Several years ago the Christian Science Weekly Bible Lesson that week included the line from Science and Health*, “It is latent belief in disease, as well as the fear of disease, which associates sickness with certain circumstances and causes the two to appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are reproduced in union by human memory.” (S&H p.377:31-378:3) I had been thinking about that all week. These Bible lessons are provided the week prior to the Sunday at which they are read as the sermon in all Christian Science Churches throughout the world. And that Saturday I was finishing up installing a sprinkler system in our new lawn at home. I was ready to run the wiring through the brick wall into the garage to the control box and just needed to hammer in a PVC pipe to use as conduit for the wire. As I slung the 10 lb sledge hammer to knock the PVC pipe through the hole in the brick wall, the thumb of my left hand which was holding the pipe came to rest on the target area of the pipe and I struck my thumb with hard force with the sledge. I clearly remember seeing the hammer hit my thumb and thinking “that is going to hurt”, yet it seemed a full 2 or 3 seconds before I felt pain. And in that lapse I remembered the line from the lesson and thought, I should not tell myself it is going to hurt. I can argue with the suggestion that it has to hurt. I remembered how I’d been thinking how hearing the music to the star spangled banner just naturally makes one think of the words to match the melody. Yet, the music was not originally written for those words, it was attached to a different song. But now you have to make a great deal of effort to hear the music without hearing the words to our National Anthem with it. Only in the case of the song, all is well. But in like manner, I needed to now choose to not allow the hammer striking my thumb to result in excessive pain and debilitating damage to my thumb. I was so grateful to have been considering that quote all week and recognizing its application to my life, and here was another situation in which to laugh at how mental the cause and effect is. After taking just 2 minutes to reaffirm my freedom from injury, I was able to continue the installation and operate and test the sprinkler system that day. That night there was only a slight mark on the thumb, no swelling, no discolored thumbnail, and no soreness after one night. I really loved being able to take control of my thinking and was appreciative to have that concept in the Christian Science weekly Bible lesson that week and to be blessed by it.
*Science and Health with Key to the scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
Dale McMullen
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