Chronic fatigue syndrome — Healed

by Hilary McCreary
from the Christian Science Journal, September 2007

The symptoms had been plaguing me for many years—muscle weakness and pain, dizziness, chronic tiredness. I also experienced difficulties in eating and sleeping, as well as concentrating and reading for any length of time. Finally a medical evaluation showed that I was suffering from a condition called myalgic encephalomyelitis—also commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

As a wife and the mother of three young children and with a household to run, my condition made life very difficult for everyone at times. Several years earlier I had left my job, as I was unable to cope with the demands.

In early December 1987, I was admitted into hospital. The doctor prescribed various drugs to treat the condition, as well as additional medication to relieve the side effects. I also had a surgical procedure that seemed to increase the general debility. Six weeks later, after spending Christmas and New Year’s in hospital, I was allowed to return home, but was even weaker than when admitted.

Over the next six months I spent almost all my time in bed or in a chair. I had become a chronic invalid, unable to walk any distance or sleep or eat properly, and suffered continuous pain and discomfort. I also continued to find reading and concentration difficult.

I’d had a very strong Christian upbringing, and I had been taught about God and the Bible from the time I was a child. Many church members, prayer groups, friends, and family were praying for me. I also had an endless stream of healers, therapists, and doctors visiting me throughout these years. My husband and I regularly prayed together. I was very grateful to all those friends and family members who continued to support and help throughout all this time. Nonetheless, I remember feeling like the woman in the Bible who “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” (Mark 5:26). Several times the situation seemed so dark and hopeless that I thought perhaps I should end it all and that it would be easier for the family without me.

But one day when I was home lying in bed, the thought came to me that if all the promises in the Psalms were true, they must apply to me. So beginning with the first Psalm I started to write down the promises and claimed each one for myself. I can see now that my thought was indeed lifting—even if I couldn’t see the next step—and that I was on the pathway to healing.

One particularly memorable June day in 1988, I was sitting propped up in a chair, reading past issues of The Christian Science Monitor and paying special attention to each day’s healing article on Christian Science. (My husband was a journalist in Belfast, working as a freelance correspondent for the Monitor, so I was quite familiar with the paper.) Just then the telephone rang. The woman at the other end of the line said she would like to speak with my husband. I explained that he was working outside, and I couldn’t call him from where I was. I proceeded to explain my sad situation to her. She told me that she was a Christian Science practitioner and had simply wanted to thank my husband for a series of articles he had written in the Monitor on the regeneration of Belfast. But then turning her thoughts to me, she asked if I had ever considered Christian Science treatment. I told her what I had been doing when she called, but explained that I had already had many healers and therapies to no avail and that I would have to think about it. We agreed that I could ring her if I wanted to talk more.

I rang the next morning. She agreed to begin treating me through Christian Science. The first idea she shared with me was a Bible verse from the prophet Joel: “I will restore to you the years the the locust hath eaten” (2:25). I felt great hope and joy and promise in those prophetic words and knew they were meant for this situation.

She reminded me that she had given a copy of Science and Health to my husband as a gift some 12 years before. It had sat on the bookshelf all that time. As I opened it up, the first sentence stood out to me: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (p.vii). I knew that I was still finding my way to healing when I read those words. At this point I felt I could stop all the various medications and treatments I’d been taking.

However, I still had to overcome a great deal of fear, and I spent much time reading, writing, and learning by heart many passages from Science and Health and the Bible. One that I held to that helped me and was a great comfort was: “God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord. Such a power, without the divine permission, is inconceivable …” (Science and Health, p. 378). The word inconceivable struck me as wonderfully strong and absolute—as something that cannot even be imagined. Because I was learning about the true nature of God as All and as completely good—and about my inseparability from Him as his perfect child—I began to see that there was no reality in anything apart from divine good.

The supremacy of this truth gave me a feeling of authority over all the symptoms and limitations I encountered. I was beginning to see the mental nature of what seemed so physical. The practitioner would continually stress to me the need to identify myself correctly (in spiritual terms) at all times—not as a mortal with a material history, but as being and having always been God’s perfect and loved child.

I began to improve greatly over the next few weeks, and eating and sleeping returned to normal. However, I started to become impatient and felt that progress was slow. I realized that I was feeling envious of people whom I felt were in a better state of health. I told the practitioner about this, and she said, quite firmly, that I must be more grateful for what I already had—which was a great deal, when I looked around! So I started a gratitude list—nothing was too small or insignificant to go on that list. When I was truly grateful, there was no room for doubt or resentment—they had no source.

My healing progressed more rapidly after that point. I challenged each symptom with the absolute divine authority that I was beginning to understand I possessed, not of myself, but as the beloved child of God—that God was my real Father-Mother. I saw that the condition never had been God’s will for me.

Gradually I regained full strength and could care for my family again. I was able to drive again, and by the middle of August we were able to go on a family holiday to North Donegal, spending a lovely time walking on the beaches I have always loved, having meals in restaurants, and visiting the beautiful forest parks.

Ultimately I came to see that I never had to rely on personal, human power or strength in order to find complete health. I discovered that it’s always God’s unlimited power that heals. But I gained more from this healing than improved health. I think of the word abundance. Ephesians speaks of God as He “that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (3:20). After the healing, wonderful new career opportunities opened up, which have been, and still are, challenging and fulfilling. I feel I have learned more of the power of gratitude to God at all times, and the importance of trusting in God, as Divine Mind, to guide me step by step, even when I cannot fully see the way ahead.

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This article was published in the September 2007 issue of the Christian Science Journal. To learn more about this weekly inspirational magazine, published online and in print, visit HERE.