Journey to healing: a conversation with Don Griffith

Jeffrey Hildner | from The Christian Science Journal

JEFFREY HILDNER: I’m struck by the story you e-mailed me the other day—how you were healed through Christian Science in less than a week of medically diagnosed rheumatic fever when you were three, a healing that brought your family into Christian Science. Your family and eventually you, as you grew up in a Christian Science household, must have caught some core insights—practical, healing insights—into God’s true identity and therefore everyone’s true identity.

DON GRIFFITH: That’s right. Through a study of Christian Science, we can all learn about who we really are! And this truth is practical. It heals all kinds of mortal, material troubles.

It’s simple, really: There is one God.

It’s simple, really: There is one God—one Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit (synonyms for God revealed or implied in the Bible and spelled out in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy). So naturally there can be only one image and likeness of the one God. The Bible calls this image and likeness “man” (see Gen. 1:26). The word man, as used in Christian Science, refers therefore to the complete, all-encompassing reflection (or expression) of God. So each of us—irrespective of our human gender—includes all that man includes: all of the infinite masculine and feminine qualities encompassed by the seven synonyms for God. And our son-daughter relationship with our Father-Mother—our unity with God—cannot be impaired, endangered, or broken.

Could you give an example that illustrates the practical value of this knowledge and makes these ideas concrete?

Not too long ago, a friend’s wife called to say that her husband was “down in his back” and that he couldn’t move out of bed. Apparently this had been going on for a few days. I asked that she take the phone to him. I told him he was loved by God and that his strength wasn’t in a physical body—that divine Principle, not matter, was his support and identity. When we got off the phone, I continued to pray. He called to thank me the next day because he was up and out of bed. All was well. I knew the claim that he was incapacitated was only a false belief—a lie about his real identity, about his perfect sonship as a spiritual child of God. God was continually seeing this man’s true identity, his perfect sonship. That’s how I saw him. He glimpsed it, too—and as a result, he was healed.

In addition to maintaining an ideal, Truth-grounded perspective, what else has experience taught you about how to effectively remedy any kind of trouble someone might face?

Healing is always most effective when I lose a sense of self and of responsibility (“let go and let God,” as the saying goes) and when I understand that all of God’s work is done and done perfectly—nothing can be added to it nor taken from it. My role is to affirm this truth and to deny any claim to the contrary. I’ve found that this process brings healing to any situation.

Christian Science teaches that healing isn’t a future event.

Christian Science teaches that healing isn’t a future event. Health is a quality of God’s constant presence—normal, natural, unchanging—right here, right now. The false beliefs that God isn’t omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent hide this fact. But through understanding the truth about God, we can master these false beliefs. Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Change the belief, and the sensation changes. Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears” (Science and Health, p. 491). Healing is realized by holding persistently and firmly to God’s reality. Then Christian Science destroys false belief. Purity, health, and life are restored, and their opposite “sensations”—sin, sickness, and death—disappear.

Each day I deny a false sense of self and personal responsibility. I reject the lying belief that God isn’t in control of His universe. I open my consciousness to what divine Mind reveals about the never-interrupted harmony of man’s real being. I declare that God provides the humility needed for me to help anyone who calls for assistance. And it works! Healings have been so numerous in my experience that often I look back with amazement at how God has cared for me and my family, and for all who call for help.

How about sharing another example, Don.

I got a call a few years ago from a mother who said that her teenage son was emaciated, had lost 50 pounds over the past year, and was suffering from a disease that couldn’t be diagnosed by the physicians. She said he was on the bathroom floor crying aloud in pain—which I could hear in the background. I had taught this mom years ago in Sunday School but had lost contact with her, and she was no longer actively practicing Christian Science. I told her I would pray for her and her son. In less than two hours she called to say, “My son is 100 percent better, and his father and I are 200 percent better.” She told me recently that this healing was a turning point for her son. They had another bout around a year later, but she refused to accept this picture as something outside of God’s control. And while she read the 91st Psalm to him, he became alert and calm and told her all was well. And all has continued to be well during the two years since. He is in college, where he is doing well scholastically and finishing his degree.

This is just one of so many examples that have taught me about another important factor in healing: Truth is so effective when the heart is receptive.

I’d like to shift our focus to a question about Christian Science healing that Mary Baker Eddy addressed in her book Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896. I revisited this question during a recent healing of my own, and I think it’s a basic question that a lot of people today can relate to: “What are the advantages of your system of healing, over the ordinary methods of healing disease?” (p. 33).

