall it as a time when I was proud that I “figured it out.”  Maybe I gave God a little credit, but the full understanding that Mind is the ONLY source of intelligence, the ONLY thing that knows, would take years to develop – close to 20 years in fact.

Of course, that 20 years wasn’t in isolation.  There were dozens of healing experiences, some small and some life changing along the way that would ultimately convince and show me that feeling like you’re turning to God when you need something but that the rest of the time, “I got this,” is foolish and misplaced hubris. The fact is that Mind is divine, supreme, infinite – and there simply isn’t any room in “infinite” for anything else to have its own separate understanding.

So, about a month ago, one of my customers called and said that he’d been trying to solve a problem for a little over a week and he was getting nowhere.  All of a sudden their accounting software was running painfully slowly, to the point that it was virtually unusable.  However if he allowed it to log into the server directly, rather than using the software on individual computers, the speed was normal.  I agreed to have one of our engineers work on it, which he did, and he started with database clean up, examining antivirus, and all the “usual suspects” – after eight hours of his time, we were better off in some ways but not on the reported problem.  School had just started up again, and the client was feeling very hindered by this problem now that workers were back in the office. I offered to come onsite and see what could be figured out. As I drove to the site I called a practitioner, and said, “Well, we’ve been here before.  And we know exactly where to turn for answers.  Mind has had the answers before. There’s nowhere else to seek answers from, and Mind will show us the way again.”  There wasn’t much more to the conversation. We genuinely have had more problems of similar nature than we can possibly count.  Impossible situation – Mind knows.  Period.  And it’s not like we just stumbled on a cool unique trick. It so happens that the way to find answers is pretty nicely laid out in our textbook, so, we worked as MBE tells us to do and as Skip taught us. 

With that mental preparation, I walked into the server room. My customer showed me the problem. I asked him a couple questions. And then a beautiful and unique thing happened. Mind gave me the answer, which one might expect, but in a whole new way for me.  I blurted out, “The problem isn’t with your server; it’s the firewall.” That might not mean too much to this audience, but I hadn’t even logged into the firewall to check its configuration.  And then what really startled me is that I told the customer, “and it’s not a setting or a check box either.” Now that’s a little bit weird because it flies in the face of what’s obvious – if the firewall is the problem then normally you’d find the “wrong” setting and you’d change it.  But what Mind was telling me was that it was something about the firewall that broke without an administrator making an error.

I was so sure of what Mind was telling me that I started packing up my bag 15 minutes after arriving. The customer was startled and asked, “Well what do I do?’ I told him to contact the company that maintains his firewall and have them fix it. Sure enough, after the customer put a ticket in with the firewall vendor, they called him back the next day. They said they had pushed out new firmware to the firewall a few weeks ago, the day before the problem was reported. They didn’t believe that could possibly be the problem, but they rolled back the update, and the problem was solved immediately.

I hope that it is as clear to the reader as it was to me that there is absolutely zero evidence here of a smart computer guy. The only evidence here is of Mind knowing all. There is no way a computer guy could blame a firewall for a problem without having logged into it, without knowing something about that make and model of firewall, without having googled the issue, or without speaking to the vendor directly. And there is every reason to see this as fundamental proof that Mind is the very definition of all-knowing.

For this healing, and for our Leader’s profound work in writing Science and Health I am deeply grateful.

“I was so sure that a healing was happening”

I have several testimonies to share.

My cat has had multiple “small” healings, but they have cracked open the door to more ideas I could submit. One healing happened at Christmastime when something appeared on her ear that looked wrong to me.  My family was visiting, and since we are all Scientists, we were all aware of how to think about it. I would say that no specific work was done, but the atmosphere was uplifting and loving, and her ear returned to normal sometime during the visit.

A more alarming situation was healed a few months later, and this time I did specific work. It seemed to go through a process of inflammation and then disappeared, and there is no trace of it now. It was an intense time in my personal experience, and I prayed that it could not impact her. She was very receptive, and there is no evidence of anything being wrong now. The whole thing came and went in a few weeks. I am so grateful for that.

Today I was on a hike with a new acquaintance, who is also a Scientist (a fairly unusual occurrence for me!) I was sharing with her a healing I had on the biggest hike I had ever done and realized I hadn’t shared it with the Association yet. It was a couple of years ago when two of my friends (not Scientists) and I went to Yosemite and did the Upper Yosemite Falls hike. I was not in proper shape for it and had no idea what to expect really – I had brought a TON of snacks, though, so was covered on that point!

