Question 1: Share a physical healing or healings in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and ultimate healing.

Reading Skip’s articles in succession is inspiring me to work with more discipline and regularity. This seems very basic (as in I should have mastered this long ago), but I’m gaining a better understanding of the fact that all the work that needs doing takes place in thought, as our thought opens to the presence of Christ, Truth, revealing all we need to know and showing us what we can thereby dismiss as untrue. 

One article that points out the importance of staying mentally high is “Unselfing—strength to build and rebuild for the ages” (Journal, October 2015). Regarding the many powerful healings of early Christian Scientists, Skip writes, “the woman who discovered and founded Christian Science explained that something more would be needed if these substantial demonstrations of divine Love were to continue. That something would require not being drawn back constantly after healing to an imagined home base of material existence.” Skip goes on to say, “Believing one lives in matter as a limited self that’s trying to ‘get’ more of Science has little to do with the enormous dimension of the spiritual revelation that frees us to be what we already are.”

The theme of staying with the work that comes through clearly in this and other articles has helped me to do just that. 

Last summer, I was at happily dancing at the reception for a family wedding when one of my knees suddenly gave way. The pain and incapacity made it necessary to leave the reception. My family helped me to the car and then got me situated in our hotel room. I worked with the idea that a joyous occasion couldn’t be marred by an injury that had nothing to do with the truth of my spiritual identity. As Mrs. Eddy tells us, “divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object” and “joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy” (Science and Health 304:10–12).  

By morning, the pain had subsided, but it seemed necessary to buy a pair of crutches to get around. I also called a practitioner to support my work. I was able to go to a post-wedding brunch that day and had a great time with no pain. Interestingly, most people seemed not to notice the crutches as I made my way around and fully participated in the happy occasion. However, one family member tried to convince my husband to get me checked out at an emergency care clinic, so there was a need to ward off malpractice and mental suggestion. My husband never wavered in his support of my decision to rely on Science. 

We decided to head home on our four-day return car trip rather than stay and tour the area. I continued to work with the practitioner daily. By the third day, I was able to shed the crutches entirely, and thank and dismiss the practitioner. Although I was able to walk when we got home, it was a while before I felt totally free of limitation. But it was joyous work to stay with the healing, and I learned more about diligence in the process. The experience was also an opportunity to more consistently claim a higher thought about myself and others.

Last weekend, we went to another wedding where I danced with happy abandon, thinking gratefully of this healing.