Governed only by God’s law

One day I did a strenuous activity that required some agility. That night I woke up and found that one wrist was extremely painful. The next day I couldn’t use my hand.

As I prayed that morning, these statements by Mary Baker Eddy particularly stood out: “We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or spiritual law….God is the lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes…. It is man’s moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never inflicted by divine authority (Science and Health 381:10–12, 15–16, 28).

I reasoned, I am innocent. There is no material cause. God, the only lawmaker, never inflicted pain, so as His image and likeness, pain is not mine to experience.

I went about my day doing things that I needed to do. I was able to do everything without drawing attention to the lack of mobility of my hand.

Soon the pain stopped entirely. The swelling and discoloration disappeared a couples of days after that. A key lesson for me was the conviction that I was governed only by God’s law, not a material law.

Defeat need not follow victory

I seemed to be re-experiencing symptoms of a long-time physical challenge that had been healed decisively a while back. I prayed to know what needed to be addressed.

Then I found the following idea in a Christian Science article: “Mortal mind is arguing the point [that Christian Science doesn’t heal] intensely, widely, specifically. The need is therefore to disagree—to treat the situation metaphysically and consistently with heartfelt conviction.” I realized there wasn’t some part of me that needed fixing. Instead, the issue was a prevalent world thought, aggressively imposing itself. But I knew that what is generally accepted by mortal thought is NOT God’s law, and has no power. God’s law is universally true, the only truth, and is only good. Its opposite has no reality or power.

This verse from The New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips also came to thought: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed” (Rom. 12:2).

I called a practitioner to work with me. She was only able to work that day as she was going out of town the next day. That seemed just fine.

Here are a few of the ideas the practitioner shared with me: “Defeat need not follow victory” (Miscellany 134:10 only); “The beautiful, good and pure constitute [my] ancestry” (Science and Health 63:5–8); and YES to God, NO to matter!

My thought was so lifted, that the next morning I was breathing freely and able to really concentrate on putting together readings for Wednesday’s service. Complete freedom happened quickly thereafter.