Going up was hard. We stopped a lot for breaks, and the views were breathtaking, but it did put us behind about one hour total. We decided that we needed to head back down by 4 p.m. in order to reach the base by nightfall. Well, we reached the top around 4 and couldn’t turn back around immediately without taking in the view and having some rest. We headed down around 5. As soon as we began the descent, one of my knees was in extreme pain. I didn’t notice it going up, but down I could barely walk – this made the descent even slower because my friends had to wait for me. They were usually a good distance ahead because I was going so slowly.

I began to pray as soon as the pain started and declared that a healing was happening! Right then a healing was happening. I sang hymns out loud with every step and didn’t really care if my friends heard, which they probably couldn’t with the distance between us. We ended up climbing down in pitch black for almost 2 hours due to the slow speed and late start, but we had our phones and flashlights and were safe.  The pain did not lessen, but I was so sure that a healing was happening that I was not discouraged even though the pain was severe with each step. 

We made it back to the motel, and the next day we did a little more light walking around and I felt no pain! There were no after-effects from the previous day’s activity – not even soreness that I can recall. There was my healing, just as I expected. It was an amazing experience to deny the material situation and see the Truth in the middle of it. Mortal mind tried to say if it wasn’t instantaneous, then what good was it? But it just came to me so strongly that I was going to see it and that it was actively happening right in that moment despite what the material senses were telling me. I disbelieved them, and then the evidence disappeared. The entire trip’s memory is so special to me because of the beauty of the healing surrounded by the beauty of nature.

Another experience occurred a year ago surrounding getting a new job.  I was not looking for a new job, didn’t want one, and had a “plan” of how long I wanted to stay where I was before I moved on. Everything was great …so I thought...and I didn’t want to rock the comfortable (although sometimes frustrating) boat I was in. However, God had other plans and patiently showed me the way.

A colleague from a previous job asked if I wanted to apply to his new company. I told him that I was so happy for him and how excited he was, but no, I was not interested. Not only was I not looking for a job, but the company he was at was on my list of places where I would never want to work and who I thought would not want me.  

My old colleague then invited me to have lunch with him at the office campus and show me around. I agreed with the full expectation that it would be flashy and fancy, but that “I wouldn’t be fooled” and had firm plans to hold my original opinion of the company. This friend showed me all around, and I noticed many things that totally caught me off guard. The internal company culture was not what I had thought. There were posters on the wall decrying some of the very things that were frustrating me at my then-company.  I was in disbelief. Did they really mean it? If they did, I might be interested in them. When the recruiter called, I asked them if those messages were truly part of the culture and again asked my colleague more in-depth questions as well as others. Their replies intrigued me, and my thought began to shift.

Another part of the shift was my fear of the interview process. When I thought about it, I miraculously was not afraid to try. I looked for the familiar anxiety, but it wasn’t there. This was a never-before-felt comfort with beginning preparation for an interview. That was a huge tip off that maybe God wanted me to do this, because if I wasn’t afraid, then it was definitely God removing that fear. God gave me new ideas for preparation and how to study for the technical portions. I spent most of my evenings and weekends preparing and thought it would be strange to my friends that I had disappeared except the lockdown was just enacted across the state. While many people seemed to feel “locked in,” I had seemingly unlimited time to focus on preparations and was not bothered by the lockdown at all, at the start.

I should have written down the details immediately because there were so many little events that kept pointing me to this new job and new step. I didn’t go looking for it, but I was as obedient as possible once it seemed like that was the direction to walk in, and the ideas just kept flowing. I was solving problems at my then-current job left and right, and preparing for the interview, having the interview, and volunteering for an organization I hold very dear, preparing for an important event.  

There were times I did not know how things would get done, but no sooner than I had asked the question then another idea of a way to do the thing would come along.  I had so much energy during this time and was so productive and efficient. It was a time I remember mostly through those feelings of being bolstered and on the right path. For three months, I did not have a day or night off, but it was a truly inspired time.

It is now almost a year later, and the very things that surprised and attracted me to the company are ones I have been able to take advantage of. A few weeks after starting, an idea came to me of a way to do some social good for the world through the company in a way completely unrelated to the job they hired me for. Today, we are starting our second round of pilot programs and preparing a pitch deck to present to directors and VP’s to get support for it moving forward. Right now, it is the most exciting part of working there, and it’s a side/passion project that God provided.

