Two great healings unfolded this past year. About 15 months ago, the day after a ski trip with my son, I found that my knee was sore. I didn’t pay any attention to it at first, a mistaken combination of attributing the problem to the material cause of a bit too much exertion on the slopes the previous day and falling back on the military tradition of “toughing it out “and putting up with anything that you don’t have time to deal with at the moment. While the pain provided an incentive to focus more intently on the daily lesson sermon, the press of daily commitments crowded out the attention that I should have been giving this challenge. However as the days turned into weeks without any progress, I found it was becoming more and more difficult to walk without an obvious limp.

One day, after three months of a worsening material picture, my dear wife said, “Isn’t it time to do something about this?” I realized that I needed to do more than simply thinking good thoughts as I read the lesson each day. The Christian Science practitioner I called that day pointed out that I needed to think of this situation in spiritual terms rather than as something to be healed. She suggested I think of my knee as a spiritual idea. Its role was to enable me to kneel in humility before the Lord and to spring up with the vigor to carry out His will. I realized that “toughing it out” while waiting for the knee to heal was really giving in to the idea that something was wrong in the first place.

I am so grateful to report that within 24 hours the pain was gone and the healing has been so complete that almost a year later I can no longer remember which knee seemed to be the problem.

The other experience I had was of a growth, which appeared on my head shortly after the experience with my knee. It was just a small growth, but fresh with enthusiasm from the healing I had experienced with my knee, I called the practitioner expecting the same prompt results. In this case however, days again turned into weeks without any evident progress and in fact the growth continued to become bigger. I found I needed to apply “creative combing” and hairspray to camouflage the growing problem.  The practitioner reminded me of the need to overcome a sense of fear and to examine my thinking to ensure there were no unaddressed mortal beliefs behind this claim.

After several months of working with the practitioner, it became clear to me that I was attempting to “outsource” my spiritual progress and needed to take greater responsibility for my healing work. I continued to maintain an expectancy of healing but worked not to check for visible changes as I brushed my hair each morning. I worked to eliminate this imposition from my thought altogether while holding fast to the recognition that nothing was real that hadn’t been created by God. One evening as I was getting ready for bed, I felt a gentle release of pressure on my head and the growth began to drain and shrink. Within a few days the problem was gone. Recently, when I went to get a haircut, my barber asked me “What did you do, the bump is completely gone? It’s wonderful!” and I was delighted to be able to explain to her that prayer had been the source of my healing.  For this, and for so many other healing experiences in my life I am truly grateful.