What is your healing?

While conversing with a friend today I realized that the healing we’re looking for is not always the healing we first need.

When faced with a bodily complaint, the temptation is to assume we need the ache or pain to go away before we are free. We put a material condition on our freedom, and then hope, even wait, for something to happen physically before we proceed with our life. This may or may not be the need.

For example, several years ago, while lecturing around the country on Christian Science, I was in a large theater in S. CA preparing to go on stage. I was battling a splitting headache and sickness that would not release. I was in no shape to speak before 300 people, and it was ten minutes to starting time.

Hiding in the balcony in a quiet corner where I could get my thoughts collected, I prayed to understand better that God would give me everything I needed to fulfill my responsibilities.

As I affirmed the immediacy of my spiritual perfection and the unfailing care of divine Love, I saw clearly that I did not need to wait for the pain to go away before I could proceed.

God is All. So, in essence, God was the speaker, God was the speech, God was the presenter, and God was the energy, health and poise that would make the lecture a success. I did not have to wait for something to change materially in the body before God could do the job well.

Confident that the outcome of the event was totally in God’s hands, I headed for the lobby and then to the stage. The closer I drew, the less pain I felt. By the time I stood in front of the audience and greeted them with a big verbal bear-hug Hello! the illness and pain was gone. I was off and running with my talk, and the lecture was very successful.

I learned many lessons from that experience.

When I was suffering, my initial prayer was to be rid of the pain. But the pain persisted. Under the pressure of the moment, and with no choice but to go on stage, I yielded my worries entirely to God, acknowledging that He was doing all the doing, and if I really trusted Him, I could proceed without fear. I obeyed, and as I obeyed, the physical suffering rapidly diminished and I was able to follow through.

My healing was a strengthening of trust in God’s omnipresent and ever-active health and harmony. The physical healing was secondary.

It takes discernment and focused listening to decide the need of the moment when praying for relief. But one truth is for sure. All spiritual healing is in internal job. As we yield to spiritual truth, the pertinent truth we obey will take the fear away and any physical suffering it causes and lead us to the total freedom that is rightfully ours.