“…when we make a demonstration, the healing is not just for ourselves”

Healings I have experienced in the last 12 months:

• Direction and deeper harmony in personal relationships

• Clarity of purpose, place, and direction in my career as a Christian Science Nurse

• Continued working and being able to save money uninterrupted amid the pandemic

• A sense of friendship and connectedness restored out of the isolated feeling of quarantine during the pandemic

• Freedom from fear while nursing an individual who was isolating due to fears of symptoms potentially indicating the presence of COVID

• Beautiful freedom of every patient in the facility from experiencing COVID-related beliefs despite the facility’s physical location at the U.S. epicenter of COVID

A deeper sense of inspiration in my work and life, in general, has been restored this past year. I’ve found more time and room to create paintings that have provided a wonderfully creative avenue of prayer and a way to share spiritual insight and healing with the world in a tangible and meaningful way.

Just recently I experienced healing of chronic pain in my back. This was partly with the support of a practitioner and partly the result of simply trusting it to God and forgetting all about it until I realized it was gone, while I couldn’t say exactly when.

Recently I’ve felt the impulse to reach out and offer prayer to various friends around the U.S. I ended up taking four cases; three of them were completely healed within the first week and an additional case was healed without my knowledge through a simple conversation about healing. I was not even aware of the challenge or how the healing took place until after it was complete.

I have the permission of these friends to share these cases of healing with our Association.

The conversation arose out of a struggle I had been finding with feeling disheartened by the chronic cases I was working with as a Christian Science nurse and was searching for assurance that “progress is the law of God.” I began to recognize more clearly that right where there doesn’t seem to be an outward change, there is still progress going on and the healing is inevitable. I turned to Peter Henniker Heaton’s healing experience and thought about how he didn’t experience outward progress for nine years but in the 10th year, he gradually experienced complete healing from a range of seemingly severe challenges. It is so inspiring to me that simply desiring to know more about healing and purely sharing this with a friend could result in God’s great healing power to be seen and felt most tangibly.

The added beauty to this experience is that my friend was struggling with the same belief that I had been for several years. I can’t help but feel that the demonstration that had been made in my own experience with overcoming a chronic challenge with my back helped me to impart this understanding without directly talking about it or even knowing that they needed help with this. It illustrated to me that when we make a demonstration the healing is not just for ourselves, but it ripples out to bless humanity in unexpected ways.

The next was a case of depression and anxiety. The individual had been working at it for a while and had made great progress already but was having trouble accepting the healing that had already gone on and still often woke up feeling dark and anxious. I took up the work and listened carefully for what was needed.

The idea that “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” (SH p. 201:17) came very strongly.

I kept my metaphysics very simple, both how I worked alone with God and what I shared through calls and texts. Just held to the allness of divine Mind, and the infinitely loving nature of Love. I shared a favorite passage I worked with in earlier years when I too struggled with depression:

“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalms 139:17, 18)

These ideas resonated strongly with my friend who was so grateful to have someone else praying for them while they went about their Christian Science nursing duties. I emphasized that they could stop specifically working on this challenge and just relax in the arms of divine Love. In just a day or two, we gained momentum in the direction of really feeling Love’s presence and protection. And by the end of the week, they felt so free that they knew the healing was complete.

I was exceptionally grateful to feel complete freedom from any personal sense of responsibility for making the healing happen. I was buoyed by the understanding that God is the only healing power and because God truly is all-powerful the healing just would happen.

My friend felt this spiritual confidence and responded quickly. Again, this was a belief that I was very familiar with from years of struggling with it in my own life. I’m grateful to see how God revealed healing for me that has in turn enabled me to know and seeing healing for others.

Another case was a friend who was challenged by a strained relationship with her father. I worked simply with the idea of man’s innocence and perfectly harmonious relation with the one divine parent.

I love to work with the first line of the Lord’s Prayer and Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of it:

Our Father which art in Heaven
Our Father-Mother God, all harmonious.

This alone is enough to “cover the whole ground.” Great progress was made in just three days with a bit of an explosive moment of chemicalization, followed by deeper love, harmony, and peace between her and her dad. I will add that following this healing moment her mother called a practitioner, so I stopped working and left it to them to finish up the work. I was grateful to hear later that the healing had proven solid and harmony was restored.

I am grateful for this new experience of praying for multiple people at once and finally to be getting on with some healing work and seeing quick and whole healing. It is more apparent than ever that we simply turn to witness the Truth and God shows it to us and those we are praying for. Healing is inevitable, whatever the challenge.

