Healed of a broken back

Here’s an account of a healing I had last summer. I had been showing some contractors around in the attic of our Sunday school. In my excitement to get their help with insulation, I lost my balance and ended up falling through the drop-ceiling.

Immediately I tried to get up, but couldn’t. One of the contractors quickly came down the ladder and asked if I was ok. I said I would be fine – I was in the military. He responded, “Yes, but you’re still human.” I appreciated his concern, but mainly wanted to be alone. The contractors left when my wife arrived on the scene. My wife asked how she could help. We were surrounded by hymnals, and although she hadn’t sung a hymn in many years, I knew I could ask for one now. It was wonderful to hear her sing!

I was able to crawl down the stairs and into the car. But the next day, I was still on my couch and realized I would not be going back to work soon. It was hard to sleep because of the pain in my back. I remember that it seemed ironic that the lesson that week was “Adam and Fallen Man.”

Since I’m a veteran, I decided to go to the VA hospital to see if any bones should be set. My dad and wife drove me to the hospital very carefully, but the trip was painful. The hospital had no X-ray or surgeon available, so they provided an ambulance that took me to a regional medical center. I was grateful for all the care the drivers took to make sure I was comfortable. After a long day of scans and waiting, the doctors said I had three fractures in my spine, but there was nothing they could do. They offered me pain treatments, but I refused because I was already relying on the might of that one Mind who rules out every pain.

A loving practitioner took up my case. When I didn’t know what else to affirm, she said, “Just obey.” That simple action, obeying God and his good thoughts, quieted worn-out assertions and revealed the truth that things were already good. Throughout this experience, my favorite new truth was, “Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony” (Science and Health, p. 489:28–29). This concept shifted my standpoint from reaching for a healing to letting the truth come out.

A pattern was emerging to me: If I should “banish the belief” that I “can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind” (Science and Health, p. 391:9-12) and at the same time live “outside the material sense of things,” then the pain I thought I felt just wasn’t real – it was a belief that couldn’t change reality, and never had. Instead of Spirit being the point I was striving to reach, it was actually where I already was. 

The initial prediction from the ER doctor was that my recovery would take three to four months. But within a few days I was walking with a soft brace, and within a few weeks I was back at work at my remote desk at home. Thanks to God and Christian Science, by the end of the summer I was wrestling with my kids on a paddle-board. In the fall, I was able to build a patio that involved moving 375-pound rocks with a dolly.

I find it interesting that a student remembered Mrs. Eddy saying, “whenever anything happens to you of an unfortunate nature, do not admit anything on the wrong side, but instantly declare that the experience does you good. Even if you should fall down and break your leg, get up and say, ‘I am the better for this experience.’ This is the [t]ruth as God would declare it, for every attempt of evil, when surmounted and destroyed, helps the one who is attacked . . . ” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume 2, p. 424).

We are blessed to have been taught this Science of Life, which is freely given. I’m so grateful to be in this Association that doesn’t rest on personality, but on Principle – the Truth.

Practitioner’s statement Throughout my work on this case, my patient was expectant, unfearing, obedient. We both accepted the fact that unlimited power could be found in making God everything.  There was genuine evidence of steadiness of unfoldment, of obeying new views of perfect God and perfect man. His willingness to live, not on the level of a broken body, but in the allness of God, healed him.