Mary Baker Eddy listed three advantages. Here’s the third one: “One who has been healed by Christian Science is not only healed of the disease, but is improved morally. The body is governed by mind; and mortal mind must be improved, before the body is renewed and harmonious,—since the physique is simply thought made manifest” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 34).

As I interpret this advantage of Christian Science over other systems, when you achieve healing through the Bible-based scientific system that Mary Baker Eddy discovered, you don’t end up the same person at the end of the healing as you were at the beginning. Something other than your body is different: You are different. You had to change for your body to change. You had to get in tune with your eternal incorporeal identity and see yourself as you really are: a spiritual concept. Thought! Mind’s idea, Soul’s expression, Life’s manifestation. You had to see your substance, in other words, as 100 percent Spirit, not matter. And you learn that the practical value of seeing yourself this way reverberates well beyond the specific healing triggered by this advanced viewpoint.

The only thing that stands in the way of the healing is the so-called reality we give to a false belief.

Yes, that’s right. And the need for moral improvement that Mrs. Eddy referred to and you’re calling attention to is often the reason some healings happen immediately and other problems (sometimes appearing identical) take more time and involve a struggle. But in fact, the only thing that stands in the way of the healing taking effect is the so-called reality we give to a false belief. The sooner we let go of the false belief that gives rise to a malady, the more quickly we will experience physical healing in Christian Science.

Matter-based methods, which differ entirely from the method used by Christ Jesus (as explained in Science and Health) may appear to bring about a healing, but I have found that such healings are ultimately temporary, no matter how much physical relief they provide in the short term. Getting physical relief through material means doesn’t destroy the underlying beliefs or fears that caused the trouble. Matter-based methods can’t bring about permanent healing, because they are not grounded in divine Truth. And unfortunately, patients often become prisoners of the matter-based system they turn to for help. They may experience misdiagnoses, adverse side effects, negative chemical reactions and interactions, long-term dependency, or mistakes in treatment. In effect, the person who chooses a material approach for healing might end up worse off than before the treatment began.

But when one adheres to Jesus’ method of healing—the divine Science that Mary Baker Eddy explained in Science and Health—one is transformed morally (taken to a higher level of thought). The body, which is a product of thought, responds positively, and health and harmony are revealed as the ongoing reality.

Let’s illustrate what we’re talking about. Can you recall a healing that required a real breakthrough—and therefore left the patient in a different place mentally (or morally) afterward?

I know just the healing, because I am the one who experienced it!

A few years ago I awoke in the middle of the night in excruciating pain in my stomach and back. It felt as though I had been poisoned.

I prayed for myself through the night, finally found some relief, and fell asleep just as the sun was rising. I was immensely grateful for the physical relief, but after I slept a couple of hours, the pain came back. This pattern occurred for the next week or two, and now and then I felt dizzy and weak to the point that I was incapacitated. The pain in my stomach continued for more than a year—subsiding gradually through prayer until finally all the pain disappeared and didn’t recur. The dizziness, weakness, and related problems lasted longer (off and on, but decreasing in intensity) and eventually, in about three years, totally disappeared as the result of persistent prayer.

I wasn’t going to measure the success of Christian Science by the amount of time my healing would require.

Now it’s natural to wonder, I suppose, whether I would have relied on Christian Science for healing had I known that healing would have required such a long period of patience! But I’ll tell you, having grown up in Christian Science, I had always depended upon prayer to meet every need—including the healing of all physical problems. And so from the first moment of this discomfort I turned to God and never had any doubt about relying completely on divine Love for healing. I wasn’t going to measure the success of Christian Science—or the extent of God’s love for me—by the amount of time my healing would require.

And as we know, lots of people throughout the world who rely on material methods never gain relief or healing from the physical troubles that plague them. In fact, research shows that millions of people just here in the US desperately seek relief from chronic pain but are not getting that relief [see, for example, “The Right (and Wrong) Way to Treat Pain” by Claudia Wallis, Time, Feb. 20, 2005].

That’s right. So you see, given my steadfast trust in God’s power, my desire to honor divine Love for all the healings my family and I had experienced up to that point, I had no desire to try any other method of healing. Which is why I had no need to get a medical diagnosis of the problem.

So, even though my journey to healing might have taken longer than the route someone else might have chosen, it resulted in a complete, permanent healing and provided important spiritual insights and growth.

Like they say (paradoxically): The journey is the destination.

Yes, that was really true for me. The journey itself—all I learned of my spiritual identity and of my relationship to God—was rewarding beyond words.

Tell me about that journey. What happened?