I would like to add the experience of my grandmother who was taken to hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia. They tried treating her but found no progress and stopped, concluding she would soon pass on. My mother and Grandmother are both Christian Scientists, but my aunt and uncle are opposed to Christian Science. So, this was a sensitive time for my mum to work out how to navigate the approach to her care around these opposing opinions. A practitioner took up the work as soon as the medical treatment stopped, and she had a beautiful overnight healing which was transformative to her character and has proven to improve her relationship with my mum which had previously been quite strained and stressful. She woke up beaming with a truly radiant face which had not been her normal demeaner. Since then, my mother has continued to look after her at our home with the help of some practical nurses (compromising with the aunt and uncle that Christian Science nurses were not allowed to work with her).

I have been grateful to read the Bible Lesson with my grandma over the phone and share ideas from my Christian Science Nurse training and experience supporting my mother in looking after her. An especially helpful hymn for overcoming any false sense of personal responsibility has been:

I place them in Your hands, dear God, / I trust them to Your care, /
The One who marks the sparrow‘s fall / And numbers every hair. /
You cherish and You guard them all / From snares of every kind. /
No false responsibility / Disturbs my peace of mind. /
Your love, far greater than my own, / Provides for them all good. /
This have I learned—to humbly trust / Your father-motherhood.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 502:1–3)

"I’m fine. The pain is gone. …witness(ed) the simplicity of healing"

We were on vacation, and one afternoon, my husband suddenly said he needed to lie down because his back hurt. He felt like he’d twisted it, but he couldn’t recall doing so. Then he said his side hurt. Then he started sweating. Although he’s not a Christian Scientist, he said he would like some prayerful help. The Bible Lesson subject was God, and I immediately recalled that there were several strong statements in the lesson that I thought would be very accessible to my husband. I read several aloud to him. One was from Science and Health: “When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.” (p. 264:15) And “Everything in God’s universe expresses Him. He is all-inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Sprit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.” (p. 331:16,20) Also, “Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine ‘powers that be.’” (p. 249:8-9) I then asked if he would like me to read the entire lesson to him. He did, and I began reading. I had just started the second section when I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was standing up. He said, “I’m fine. The pain is gone.” We went on to have an active and fun remainder of our trip with no recurrence of the problem.

We were both very grateful for this quick healing – for my husband to be relieved of the pain and for me, and I think both of us, to witness the simplicity of healing in Christian Science. Truth does the work; we only need to listen understandingly, trustingly, and obediently to it. I’ll add that a couple of weeks after we returned home, my husband said that there was no doubt in his mind that this was a true healing.

On Association Day "…the ideas shared … brought immediate healing…"

This year’s Association meeting was such a support. The references, the address, and the sense of working together before and during the day all felt very familiar, very Skip-like. What a comfort to us all to have an experience like that – a tangible reminder of the immortality of Mind’s loving, clear teaching, so uniquely and dearly expressed by Skip. 

I was not feeling well the morning and afternoon of the address and so was drinking in every word. Working that evening with the ideas shared right after it was over brought immediate healing, so much so that I was able to cook and eat dinner that night, which had seemed impossible to even think about at 4:30 that afternoon.  I am grateful to all who supported the day, and I am continuing to learn from and pray with the references and ideas from the address. Thank you, Association family!

"What appeared as infection the day before was not there"

The call for fruitage gave me an extra push to write now.  Last week, I was thinking about healing I have witnessed and experienced and remembered most vividly what I shared last year. I puzzled that I couldn’t recall any healing I had experienced that was worth sharing. That sent up a red flag. I recalled having that feeling during a testimony meeting and then remembering a healing that had occurred so quickly the week before that I had forgotten it. 

Yes, it is important to remember evidence of “God with us.”

In handling the belief that a physical condition can recur, I am finding that the memory of initial healing yields new lessons to be learned. From the simple conviction that “Truth is real, and error is unreal,” two different claims cleared very quickly in the last couple of months. A toothache came up suddenly, and I was reminded that I had had a very quick and somewhat surprising clearing of a condition a dentist saw as infection for which he recommended a root canal. At that time, I was due to leave in a week to give an association address on the other side of the country, so I let an appointment be made for the next day to have the root canal done. I was totally immersed in the ideas in the address even when I went for the appointment. When the dentist finally saw me, he took another X-ray, looked at it with me, and said he could not do a root canal. What appeared as infection the day before was not there. I left his office rejoicing and wanting to see how this had happened. Why should I be so surprised? So, a couple of weeks ago, when I felt extreme pain in a tooth and felt evidence of swelling, I deliberately turned my thought away from the testimony of material sense, remembering with gratitude that healing experience. I knew the healing was evidence of Truth in action, and that the truth that had effect then was totally relevant now. Within a day, all pain and other evidence of an adverse condition was gone. 

