"A wonderful healing that happened during our Association meeting"

I am very grateful to report a wonderful healing that happened during our Association meeting this year.

Ten years ago, I fell and injured my leg while working on a steep hill. I completely lost the use of my leg. Two weeks after the accident, I submitted to medical care. I had an emergency operation to bind together and re-attach the large muscles that control the leg.

After the procedure, I never fully regained use of the leg. I had trouble with stairs and could no longer run or exercise. Over time, I grew heavier and became less inclined to participate in outdoor activities. My health deteriorated, and I found myself handling a host of derivative ailments, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Unfortunately, I accepted those creeping ailments without serious challenge or metaphysical protest. I prayed about many things, but I never prayed to heal my leg. Looking back, I believe that I had put a mesmeric “off limits” sign on healing the leg. I had used my understanding of Christian Science to try to heal the leg at the time of the accident, but because I had ultimately submitted to medical care, the “case was closed.”

During our Association meetings, I regularly take advantage of the short breaks to stretch and walk the length of the windowed outer lobby of the convention center. This year, in an afternoon break following a robust discussion of healing and the healings contained in Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, I again walked the length of the outer lobby. Midway through the walk, a clearly audible angel thought came to my consciousness: “You do not need to accept a damaged and impaired leg.” 

The thought startled me because of its directness––it went to the heart of the problem of the seemingly unhealed condition and addressed it precisely. I had “accepted” and grown comfortable with the belief in a material history––that my leg had been damaged, that its material repair had been unsuccessful, and that my activities and future life would be constrained as an inevitable consequence.

All of my (material) thoughts seemed commonsensical, well-ordered, and consistent.  And so, according to material thought, were the inevitable consequences––I couldn’t exercise because of the leg, I had become overweight because of the lack of exercise, and I faced additional health issues because I had become overweight.

“Both anatomy and theology define man as both physical and mental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takes up man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops the true tone, and accepts the discord.” (S&H 148:12-16)

The radical thought that came during my walking break at Association––that even 10 years after the accident and emergency medical care, I did not need to “accept” the damaged leg––was so surprising, and yet so metaphysically self-evident, that I found myself smiling broadly as I came back to the meeting room at the end of the break. During that short walk, I found I could put weight on my leg and bend it as I had been unable to do for 10 years.

“The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you reproducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding it before your gaze continually. The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline and deformity of matter models.”  (S&H 248:12)

Since Association, I have exercised vigorously and used my leg constantly. I have lost 33% of my weight, and I am now in good shape with an active outdoor calendar.

Consistent study of Science and Health and some wonderful classic articles from The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel has been an important part of maintaining the mental altitude to continue rejecting, rather than accepting, the mesmeric belief of life in matter and the varied claims of limitation and restriction imposed by mortal mind.

“Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: ‘Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!’ Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.” (S&H 227: 21)

The healing of my leg has helped transform my understanding of “body” and has been the foundation for wonderful spiritual growth and freedom. I have been able to make progress in correcting other long-standing and long-accepted false beliefs. I am so grateful to see more clearly the transforming and transfiguring power of the Christ in our lives, as explained and taught by Mrs. Eddy.