Freedom from turbulence and fear

Julie G. Denison

More than a year ago I was on a flight in a small airplane that had to divert to another airport for landing because of bad weather. We hit turbulence so noticeable that everything in the cup holders flew up into the air. The pilots landed the plane safely and apologized for the rough ride, but it left me with very uncertain feelings about flying.

Fast forward about a year, and again I was flying, this time on a commercial airliner, from New York to Los Angeles. Before the cabin door was even shut, the flight crew warned of rough weather ahead. The pilot announced more than once that when we reached Indianapolis, we could expect to hit turbulence for at least an hour.

This scenario was certainly not my first choice for the flight that day, but I had already planned on taking that quiet time to study the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson, and the Lesson helped me pray. I was so absorbed in studying this particular Lesson, the subject of which was “Life,” that it was all I thought about for more than two hours.

The Lesson included a question posed by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “What is Life?” Part of her answer says that Spirit “includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal” (pp. 468–469).

Reading that Spirit, God, includes all substance, made me think more deeply about substance. I generally think of substance as being that which is really significant, that which is real or essential. I saw that if Spirit includes all substance, then there’s no matter in the allness of God because there’s no room for anything contrary to Spirit. This gave me a renewed sense of the nearness and all-inclusiveness of God, divine Love.

Also in that Lesson was a statement in Science and Health: “Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action” (p. 283). “Perpetual and harmonious action” refers to Mind’s movement, so it has to do with thought, rather than air, bumps, or danger. There wasn’t a force anywhere—in thought or otherwise—to stop all action from being perpetually harmonious. The phrases from Science and Health, “Nothing is real but the right” and “nothing inharmonious can enter being” (p. 228) reinforced this conviction of the allness of Mind.

As we reached Indianapolis, the pilot illuminated the seat belt sign and asked all passengers to refrain from moving about the cabin. I continued reading and studying the Lesson. We reached the supposed endpoint of the turbulence about an hour later, and I honestly had felt nothing more than a shake or two. I was elated.

Science and Health describes fear as a “turbulent element of mortal mind” (p. 180), and I was humbled and grateful to be free from fear—not to mention the choppy air that had seemed to make me so afraid. I was happy to have a clearer view of the substance of Spirit and the all-harmonious action of Mind, and happy to have learned another lesson in Christian Science healing.

There is an interesting postscript to this story, though. My husband, who was sitting right beside me on that flight, had been very aware of my new fear of flying. The day after the flight I asked him if he was interested in hearing what I had learned during my spiritual study. As I recounted some of the inspiration, I said, “And there wasn’t even so much as a jiggle!”

He stopped walking, looked right at me, and said, “Are you kidding me?”

I answered, “No. Why?”

He said he had been working on his laptop on the flight and had to close the computer and put it down because it was so bumpy he literally couldn’t read.

Science and Health says: “Mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures of Truth” (p. 70). How blessed we are to be able to prove these treasures of Truth wherever we are.

—Julie G. Denison, Newport Coast, California

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