Understanding spiritual abundance brings needed employment 
From The Christian Science Journal,  January, 1999 
 
 
 

AT THE BEGINNING of the year before last, I was starting out afresh. I had recently graduated from college and returned to my home country. I had to find employment and a permanent place to live. As I had always done in the past, I turned wholly to God. Only this time I leaned on God’s love with new humility and the trust of a child. In addition to my usual study of the Lesson-Sermon, I used the period of unemployment to begin an in-depth study of Science and Health, and at the same time I also read any other Christian Science literature that I could get my hands on. Every day was filled with spiritual growth. 

The time came to return to the United Kingdom for my annual Christian Science Students Association meeting. I still had not found a suitable job, and I needed money for a plane ticket. I felt certain that I would be at the meeting, even though at that point I had no idea how I would purchase the ticket, so I made a reservation on a flight. I knew that because God is All, He is the constant source of supply through His abundance of good ideas and intuitions constantly imparted to man. I also prayed with the ideas in the whole twenty-third Psalm, applying the truth I found in every line to my situation. When I had to pay for the ticket, I had all the money I needed. And within a week of my return after the meeting, I had found a job. 

What I had been through that year gave me a higher understanding of myself and of my fellowman as spiritually complete, as God’s reflection. The idea of reflection had become clear to me one night as I was studying. I am an artist, and on the wall by my bed is a self-portrait. As I looked at it that night, I remembered how I’d had to study my reflection in the mirror in order to paint the portrait. I suddenly understood what it meant to be God’s reflection. It means that I am not, cannot be, anything that God is not. The reflection is everything that the original is, and nothing more or nothing less, either. This was a pretty awe-inspiring revelation! 

This better understanding of man as God’s reflection led to two additional healings. The first happened in the middle of the night. I woke feeling severely ill. I took Science and Health with me into the bathroom, where I collapsed on the floor. I just held the book for a few moments and reached out to God. I was determined not to give in to this illness and to keep praying until I was healed, even if it took me all night. I opened Science and Health to the place where I had left off reading before I had gone to bed. The passage my eyes fell on was: “The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the immutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent” (p. 300). After reading the first sentence, I knew I was healed, but I kept reading to the end of the page. The illness and fever I had felt had indeed completely vanished as though they had never existed (which in truth they had not)!  

After this experience, however, I didn’t feel that I understood exactly how I had been healed. I really wanted to know what Truth was and how it had healed me, so I kept studying and pondering this question. It wasn’t long before I had a second immediate healing. 

This healing happened in a busy shopping mall. I was on my way to an evening art class, so I had my portfolio and other things to carry when I stopped for a muffin and a hot beverage. After paying I went to pick up the Styrofoam cup, which was filled a bit too full, and the scalding liquid spilled all over my right hand, badly burning my fingers. I moved to a table to sit down. It seemed as though I was engulfed in pain. I refused to accept it, though this was very hard. I started to say “the scientific statement of being” to myself as I ate my muffin, and I really focused on the first line, “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter” (p. 468). I remember really starting to ponder truth and to think about what Truth, God, is. I found myself completely absorbed with an understanding of Truth as All. 

I went to my art class and didn’t think about my hand again until later that night. All through my three-hour figure-drawing class there had been no pain, though I had to use that hand to draw with. I was completely healed; there was no trace whatsoever of any burn. I couldn’t even say which finger had been most affected, as there was no evidence. 

After this healing, I gained a better understanding of how I was healed. Healing follows complete and utter reliance on Truth, with a refusal to accept any other reality. It comes from a deep understanding of spiritual man and God, and is the simplest thing in the world when we are willing to let go of any claim of a mind other than God. 

LYNDSEY R. WARD 
WILLOUGHBY, NEW SOUTH WALES 
AUSTRALIA 

The statements made in testimonies and articles with regard to healing have been verified in writing by those who can vouch for the integrity of the testifier or know of the healing. Three such written verifications or vouchers are required before a testimony can be published. 
 

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