As I quietly rejoiced in this healing, I remembered that about a month before, I had countered the suggestion of a couple of dizzy spells with the truth that came so clearly about ten years ago when recurring dizzy spells had been very scary. At that time, through prayer, I realized that it was material sense that was triggering the episode of dizziness – mortal mind, not divine Mind. I had to “stand porter at the door of thought,” to be ready to refuse the suggestions of sense testimony.  The experience then led me to refuse the suggestions that came more recently, and they stopped! 

This is proof that remembering the healing we witness and experience always helps, because we build on the truth we learn and keep moving forward.

"…liberation from the mental decline has come…"

Some years ago, our children had moved on to graduate schools and work, and my husband began to decline mentally. He obsessed about his “running program,” making a huge wall-filling chart that tracked his various running goals. He gave hours and hours to this, barely paying attention to anything else. He also began to look at experiences as through the eyes of a child, asking questions that were silly.

With the kids gone, I found this behavior very difficult. I talked to him about this. (I confess that I didn’t have a spiritual focus.) And I became deeply dark in my thought. Eventually I was hiding from the world, from life. I lay on the couch a lot.

At one point I attended a lecture in a large, packed church. I sat at the back, planning to slip out quickly at the end. But afterwards, a woman who I knew a little saw me leave and ran after me. She reached out with such love. She was a newly Journal-listed practitioner and had just moved to our area.  She discerned my need, and we became friends. She visited me and eventually prayed for me.

My darkness lifted.  I began to go out again, started swimming for the first time in my life. I became active in both community and church work.  And my husband’s decline was reversed. Tonight he was playing a 72-point word in “Words with Friends” with our daughter. With joy I have witnessed his expansive mental and practical activities – being Chairman of the Board at church, serving on three other boards and a ministerial board representing Christian Science, and sustaining wide-ranging reading interests. This liberation from the mental decline has come through his daily, faithful spiritual study, and faithful prayer. Our textbook says, “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.” (SH p. 571:18,19)

Likewise, clad in the panoply of Mind, mental decline cannot reach you.

Hymn 140 sums this up for me:

If on our daily course, our mind / Be set to hallow all we find, / New treasures still,
of countless price, / God will provide for sacrifice.

Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be, / As more of heaven in each we see; /
Some softening gleam of love and prayer / Shall dawn on every cross and care.

New mercies, each returning day, / Around us hover while we pray; / Old fears are
past, old sins forgiven, / New thoughts of God reveal our heaven.

"It was a clear example to me of imbibing truths …"

I’d like to share two small but good healings.

While listening to a Wednesday evening meeting I began to experience shooting pains in my chest and back. At the very end of the service someone gave a testimony about turning wholly to God in a time of need, and as I listened to that sense of the person yielding to God, the pains I had been experiencing went away. The next week I gave a testimony about that healing and referenced how and when it occurred. I said it was also a testament to the power of church, to the “mutual aid society” in which we are supported by the healings of others.

The following week the person who had given the testimony called me to say how appreciative she was of my testimony, that she had been having a challenging week in her work and that my testimony was helpful to her – that it reminded her of the good that she had experienced and expressed. It was another example of the ripple effect that IS church. As hymn 218 says:

From heart to heart the bright hope glows,
The seekers of the Light are one: …
One in the freedom of the truth,
One in the joy of paths untrod,
One in the heart’s perennial youth,
One in the larger thought of God;—

Another healing experienced:

For two nights I had trouble sleeping and tossed and turned throughout the night. On the third night, I was not only tossing and turning, but was experiencing various body aches that were very uncomfortable and exacerbated the inability to sleep. The thought came “promptly and persistently.” I reached for my phone, and a Concord search yielded:

“Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opinions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and persistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain existence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from the five senses is only temporal, – the conception of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not of Soul, Spirit, – and symbolizes all that is evil and perishable.” (SH p. 273: 29-7)

I continued reading for about three pages. All the pains vanished, I fell asleep and slept soundly through the rest of the night. It was a clear example to me of imbibing truths, and that those truths did the healing.

I realized that it has been important to acknowledge the healings when they occur and not to not to allow mortal mind to try and invalidate or come in ways such as “Yes but, how about ... and all the etceteras of the carnal mind to attempt to disprove what God is and does. All healings are indications and proofs of God’s love and care and of the efficacy of Christian Science.

