Lois Rae Carlson
Reprinted from the Oct. 10, 2005, issue of the CS Sentinel.
The news-junkie mentality can make us overlook the abundant evidence of harmony in our lives. But there is an antidote to the feeling of anxiety and fear-an understanding of a fundamental spiritual fact…
The promo for a popular news program startled me. The producers promised the viewer something amazing: Every 15 minutes they would feature new headlines. It was probably a way of assuring the audience that they would be informed of whatever news was happening at any given time.
But I was sobered to realize that most of those new headlines would likely focus on what went wrong that day, rather than on what went right. Viewed from that perspective, life could feel pretty unsettling.
While praying the next morning, though, I looked out the window of my high-rise apartment and saw traffic on the interstate a couple of miles away. It occurred to me that during the rush hour, tens of thousands of cars would pass by without incident-and several hundred thousand by the end of the day.
And yet, if there was an accident, the local news would focus on that tragedy in a way that might make us forget the abundant evidence that the freeway is essentially a safe place. The complete record would reflect the fact that accidents are not the norm, but an aberration.
So how can we learn to live with an expectation of security in light of the aberrations? Obviously this relates not only to travel, but also to our expectations about our health, our finances, and safety in general.
We shouldn’t overlook the abundant evidence of harmony.
The news-junkie mentality can make us overlook the abundant evidence of harmony in our lives and promote a mindset of fear. But there is an antidote-an understanding of a fundamental fact that at first might seem radical: Life is safe.
Where does this perspective come from? Christ Jesus. He said in many different ways that life is not fragile, but supported by God’s love. The gospel record shows that Jesus taught people to view God as a Father who anticipates the needs of His children, even as a good shepherd knows the needs of the sheep, keeping them safe and at peace.
One of Jesus’ most reassuring statements is: “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” In other words, God, the source of life, maintains what He creates, supplying every need and keeping His children perpetually secure.
This points to another remarkable statement from Jesus: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Knowing that God’s kingdom is here, now, establishes an environment of safety and provision. It means that there is always a law of harmony at work, and that there is a place in each individual’s consciousness where God’s power can be recognized.
In the words of Mary Baker Eddy, this kingdom is “the reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.”
From fearful thinking to a better understanding of God’s goodness.
As such, the kingdom works as an influence that lifts us out of fearful, limited thinking into a better understanding of God’s goodness and our expression of it, and it does so even if we’re not consciously aware of it.
Looking back at the beginning of my full-time practice of Christian Science, I’m not sure I was fully aware of what it means to live in the kingdom of heaven. But that didn’t prevent me from experiencing it in ways that were sometimes deeply profound.
I’d started my public practice feeling confident about my decision to leave a wonderful position because so many people had been calling me to pray with them that I found I couldn’t do both jobs. But after I went full time, nobody called for several months. It was confusing. I even asked God, “Did I mistake Your direction?”
I knew the only way I would find the answer was to keep moving into deeper, more consecrated listening to my heavenly Father. And I persisted in praying for mankind day by day, taking advantage of every opportunity to see more of God’s goodness and care for His creation.
Then I got a welcome invitation from friends to spend the Fourth of July holiday with them at their lakeside home. It felt like a much-needed respite from my worry and self-doubt. At one point, my host offered to take me for a ride in his rowboat, which had a small motor on the back. Another guest joined us, and we spent the first part of the ride delighting in the freshness of that Minnesota summer day.
Suddenly, I looked up and saw a massive ski boat roaring toward us, planed upward so the driver couldn’t see our little boat. The next thing I knew, I was in the bottom of the half-sunken rowboat, my fellow passenger had disappeared, and my host had been catapulted into the water about 30 feet away.
I acknowledged God’s love for His children.
After diving in and helping my host over to the boat, I told him we needed to pray to find the other passenger. I immediately acknowledged out loud God’s love for each of His children, and our ability to know what God was telling us.
What followed seemed almost miraculous. My foot actually touched the girl’s head underwater. Though she was unconscious, we were able to get her into the ski boat. And her virtually instantaneous recovery from what appeared to be very severe injuries left the ambulance drivers who met us at the shore speechless.
But the thing that everyone had trouble processing was how I was still alive. The ski boat had hit the rowboat broadside right in the spot where I had been sitting. And yet my only injury was a bit of scraping on my knees.
As I think about that experience, I can’t help but consider the praying that I had been doing during the previous months. That prayer had brought me into a deeper awareness of my relationship to God and of His loving provision for all His children.
We saw tangible proof of God’s ongoing care.
In essence, a deeper understanding of that kingdom of God at hand. So, in a way, it only seems natural that we saw such tangible proof of His ongoing care and protection that day.
I saw from that incident that God’s power, His law of blessing, His expression of the infinitude of His own wholly spiritual being, constitutes the universe in which we live. And that neutralizes the impact of materiality, no matter how severe the circumstance. The salvation of Christ is the knowledge that nothing can intrude, interrupt, postpone, or destroy man’s oneness with God.
I have to believe this is true even for those who have lost their lives to violence, deprivation, and other tragedies. Obviously we didn’t see how the laws of God’s kingdom worked on their behalf. But the mortal view which argues aggressively for the inevitability of death, based on the instances of dying, cannot deny the permanence of man’s relationship to God.
I am praying to understand how the kingdom of God operates to neutralize the impact of evil for everyone. The scars must yield to the preexistent fact: Nothing can intrude on the invincible sanctity of man’s relationship to God.
To live from the standpoint of being in the kingdom of God, governed by His law of harmony, enables us to see that we are held in right relationship to every other one of God’s children. We see God’s kingdom operating in every pure thought, every kind act, every new idea that lightens the load of human toil.
While there is much to be done to see the practicality of this view for the whole of mankind, the universality of this truth is established. And it can be demonstrated.