Well, by the end of the second week of this “ordeal,” I still wasn’t able to stand, sit, or lie down without discomfort. On two occasions, the intensity of the pain became so forceful that it literally shook my body as if I were a rag doll. But my wife and I had planned to drive over 1,500 miles roundtrip to attend my annual Christian Science association meeting. And I wasn’t about to let anything stand in the way of that commitment.

So I asked a fellow practitioner to give me some prayerful support during the three-day trip, since I had been experiencing times when I couldn’t think clearly. I knew that being at my association was my right place. I looked forward to the wonderful inspiration I would receive, and I knew taking this trip would be a part of my healing. I loved my association—this family of dedicated Christian Scientists. This meeting would provide spiritual sustenance for me for the coming year, and I didn’t want to miss it. And it turned out that I was able to attend the meeting and be at my post as an usher. The Christ presence enabled me to do whatever I needed to do. It was a great experience.

The pain vanished?

Actually, the pain didn’t vanish during the travel or at the meeting. It continued, but I was able to do everything I needed to do without anyone noticing that I was having difficulty. As strange as it may seem, the pain was there, but it didn’t scare me or put me out of commission as it had done at home. I know the practitioner’s support helped me have the courage to embark upon the trip and gave me a resolve that I was going to be OK in spite of the discomfort. The association experience itself was a great experience. But the healing didn’t take place at that time.

It was a time to affirm every possible thing I had learned about my relationship with God.

When we returned home I felt I had made good spiritual progress, but I still had to contend with dizziness, weakness, periodic pain in my joints, and vision and elimination problems. But one thing I could do was walk. So I began walking up and down our half-mile-long driveway during sleepless nights, and during the days I roamed through our woods and along the lake shore—praying until I found peace. During those times, I simply “talked to God.” And what I mean by that is this: From studying Christian Science, I knew that God already knows all. So I didn’t have to tell Him about my problems and fears and beg Him to do away with them. Rather, it was a time to affirm every possible thing I had learned about my relationship with God—from my years as a Sunday School student until my most recent reading of the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson.

I thanked God for His marvelous love, for the beauty I felt around me, for the little animals, and the big trees. And for the magnificent moonlight, or the brilliant starlight on nights when the moon wasn’t full. I knew God was right with me and that my real identity was spiritual—right where this material, aching body seemed to be. I just longed to see myself as God always sees and loves me. And I thanked God even when I couldn’t tell whether the tears that ran down my face were from physical discomfort or tears of joy for what I knew I was gaining. I celebrated Spirit’s goodness, Love’s love, Soul’s peace and loveliness, and Principle’s devotion to me and to all humanity. And I sang. The beautiful hymns—many with words by Mary Baker Eddy that I had memorized as a child—were my best buddies. Lovely, supportive, healing friends.

There was no way I was going to give up.

The Bible explains that man is made in God’s image and likeness, so I knew God could know me only as perfect—just like Him. I knew that as I began to see this fact—this truth about my being—I would begin experiencing what I was persistently claiming to be true. I would understand more clearly what God was thinking about me as I lost the false, material view of my identity as a struggling human. There was no way I was going to give up. Prayer had always worked for me during my many years as a student of Christian Science. And the benefits had always exceeded what I could have imagined. So I expected the best possible outcome as a result of my turning everything over to infinite Love. And as I continued to affirm that I was only and absolutely a child of God—right there and then—I began to feel the fact of it. I held onto this passage from Psalms: “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (56:4). I started feeling so much gratitude for my healing—even though my body didn’t seem to have changed very much. And the fear began falling away. As I walked, my steps became lighter, expressing the energy I was thinking—God is living and loving me!

For many months, there were days when I thought I had seen my last sunrise. But I wasn’t about to give up on life! Even though the frightening thought would come to me: What will your family do if you aren’t around anymore? I knew that God was supporting me and I would be healed. I didn’t discuss this with anyone because my conversations were between God and me. And as I listened, He told me that nobody was left out of His care. I began to see more clearly that God and His infinite ideas are my only family, and that Love had always cared and would continue to care for all of us magnificently without my “help.” None of us could lose Love or anything else! So that particular fear disappeared. Another passage in Psalms spoke directly to me: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death” (Ps. 118:17, 18). And the fear of dying vanished.

I began going over my thinking with a fine-tooth comb—to let precious Soul flow into my house of thought and rid me of the “unclean spirits” I was allowing to live in my consciousness. I knew no error could go undetected, and I promised my Father I wouldn’t hang on to any thought that could stain my purity! Finally, I got my marching instructions loud and clear in the final passages of Psalm 118, which begin, “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord” (Ps. 118:19).

