Sometimes I have an unpleasant experience which I wish was not happening at the time it was happening, but it happens anyway.
Ever had one of those?
I had one last week.
It was lunchtime. I grabbed a newspaper with one hand, a hard Anjou pear with the other, and sat down to eat. In too much of a hurry, I bit the pear and quickly found myself gagging on the bite which when straight down my throat without a single chew first.
My life flashed before my eyes as jumped to my feet and gasped and fought for breath but couldn’t find any. The pear piece was jammed, and in a very bad place.
Realizing no person was around to help, I did remember God was there! In my plea for divine intervention, I accepted that no matter what the material senses were telling me, my life could not be taken from me, not by a pear, not by an accident, not by a mishap.
No sooner did I quit fighting physically, and calm down, I realized that I could breathe. The pain was terrible, but I could get air down the appropriate channel. I relaxed and turned wholeheartedly to God for complete resolution.
But relief did not come fast.
I repented of being in a hurry to eat in the first place. I realized more divine grace could have been expressed and less hurry-hurry mentality. That realization felt good and progressive. I knew God forgave me too.
I felt better spiritually, but my throat situation still felt unbearable.
I felt so desperate at one point that I stood on my head to see if it would help. It didn’t! And I’m glad no one was around, for I was quite a spectacle I’m sure.
I quickly got past trying to physically remove the piece though, for nothing was working in that direction. I gained complete trust that Mind was going to get the chunk out of there one way or the other.
After four hours of consecrated prayer covering every pertinent topic I could think of, and no relief, I finally asked myself, “Why can’t I feel perfect and healed right now?”
And the answer came clear.
“Because you believe a piece of pear is stuck in your throat.”
Duh! Yes, I knew that! But suddenly the angel message made sense.
I had spent all afternoon spiritualizing my thought so this healing could happen, and every prayer was necessary, but I was still clinging to the belief that a chunk of matter mass was stuck in my throat.
I remembered a favorite phrase of mine when working on outdoor projects. If a bolt was rusted in place or an axe head unyieldingly lodged in a log, I might echo, rather playfully, “It’s stuck!”
This pear piece definitely felt stuck! I decided to redeem my consciousness from the belief that anything could get stuck when it ought not to be stuck.
Maybe I was a victim of my own casual acceptance of things sometimes getting stuck. I wondered.
The concept of “stuck” implies unyielding, unmoving, fixed and stubborn.
Nothing is stuck in Mind, I declared. Whatever Mind wants, Mind gets, for Mind makes it happen through its own power and abilities. It was Mind’s will that I express Life freely without impediment, obstacle or obstruction, I felt strongly.
I remembered that I lived in a universe of Mind, where everything and every occasion expressed intelligence and wisdom. In Mind, there are no stuck relationships, no stuck healings, no stuck projects, no stuck perspective, no stuck attitudes and no stuck pear pieces!
I even prayed to see the nothingness of matter. The fear I had struggled with all afternoon was having a too large piece of food trying to go down a much smaller hole. This dilemma was easily resolvable in Mind, I finally saw.
In Mind, things are thoughts. The pear was an idea, throat was symbolic for an idea, and eating was a metaphor for an idea in action. Ideas are not physically large or small. They are metaphysical. They do not have physical dimensions that are either too large or too small. Every idea is always just right.
Activity is not matter mass elbowing with each other, but ideas expressing divine functions. So, I concluded, whatever the idea of eating was, Mind was the one doing the “eating” and Mind could handle a bite of any size. Matter-mass was a mortal mind concept I could dispense with and not be troubled by any longer.
Metaphysically considered, divine Mind could swallow a large bite of pear as easily as a small bite. And the idea of throat could handle whatever Mind sent its way. In Mind, there were no large bites or small throats. There was just harmonious activity, every idea working in harmony with another. The idea of eating a pear could never conflict with Mind’s ability to handle the bite, and the one intelligent Mind would never allow a conflict to occur in the first place.
The “throat” of divine Mind was free and clear of all food pieces, I decided, and so my sense of throat, guided by this truth, had to be clear too.
After this prayer, I truly felt like my praying was finished, like I had arrived. The piece still felt stuck, but I had no fear of it. I headed to the tennis club to play singles with spittoon cup in hand, for I could not swallow. But was absolutely confident all was well.
Ten minutes into warm-up, I swallowed and realized the pear piece was gone. I exalted in God’s love and care the whole evening, and won my match too.
Nothing is stuck in Mind.
If something appears stuck in matter, go to Mind, and Truth will jar the obstinate fear loose of its seeming grip, and all will be found well.
Ah, freedom…
Inspiring!!
