Mobility quickly restored

My husband and I took a road trip this past summer [2009], driving from our home in the Midwest to Washington, DC. A few hours before arriving in the city, we took a break at a rest stop. Getting out of the car, I suddenly realized that I was unable to put any weight on one of my legs, nor could I walk. I should add that my leg wasn’t “asleep,” nor was it numb.

As I was mentally sizing up the situation, I could feel fear and self-diagnosis grab hold of my thoughts and start yanking away from me my ability to think from a correct spiritual standpoint. It felt as if my mental freedom was being challenged and overrun. But I knew from prior experience that prayer heals, and I also knew that I had spiritual authority not to let what Science and Health terms “error”—or the contradiction of God, Truth—wrest control of my thinking (see Science and Health, p. 472). So I silently protested with a persistent “No.” Leaning against the car for support, I turned to God and prayed like this: “OK, God. You are Truth. And You destroy error. What exact, specific, healing idea are You telling me right this moment that destroys the error?”

For the past several months, I’d been deeply pondering the idea that “Truth destroys error” as I prepared to attend a church-related meeting that was coming up in a few weeks. All during this time, I was gaining a fresh outlook on, and appreciation for, God’s allness and supremacy, and the “no-power” and nothingness of evil, or error. So it felt perfectly natural to expect God would give me an answer that would lead to healing, even right there at the rest stop.

Through that quiet expectation, a phrase spoke to me—“Mind Is the Mover,” the title of an article from The Christian Science Journal (July 1974) that I’ve loved over the years. Mind is one of the names that Mary Baker Eddy gave for God in Science and Health. Then, I remembered this statement: “Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action” (Science and Health, p. 283). Because Mind is the source of all movement, it made sense to me that matter could neither give me movement nor take it away from me. And since mobility is a quality of Mind, it is spiritual and always present. Mobility belongs to everyone to express, because God gives it to us.

My prayer was so focused on listening to these spiritual ideas that I was no longer aware of thoughts of self-diagnosis or concern. They were simply gone. It felt OK to walk, which I did, slowly, and then with each step came more strength and freedom, and very quickly my leg was fine and I was walking about normally. This all took place within 20 minutes. My husband and I went on to have an enjoyable two-week vacation, which included lots of walking and sightseeing.

What I remember most about this experience was how natural it felt to expect that God would meet my immediate need for healing with a specific spiritual idea. I am grateful.

Missy Williams | Jerseyville, Illinois, US