What did that mean to you?

I felt that God was telling me, “You’re ready to move forward, now. Listen to Me. Obey Me, and love Me like I love you. Keep your consciousness pure by allowing only My thoughts to enter it. Show your love for Me through your love for and service to your fellow men and women. And be prepared—I’m going to be directing the show, not you. So trust Me and rejoice. Follow Me, and fear not, for it is My good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Before three years had passed, all vestiges of the physical symptoms were gone. During most of that time, I was serving as First Reader at my branch church, and I never missed a service due to illness. I knew God had put me there for a reason and that He would sustain me in my appointed task. I recalled Mrs. Eddy’s words, “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Science and Health, p. 574). Attending our church required a 110–mile round trip drive every Sunday and Wednesday. Initially, it seemed this would be impossible, but I would get into the car and say, “OK, Father. I am going forward. You don’t expect me to do anything I can’t do, and You are my only strength and purpose. Let’s go.” And, of course, these rides brought great blessings. The time on the road gave me more quiet time to review what I had been studying about God every day in the Bible Lessons, and the readings I prepared for Wednesday evening testimony meetings were themselves wonderful friends.

Practicing Christian Science healing is the major way I have to carry out Jesus’ two great commandments.

This healing has been so important. It has dramatically reduced my belief in death. It has shown me the power of infinite Life to care for me. It has taught me to do as Science and Health declares: “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true.” And if I am vigilant in this, I know I will realize the rest of that sentence: “you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (Science and Health, p. 261). And interestingly, Jeffrey, during that time, my healing practice was active and continued to increase. Those healed during those three years of my own healing benefited from my increasing spiritual growth. I see more clearly than ever that practicing Christian Science healing is the major way I have to carry out Jesus’ two great commandments: to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind, and to love my neighbor as myself (see Matt. 22:37–39). And finally, this protracted period of spiritual study and growth also taught me just how far I still have to go and that I can never afford to become complacent. It pushed me into more regular and dedicated reading, listening to, and studying of the Bible, Science and Health, and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy—including the Church Manual. (What a wonderful book!) The Christian Science magazines glowed with inspiration. The Christian Science Monitor brought clarity to my prayers for humanity. And those marvelous weekly Bible Lessons, each one designed to help any sincere seeker for Truth meet every human need, helped me beyond description.

Your three-year journey transformed you.

Yes. It was spiritual regeneration in action. You see, there were things that needed to be clearer in my thinking about Christian Science. Despite my having been a Christian Scientist for over half a century, those three years were years of great growth. Every morning, divine Mind had new things to tell me. Every daily reading of our Bible Lesson was filled with revelations. I began thirsting to listen, to read, to become totally occupied with what I was learning about God—what He was giving to me in the Bible and in Science and Health.

I became more forgiving, gentle, caring, patient, persistent in truth.

And “stuff” just began falling away—baggage I had carried for years—and much of it I hadn’t even realized was baggage. I became more forgiving, gentle, caring, patient, persistent in truth. My wife noticed and remarked on this transformation. Church took on a more wonderful meaning to me. Sharing truth with others was magnified, and healing became my greatest desire. Various interests I had enjoyed for years began moving into the background. And although I still enjoyed participation in the human arts such as carving, painting, recording, playing music, dancing, sports, going to plays and movies, they all began losing their pull. I found that before I had felt, Well, I have really studied and prayed today; I need to do something fun now, or take a break. But I began feeling increasingly, Father, thank you for these beautiful ideas and realizations, for these new perspectives about You and me and all of Your ideas. Let me stay with You a lot longer!

I began realizing a tiny bit of what Jesus must have felt when he retreated from the world to be with his Father on a barren, “pleasureless” mountaintop for weeks at a time. I learned to love the fact that Jesus sacrificed those blessed alone moments and came back to a world that he was outgrowing—a world that had lost its pull on him. Except for his love and devotion to God and to humanity, I could see where he might have asked, “Father, must I really go back down this mountain? Let me go forward with you now. Must I go back down there and pour more of Your love on humanity that doesn’t seem to appreciate all that You are?” And then, he must have thought Thy will be done. I began seeing his sacrifices with new eyes, and my love for this man increased.

It is hard to put into words what took place during those years. But I would not change a single moment. I cannot tell you how many times during those trying years and in the years since that I have said and felt these words, “Thank you, thank you, dear Father-Mother God!”

Jeffrey Hildner is a senior writer for The Christian Science Journal. He also is creative director of the Journal and its sister publication, the Christian Science Sentinel.