A humbling healing

I have so much gratitude for the effectiveness of Christian Science healing, and for the willing assistance that just one student of this Science can provide for another in a time of need.

In late winter of 2006, I was preparing to sing in a music program at the college where I am a professor emeritus. As a lifetime musician, voice teacher, and singer in church and on the stage, I was really looking forward to this opportunity. However, a few weeks before the event, I developed a heavy cold that included bouts of coughing and congestion. I realized that if this vocal challenge didn’t clear up, I’d be robbed of the pleasure of sharing some beautiful music with the students.

So as I’d done many times before, I turned to prayer for healing. And I immediately began reflecting on this statement from Science and Health: “Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony” (Science and Health, p. 412). Praying daily with that statement provided inspiration and comfort.

However, two nights before the event, I felt it right to tell the student host of the program, also a Christian Scientist, about my vocal problem, indicating that unless I was quickly healed, I wouldn’t be able to participate. Instantly, he responded in a loving and confident manner. He talked to me about my spiritual identity, affirming my innocence and God-given freedom. He told me that nothing could interfere with the harmony of my being.

I realized that those ideas exactly corresponded to the passage in Science and Health I’d been studying. It impressed me that this young man was so willing to step up to the plate, metaphysically speaking, and sincerely share these concepts. He wasn’t intimidated by the fact that I was a professor and he was a student; the straightforward desire to help and heal was so pure. After we talked, I returned home invigorated and refreshed, and I continued to pray.

Although I wasn’t entirely free of vocal difficulties when I stepped up to the microphone on the night of the concert, I did feel enough release to experience success, both in terms of spiritual conviction and vocal ability. Soon afterward, the congestion dissolved, and I could sing normally again.

Then, in late winter of 2008, I found myself in the same music program, with the same student host, my sincere desire to sing—and again, the same vocal problem. Only this time it felt far more serious. The foundation for my prayers at that point sprang from Mary Baker Eddy’s book Rudimental Divine Science: “Health is the consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 11). Once again, I recognized the word harmony. It proved to be essential to my prayers. Reading about “the absolute consciousness of harmony” helped lift me out of the realm of limited, human thinking and allowed me to consider what God was knowing at that moment.

But again, only 48 hours before the program, on a night when my throat felt so raw that it was difficult for me to speak, I went to inform the student that I might not be able to sing. His loving response was similar to what it had been two years before. And he even gave me an assignment, suggesting I “go home and read page 495 in Science and Health.” Obedience is a wonderful quality, so I did exactly that.

The passage the student mentioned moved me forward mentally: “When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony” (Science and Health, p. 495). It was the mention of sickness as an illusion that got my full attention, and my prayers began to move me away from focusing on uncomfortable physical circumstances to gaining a better “recognition of life harmonious.” With that, healing was almost immediate. All the pain and congestion melted away.

Two nights later, I sang at the music program with perfect freedom, filled with an inner glow, the result of my having discovered fresh evidence of Truth’s healing efficacy. And I was left with a deeper sense of God’s constant care.

What else did I take away from this healing? A statement in Science and Health sums it up: “The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good” (Science and Health, p. 518).

I will always remember the spiritual alertness and fearlessness that accompanied that student’s inspired comments to me. This idea of “seeking [my] own in another’s good” is something I try to emulate in all my work.

Bob Rockabrand | Elsah, Illinois, US