Answered Prayer

 

                                                 John Wellsman



        Not long ago I began experiencing intermittent periods of severe pain in my left hip area.  For some time I prayed rather dilatorily even as both the frequency and intensity of the pain increased.  Climbing stairs and just walking were becoming increasingly difficult.  Suggestions of incapacitation and other fears threatened to rob me of my independence and mobility.

        Gradually through prayer I felt I was gaining dominion over the fearful suggestions. However the period of pain continued to recur.  I got to the point that I could see the suggestions as only suggestions.  Each time one would come I would vigorously declare, "Get thee hence, Satan, though art a liar and the father of it!"  As this process was repeated, I gained confidence and my thought became more calm.  Yet the pain and discomfort continued--and even claimed to increase.

        Finally early one morning I reached out to God humbly yearning to know what else I needed to know about this situation.  Although no answer came immediately, a little later that morning as I was about to sit down at my desk I glanced down at my office chair and noticed the supplementary cushion on it was rather skewed.  The chair itself was of excellent quality and well-padded with a leather covering.  However, I had placed an extra cushion on it to protect the leather and add comfort in hot weather.  It was this extra cushion that then drew my attention.  The elastic straps holding it in place had long since deteriorated and the cushion itself had shifted on the seat and bunched up on one side.  It seemed inconsequential and I had ignored it for some time.

        Suddenly I recalled a time nearly 40 years previously when my dad, who was never a student of Christian Science, had asked me to drive him into Boston for a doctor's appointment at a large hospital.  He had been experiencing a problem similar to my current situation and his regular physician had been unable to find the cause or eliminate the pain he was feeling and therefore referred dad to a specialist.  Dad, of course, requested I drive him in his car.  Now this was the time before automobile manufacturers had begun to design auto seats ergonomically and the term "lumbar support" was essentially unknown.  Basically the rule then was "squishier is better."  My dad's car was by no means an economy model but neither was it a luxury vehicle.  So his seats, as I remember, were fairly "squishy."  We had scarcely driven ten miles before my leg and hip were beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable.  So I asked my dad if his leg felt thus and so--basically describing the way my leg and hip were beginning to feel.  He replied that that was exactly the problem.  So I told him I thought we had discovered the cause and it was nothing more than his car's seat as my leg and hip were feeling that way and it had started only after I'd begun the drive.  Fortunately my dad listened to me and mentioned this to the doctor, who had been unable to find anything physically wrong with his leg or hip.  The doctor simply recommended getting some sort of supplementary cushion which my dad did immediately.  His "problem" eased very quickly and never recurred as long as dad had that vehicle and used the supplementary cushion.

        As these thoughts came to my consciousness I simply flattened out my extra cushion and sat down.  Getting up after a couple of hours at the computer, I realized the pain had gone completely.  I was able to go up and down stairs with no pain or discomfort.  The pain has never recurred.

        Now some might say this shouldn't be classified as a "healing" since there was no "disease" involved.  Some might even say, "Oh, big deal, he only had a sore hip!"  However if one defines "disease" as a lack of ease caused by pain, I can only respond that there certainly was a "lack of ease" manifested by the debilitating pain.  So, yes, to me it was definitely a "big deal" and yet the pain itself was not the cause of the problem as Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of the Christian Science religion defines disease in the following passage in her book Rudimental Divine Science: "Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering."  (p. 10:15)

        The problem was solved by rejecting lying suggestions and sincere prayer yearning to know what was needed to be corrected.  It is highly unlikely that anyone would have humanly put together two seemingly disparate events occurring nearly 40 years apart without resorting to divine guidance, certainly not while fear was focusing thought on suggestions of pain and disability.  When the fear was gone, my thought was prepared to receive the solution to the situation.