Stay with it!

I have always relied exclusively on Christian Science treatment for healing. Although I have had many quick healings, I’ve also dealt with a physical condition that took a number of years to heal. Why would I—or anyone—continue to turn to Christian Science treatment if I wasn’t healed right away?

For me, Christian Science is the only way to genuine healing—healing that is not only permanent but is accompanied by spiritual growth and understanding. Every healing I’ve experienced through Christian Science treatment—whether quick or long in coming—has included blessings far beyond an improved physical condition.

The chronic condition I mentioned appeared when I was a teenager. One day I noticed a small growth near one eye, a lump about the size of a large pea. Although I was not happy about it, I didn’t feel any real concern. If I turned my face slightly, people looking right at me would not even see it. Although I certainly knew it was abnormal, I simply accepted it as a part of me. I did try more than once to heal the condition through prayer, but as I said, it had not really mattered much to me, and so I generally abandoned my efforts to heal the condition within a few days.

In a few years, the lump grew to nearly the size of a ping-pong ball. Now no one looking at me could miss it. The condition became an annoyance, particularly because people kept commenting on it. I realized that I needed to be more earnest in seeking healing. So I contacted a practitioner for Christian Science treatment, and I persisted more in my own prayer.

Nevertheless, after a few weeks, with no apparent results in sight, I thanked the practitioner and asked him to discontinue his prayerful treatment. I had accepted this abnormality as a permanent part of my identity. Although friends suggested I have it removed surgically, I knew deep down that just the physical removal of the lump would only disguise the problem, not actually solve it.

One day about 15 years after the lump first appeared, I again became annoyed by it. On the train on my way home from work, I began to pray, earnestly seeking the right metaphysical truth to heal this condition. And that’s when I realized why I had not experienced healing long before. Years earlier, I had accepted this abnormality as part of myself and had expected my prayer and the prayer of a practitioner to change or eliminate that part of me.

Now it became clear to me that in fact it was no part of me and never had been. Rather than thinking I needed to get rid of the lump, I really needed to see myself more accurately as God’s perfect, spiritual reflection, totally free of any abnormality. For the rest of the ride home I rejoiced in my pure, whole, and healthy spiritual identity. I knew I was free and that the material condition was unreal and therefore powerless.

A few minutes after I got home I felt some moisture on my cheek, and soon the lump had drained completely. Now, six years later, there is only a small mark where the growth had been. And, perhaps more important, I have a clearer understanding of my unblemished spiritual identity.

From this experience I’ve learned that by not giving up, but by staying with your prayer—by patient persistence in Christian Science treatment—results will come, more quickly than with sporadic effort. And that even after years of less-than-consistent effort, it’s still never too late for anyone to experience the wonderful healing power of Christian Science.

Christian Harder lives in Norwood, Massachusetts, United States.

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