Surrounded by Love at Camp

Heather H. - the Christian Science Sentinel, July 2, 2007

A few summers ago, I was a counselor at a summer camp for Christian Scientists.

One evening, my cabin of six middle-school-aged girls went bumper tubing on the lake—a water sport where you ride in a tube that’s attached by a rope to a powerboat. The girls were having a great time, laughing as they took turns in the tube and enthusiastically bumping along the waves. After everyone had had a turn, my co-counselor and I decided to take a ride together.

After about five seconds of pulling us along, the rope became tangled and I flew off my tube, hitting the water awkwardly and forcefully. Immediately I realized that I couldn’t do anything but float on my back and move my fingers just a little bit. Fear swept over me.

My co-counselor swam over and began to reassure me that I could never be outside of God’s care. Divine Love was holding me and caring for me. The boat driver also jumped into the water and swam over to me. He told me not to panic and said they’d radioed to shore for help.

I held to the idea that I didn’t have to accept this situation as the reality of my spiritual being. These ideas were familiar to me since I’d learned through experiences in my life that prayer heals. Rather than feeling scared, I felt calm enough to pray and keep my thoughts focused on God. Within minutes, I wasn’t afraid anymore.

In obedience to the camp’s “emergency action procedures,” I was taken to shore, and the camp’s Christian Science nurses, practitioner, and director were all there to assist me. The director informed me that my parents had been notified and had begun to support me through prayer.

While I knew I could receive medical help if I wanted it, I expected healing through prayer. So I chose to be taken to the camp’s care facility, where I’d receive Christian Science nursing care. At that point, I was skillfully and gently placed on a backboard. Fellow counselors on the beach quietly offered prayerful support, and everyone took care not to upset me with expressions of alarm.

While on the beach, I continued to feel an incredible surge of love and support, stronger than I’d ever felt, and this love nurtured me. Focusing on God’s “angel messages,” or peaceful thoughts, I was drinking in the love all around me and wasn’t afraid about what was going on with my body. As my friends carefully brought me to the camp’s care facility, they sang a hymn written by Mary Baker Eddy that begins:

O gentle presence, peace and joy and
power;
O Life divine, that owns each
waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s
faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward
wing tonight.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207)

When I arrived at the care facility, the Christian Science nurse on duty helped me get ready for bed. And the camp practitioner was there too, quietly sharing prayerful ideas. After about half an hour of just holding on to the thought of God’s love, I was able to sit up, stand, and walk slowly with support. That night, I fell asleep feeling safe, fearless, and confident of a complete healing.

However, the next morning I woke up in pain and felt frustrated because my ability to walk and move around normally was limited. I knew I’d made a lot of progress the night before, but a gloomy cloud had settled on my thoughts. In that moment, I realized that similar feelings of negativity and frustration had been bugging me at camp that summer, on a daily basis. And as a result, my whole attitude, and sometimes behavior, had been poor. For instance, I’d done lots of complaining to fellow counselors and generally felt dissatisfied during activities that I used to find fun. The steady peace that I normally associated with camp hadn’t been present in my thoughts or in my experience.

Since I was so distracted by these negative feelings, I knew it would be difficult to pray for healing without first addressing the gloomy thoughts and adjusting my attitude about camp. As I humbly asked for divine guidance, I realized that when I focused on what was wrong with my camp experience, just like with my body, I wasn’t awake to harmony, which comes from God and is constantly available. I really wanted to get the focus off how I was feeling and learn more about my indestructible relationship to God.

I dug into Mary Baker Eddy’s writings for inspiration, and found this passage from Science and Health: “The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love” (p. 322). It was comforting to know that I could fall into divine Love’s arms. The burdening suggestions of being overwhelmed in my role as a counselor faded and were replaced with a confidence that harmony had always been present at camp.

I spent that day in my room, resting, eating meals prepared for me, and really just enjoying getting my thoughts focused on what I had to be grateful for. The camp’s Christian Science practitioner, whose cabin was very close, walked over to see me. Fellow counselors and staff members also came to visit, telling me that they loved me. I talked to my parents on the phone several times.

Throughout the day, my prayers were bringing such freedom and relief. I was learning that I could be completely free of nagging temptations of unhappiness. They didn’t belong in my consciousness. In fact, they weren’t really mine at all! Because I was God’s expression and could only reflect Godlike thoughts, these suggestions were just lies being imposed on my thinking. I was so absorbed in considering these ideas that I stopped feeling discouraged and became less and less focused on my physical progress.

I came across these passages from Unity of Good: “All that is beautiful and good in your individual consciousness is permanent. That which is not so is illusive and fading. . . . Look up, not down, for your fields are already white for the harvest . . .” (p. 8, pp. 11–12).

From my room in the care facility, I was able to experience God’s love. Just outside my open window, I saw the patience of a counselor tirelessly teaching a small boy how to serve a tennis ball; the cheering of kids as they congratulated a friend for getting a bull’s eye in archery; and the enthusiasm of campers learning how to play the drums in rhythmic unison. I also recalled my experience on the beach, when so many people selflessly came to my aid, and the power their loving prayer had had on me. Camp was overflowing with joy and love!

That afternoon, I remember feeling eager to get back to my campers and my duties as a counselor. Getting out of myself, and focusing on all the good that was being demonstrated, I couldn’t wait to express this love myself. The change in my thought was so liberating that I totally forgot about my body. I steadily walked into the other room to share my inspiration with the Christian Science nurse—very conscious of my spiritual selfhood and indestructible connection to God. My sense of God’s presence had shifted my thoughts away from myself and onto a deeper love for camp.

I left the care facility that night with very little discomfort, and a very large sense of my purpose at camp—to actively express the Love that was always present. The following day, I spent more quiet time in gratitude and prayer, and was able to continue with my normal camp activities, including sailing.

Within the next week, all residual aches and pains completely dissolved. For the rest of the summer, I felt joyful and genuinely grateful to be at camp. But best of all, I had learned how opening my eyes to a spiritual perspective can bring healing to every challenging situation. |CSS

Heather Harmon recently graduated from Principia College with a degree in creative writing, and is looking forward to spending
the summer with her family.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 8:21 am and is filed under Fear, Healing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.