Until I found this site I could not figure put how a CS would think through some of these common happenings that on the surface don’t appear to be tied to spirituality. I love learning how to look at the everyday from a spiritual vantage point — and this is a barn-burner lesson. Just what I needed to know today….thanks!
To anon above,
Hey, you are welcome!
A “barn-burner lesson…” I like that!
Thanks
Just before a Wednesday night meeting, I was faced with an obstruction in my throat, being unable to breath and gasping. I immediately thought that there is no obstruction in God’s ever presence. Immediately, the food particle cleared and I was a bit teary-eyed. My wife immediately gave me a drink of Christian Science punch, cold water, My passage was cleared. My testimony that evening, began with God knows no obstruction, etc. One of the readers did not hear all of the healing testimony and thought my wife through the water at me to shock me. The idea of the punch and cold clear water holds steadfast in a choice of beverage for me ever since the healing incident.
I had an experience where my teenage son was gasping and obviously choking. It was the most frightening thing, when you don’t know how you can help your struggling child. I have often wondered what would have happened if I had just sat down and started to pray, or started telling him truths as he suffered. What happened I still consider God’s help. Though I had no experience at all with these things, I found myself grab him from behind. The next thing I knew, the object that caused the blockage shot out like a bullet out of a barrel of a gun. My son was so grateful, but I was amazed at what I had done. It was like someone else had done it, not me. From this experience, I learned that God works in many ways, and unexpected ways. It was more than my human understanding to handle that situation with such authority and precision. God is there when you need Him and his help can come in many unexpected forms.
Thank you Evan for walking us through this healing. Very instructive!!
Thanks Evan for sharing your steps of prayer………you walk the talk and that makes for some very powerful inspiration……I like the idea of unstuck healing.
Blessings
Karen
Evan, A really good lesson on what it means “Physician, heal thyself”. Very instructive to the rest of us. Thanks.
You are welcome!
Glad you are still with us, Evan!
As I was reading your gripping story a Bible verse came to mind. It is a promise which says, “Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee” (Isaiah 26:3). Your thoughts were sure STAYED on Thee, I would say, which, among other things seemed to gracefully quiet your mind from panicking…allowing you, as you said, to “quit fighting physically, and calm down.”
Lately I’ve been meditating on a S&H book passage (p.261.21) for which you gave me a heat-of-the-battle blow-by-blow demonstration of how to successfully prove its validity. However, I emphasize with you patience in trauma while doing so.
The passage which you probably know by heart reads: “Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of God, or good, and the nature of the immutable and immortal.”
Mentally detaching from sense and belief (this requires some pondering) – ever so briefly – can put my mind for that moment into a different dimension, or kingdom, which I assume is the realm of absolute Truth that is always present in the invisible. This mental place is probably your second-home!
Another Bible promise which could apply to your adventure here, I think, reads (I looked this one up later to verify the wording):
“Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
“When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him.
“With long life I will satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” –Psalm 91:14-16.
I loved your conclusion where you seemed to be saying to yourself, “I’ve got other things to do today than deal with this illusion,” and you took off to play a tennis match while still painfully handicapped. “Way to go!”
Great testimony, Evan. You get a gold star on your report card (instead of on your tomb stone!).
This reminds me of an incident recounted in the 1913 CS Sentinel (and possibly other sources) where a practitioner had a patient that was suffering from an old wound received in the Civil War. The practitioner asked Mrs. Eddy why the case wasn’t yielding to treatment. Mrs. Eddy replied, in effect, that it was because both the patient and the practitioner believed that there had been a war!
To Colin,
Oh, yes, I’ve heard about that testimony. It’s a very significant metaphysical point. We can pray and pray to know we’re well, but if we still hold in belief that we have a problem, that belief negates in effect the truths we’re trying so hard to know.
Piece of pear too big? Or thinking too small?
By the length and variety of comments posted about this experience, there’s nothing stuck at all — there’s a free flow of gratitude, inspiration, practical sharing, empathy, rejoicing.
I was also reminded of Mrs. Eddy’s comment: “To attend properly the birth of the new child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual birth.”
A new idea was born in this experience, and limited thinking was suggesting “it’s too big to be swallowed” — accepted. (We often say, hey, I can’t swallow – accept this.)
This article and the comments helped me see that on a merely human level, when a new idea (baby)comes, the belief is the birth canal is too small. So Mrs. Eddy is advising us to “detach thought” from the belief that material space won’t allow for spiritual birth.
And she’s also helping us detach thought from the idea that human pleasure brought the baby into existence. John 1: 13 says: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
God is the Father and Mother of all spiritual ideas, and God provides the transportation needed to bring these ideas to us, with the proper lubrication (oil, inspiration).
Thanks for your open forum which provides such a comfortable place to freely share God’s ideas.
Susan