Just turn on the light!

Mary Baker Eddy asked in Science and Health: “Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more”. ¹ Recently, the thought came to me to express gratitude for the wonderful things I already have. I also know gratitude is necessary and important as we work toward other healings, and it also strengthens our spiritual understanding. One of my favorite hymns is Hymn No. 3 in the Christian Science Hymnal, which begins: “A grateful heart a garden is” (Ethel Wasgatt Dennis).

In March 2007, the spring of my sophomore year of high school, I was riding my bike home from track practice. I had ridden the trail many times, but as I was going down a hill, I hit something and crashed. I don’t remember how I got home, but I woke up in my bed a few hours later. I had somehow put bandages on my scrapes, and the area around my collarbone and shoulder was sore. My dad found me there, and my mom came home soon afterward. I could not answer what day it was, and I was not making much sense.

At that point, my parents said we either needed to call a Christian Science practitioner or go to an emergency room immediately. I asked my mom to call the practitioner.

Because I was raised in Christian Science and had attended the Christian Science Sunday School my whole life, I knew and held to the following laws:

1) I could never be separated from God;

2) I could never fall from God’s love; and

3) divine Mind was and had always been in control.

The practitioner shared the absolute spiritual truths with my mom that it was impossible for me as the idea of God to be injured, and that the only cause of anything in my life was God—which precluded accident or injury.

The next day I talked with the practitioner directly, and he shared something that has remained vivid in my mind. He asked me to imagine I was looking for a book on a desk in a dark room. To find the book in that dark room, all I had to do was turn on the light. Turning on the light would not create the book; it would just reveal its location. I understood this to mean I was and am already perfect, but I just had to turn on the light—eliminate the darkness of what the material picture was trying to say—to reveal my perfection. With this thought in mind, I was able to go to school that day.

The following day, two days after I fell, I was scheduled to run the 800 meter event in a track meet at school. My dad and I had talked about whether I should even run the race. We both knew how collarbone injuries have been treated medically, sometimes requiring people to immobilize the affected area for weeks. This was not a direction I wanted to go, and I continued praying to “reveal my perfection.” The practitioner had equated my being able to run my race with exercising dominion over the material senses.

Of course, I wasn’t under any pressure to run if it didn’t seem like a wise course of action—but the practitioner said the experience was an opportunity to exchange what appeared to be a material body with what the spiritual idea really is. I continued to hold to the idea that I was not correcting an imperfect situation, but realizing my perfection.

I did run the race that afternoon. For those two minutes of race time, I completely forgot about my shoulder. Throughout my school running career, I would always remember a specific passage from the Bible: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”. ² That afternoon I so strongly felt I was running on the “wings of eagles.” I ended up running a personal best time!

I still needed support, however, in gaining complete freedom to use my arm. My dad and I liked to swim early in the morning one day a week before school. But I did not have the full movement of my arm yet. The practitioner reminded my mom that this experience was a great opportunity to prove nothing is out of place and that we all were correcting a lie trying to attach itself to a perfect idea, me. He added that no lie can stand in the presence of the Christ. I continued to hold a strong thought for my perfection. A couple of weeks later I had full use of my arm.

Looking back, I do not remember exactly how long the condition lasted, or if there was a single clear moment where I knew I was healed. But thinking about it now, I feel like the lie just lost all power in my thought. As it lost power, the condition and its effects on my body completely disappeared.

The practitioner had said that I did not have to go through a process to get an “eventual” healing, and that time was not a factor in healing. He was right! I understood that I could claim my freedom right then.

Kyle Borch is a sophomore at UCLA, where he is studying physics. He enjoys running and swimming with his dogs and working on his truck.

______________________________

When I came home that day, my husband told me not to be alarmed when I saw Kyle. What I saw was unsettling, and I knew we needed to help him immediately. Kyle said he wanted me to call a Christian Science practitioner. As I called, we all thought about the truth that Kyle could never fall from God’s arms. The first thing the practitioner said over the phone was that Kyle, as a spiritual identity, had not suffered from any accident. Kyle also received loving support from his grandmother, who came over to be with him that evening.

Although Kyle always wore his helmet when riding his bike, we saw this situation as an opportunity to understand where real protection comes from. We understood that Kyle, as a child of God, reflected Mind, one of the seven synonyms for God. Therefore he could not, even temporarily, “lose his mind.” Kyle regained his mental dominion very quickly, and he returned to school the next day.

Kyle has always liked swimming with his dad, and he did not stop going to the pool while he continued to work through the challenge with his arm. We all were grateful to see the day he regained the full use of his arm in the pool. This complete and permanent healing has been a “light on the hill” for our family.

Posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2012 at 3:00 pm | Follow responses with the RSS feed
Topics: Healing, Sports | Tags: accident, injury