Safe in an unsafe world

What we call safety is a fact of God's unchanging love.

from the April 23, 2007 edition

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"Prayer cannot change the Science of being," she observed, "but it tends to bring us into harmony with it" (Science and Health, p. 2). Far from an act of desperation, this prayer is the practice of lifting thought and heart to discern the divine presence. It involves the kind of inspiration that prompted the psalmist to declare, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (119:18). You might call prayer a "practiced lifting of thought" that reveals useful mental resources such as wisdom, courage, good judgment, clarity, and intuition.

Sometimes we may wonder how exactly to "open" our eyes to see and experience God's protection. Yet we don't have to do it on our own. Science and Health explains His presence in our lives as "a divine influence ever present in human consciousness ..." (p. xi). This Christ, Truth, is what Jesus fully embodied, and it reveals our health and safety as inseparable from God. This innate spiritual sense enables each individual to become consciously aware that good is present and powerful in our lives, and to halt fears.

I asked some friends to describe times when they'd felt particularly safe. One referred to a solo wilderness hike when each day "was an all-day discussion with God." Another had felt God's presence when avoiding a driving accident in which it had seemed impossible that no one would be hurt. And I remembered a minister friend who'd turned to God's love during a mugging – she'd found herself voicing the fact of God's love for her assailant, which totally disarmed the situation. "The mugging," she said, "turned into a hugging."

These people were able to see past fear and feel security. Their prayers had lifted thought and heart to discern God's presence, to respond to it, and to express Him through practical action.

Right where you are now, you can feel a divine law of peace and protection operating as a blessing to you and others. Not one of us has ever ventured, can ever venture, beyond His love. And we never will.

Adapted from the Christian Science Sentinel.

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