"We really ascended above the fear and worry"

I received a practice call last year during the initial phase of the pandemic when the fear seemed so real. The patient was crying and said in a trembling voice that she had tested positive for COVID. They said she was asymptomatic but would have to tell them who she had associated with and then quarantine for 15 days.  I paused and listened for God’s guidance.  I told her that asymptomatic meant that she had no symptoms, and she replied that she understood that to be true; but that she was concerned about those with whom she had associated.  As God’s calm spirit settled on my thinking, I told her that there would be no repercussions from her associations with others.  

The next fifteen days we did a wonderful and inspired study in the Concordance of the references on disease and contagion in Mrs. Eddy’s writings.  We really ascended above the fear and worry.  

She did not suffer at all.  Best of all she stopped being worried about others.

“Listening to God Put Me in My Right Place”

I have been endeavoring to listen more to God and to understand that at every moment divine Mind is giving me the thoughts that I need. Sometimes I might not listen, and often, I might hear a thought from God but then not follow it. So, really listening means shutting out mortal mind to hear what God is telling me, and then obeying this angel message. I’ve also been trying to love my neighbor as myself, to see everyone I encounter as God’s perfect, loved child. Skip once said something like, “The only thing you know about someone is what God is telling you.” I have found this to be so helpful in removing labels that mortal mind might try to put on someone.

The other day I had a plan for the day, but unexpected things came up. Listening to God, I felt a sense of peace and flexibility and was knowing I would be in my right place. After one unexpected detour, I did an errand and then had a long-ish walk home. I was feeling a little foolish for not planning this errand better so that I didn’t have to spend all this time walking. But, after crossing the street to walk in the shade, I saw a neighbor crouching over the sidewalk with a large man who seemed to need assistance. I asked if I could help, and then she waved down a passing stranger to assist us in helping this man get back to a bench. We both talked with him for a little, and then she continued with her errand. I got him some water and something to eat and we talked for a bit. He has been dealing with a claim of alcohol addiction, and I shared some thoughts about God giving him the ideas he needed to move forward. 

He told me he felt grateful that God had put my neighbor and me there to help him, and later when I saw my neighbor, we both said that we felt we had been led to the right place, at the right time (and she mentioned that she had seen many people walk by him before she got to him.) I was very grateful to God for directing me to where I could be helpful and express love to my neighbors. This man was on his way to visit his daughter in college, and I have been praying to know that God is guiding him (and haven’t seen him in the neighborhood since.)

“Stomach Pain Dissolved”

This past year I learned that some of my relatives hold some thoughts I don’t share, and I have struggled with feeling very disappointed and sad about this. I was talking about this situation on the phone with a friend and started to notice myself getting a bit agitated. And then my stomach started to hurt. I tried to pray about this while going for a walk with my husband, but it felt like all I could do was concentrate on walking, which seemed to take some effort. When I mentioned this to my husband, he suggested that I think about what I love about one of these relatives, which helped to break the unpleasant (and maybe unlovable) sense of her I was holding in my thought. 

When we got home, I was still uncomfortable and tempted not to fulfil my role as online usher for my branch church’s Wednesday evening meeting, but then I thought about Mrs. Eddy writing, “Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (SH 385:17-18.) This was a turning point. I also thought of Skip mentioning that it is always good to turn to the books sooner rather than later, and so I opened my Bible and Science and Health. In the Bible, I read about Peter visiting Cornelius and Peter telling him that he knew God was “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) This made me realize I needed to stop thinking of my relatives as being in a different (bad) category for holding differing beliefs – that we are all (with no exceptions) God’s children. In Science and Health, I was in the middle of reading about the trial regarding liver complaint, and that, too, helped me see through the claim of stomach pain. By the end of the Wednesday meeting, I was free of all pain, and I was even able to give a testimony of this healing. Thank you, God!

“God does not create or operate with dysfunction”

I had a healing a little over a year ago. My leg got injured, and there was severe pain (probably nerve damage.) I read many things in Christian Science all of which were helpful. The one thing that stuck out the most for me is that I kept thinking, “God does the walking and God is always with me.” I was able to go to work everyday despite having a physical job that involved regularly climbing ladders. Eventually, over the course of several months, the false belief of nerves or legs that do not function correctly dissipated, for God does not create or operate with dysfunction. Therefore, neither do I. There’s only perfect harmony! The healing was complete, and I have had no return of this condition.