“Here was a situation that called for an instantaneous recognition of the presence of perfect God and perfect man…”

A couple of weeks ago I received an emergency call from an older family member apparently having a heart attack.  I stalled for a minute, but finally said I would take up the case — it wasn’t like I could sleep on it and call them back the next day!

I admit, I immediately tried to call my own mentor in the practice.  I was a bit scared I was doing the wrong thing by accepting the case.  Why?  My relative has studied Christian Science their whole life, but is presently taking heart medication. While I dialed my mentor, I was holding to treatment about generic man.  She didn’t answer.  I immediately turned to what I know.  I recalled that while Mrs. Eddy tells us not to mix medicine and CS treatment (she calls it “quackery”), she does allow for treatment in an emergency situation. (In Mis. 89:4-19, she deals with this situation exactly. Starting at line 11, we read: “If the patient is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings, although the medical attendant and friends have no faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian, to do him all the good you can;”)

I couldn’t get any hints from my mentor, my relative was in a seemingly life or death situation, and I wasn’t exactly up on the mountain top. A very close, dear friend was very angry at me and had just called to give me an earful, based on the false assumption that I had done something that I hadn’t — and I was caught up in that when I got the emergency call. Also, all the eyes of the western world were on the terrorist attacks in Paris happening right then. Here was a situation that called for an instantaneous recognition of the presence of perfect God and perfect man, and the world was throwing everything at me to tell me it isn’t true!

When my mentor didn’t answer, I dropped the generic work and set to a proper treatment.  I had gotten a number of emails from my relative earlier that evening, expressing upset at the terrorism, a dark view of the future of the world, and a general sense of depression.  So, I addressed this and knew that they could not be swept up into the general mesmeric viewpoint, that they are the perfect, whole, fearless and beloved child of God, that they have never lived in matter and they could not believe in it or hear it.  That is the best I remember of my work — give or take a few ideas. I just knew that God was the absolute power, no matter what the world around me seemed to be saying.  I stepped right out of my defensive argument with my friend, right out of the seeming mental atmosphere of a world in turmoil, and turned to God and just wanted to know the Truth.

About ten minutes later I received a call that all was well, my family member was feeling whole and happy — the best they had in days, even. They even apologized for not calling back minutes earlier. They had been on the phone with their spouse, who was out of town, as they had thought it would be their last conversation. 

Imagine my gratitude to God, to Christian Science, and to what I have learned in my study, and what I learned in Class instruction.  Once again I was delivered proof that I of my own self can do nothing — yet as the child of God, I can lean on God wholly, and with a scientific understanding, and expect results. Amen.