Article August 1, 2005 Issue

ACQUAINTED WITH GOD, AND AT PEACE

By Pamela Cook

WHATEVER the problem is, whether it's a health issue, or a relationship concern, or a business or financial need—or even a parenting question—a sense of anxiety often stems from the feeling that you're all alone, that you're on your own, and have to figure this all out or fix it yourself. And that can really tie you up in knots, so to speak.

But peace comes when we realize that God has the answer. The question, I guess, that arises is, "How do I get from a state of anxiety to that all-calming peace that comes just from knowing that there's an answer?"

What I've learned from my study of Christian Science is that I have an individual, unbroken relationship with God. I think of God as my Maker. So everything that I am, and think, and do, is the outcome of God. And I think of God as my divine Parent. That's established in the Bible—in the very first chapter of Genesis: "God created man in his own image" (verse 27). And later it says that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (verse 31). So each of us has that relationship already established with God as our Parent. He's there caring for us, and protecting us, and teaching and guiding us, in a way that's better than we think a human parent might. What I've experienced myself, and seen for others, is that it's the daily nurturing of that relationship that gives us a foundation on which we can then overcome those anxieties when they seem really aggressive.