Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Unshattered safety
One morning I felt impelled to pray about safety for myself and for all mankind. And carrying my prayer further, I was led to try to understand as deeply and honestly as possible the link between safety and consecration to God.
All day long I worked in prayer to dedicate myself to be committed to God wholeheartedly. When I came home after work in the late afternoon, I felt impelled to go directly to Mary Baker Eddy’s Prose Works other than Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and continue with my quest for consecration to the one Mind, God. I didn’t even take the time to make tea, as I often like to do upon coming home.
A few minutes after I’d started my study, a shooting started outside our condominium, which is located in a normally peaceful neighborhood. I rushed to look out my window. I saw a car speed away and realized that two people had been shot and killed right by where my car was parked.
When the police arrived on the scene, I did the best I could to support them with what little information I could provide. This series of events felt so surreal and strange to me, and yet God’s angel thoughts were continuously whispering messages of comfort. One was that God, good, is an eternal presence that is infinite. Therefore, no space could ever be without good. Another angel message was the sweet assurance that there is more to know and feel of God’s love than our eyes can behold.
Despite these comforting messages, later on that night and during the following several days and nights, I was overcome with heightened suspicion, fear, and sheer terror—feelings that were totally foreign to me. The details of that evening kept replaying in my thinking, and I realized that the tragic circumstances had made an impression on me that was more profound than I’d first recognized. Yet God’s angel messages, which had urged me in the first place to consecrate myself more earnestly to God, were solidly present in my thinking and rescued me.
In my prayers, I discovered that at the base of the chaos in my thinking was a shattered sense of trust in the eternal goodness of God and man. I so yearned to regain faith in the unopposed power and presence of the one almighty God, omnipotent Spirit, unfolding Life eternally, moment by moment.
Continuing with my earlier prayers on consecration, I found this marvellous statement: “We should consecrate existence, not ‘to the unknown God’ whom we ‘ignorantly worship,’ but to the eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal belief destroy” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 428 ). This statement calmed my thought right away. It brought immediate comfort, understanding, perception of spiritual truths, trust in the power of God to reveal His presence, and trust in the eternal continuity of Life. And just one week after the incident, my inner peace was restored and that was the end of the mental turmoil, of replaying the events in my thinking, and the total end of my fear and mistrust of mankind. I later learned that the shooter presented himself to the police a few hours after the crime. He admitted his guilt and expressed remorse.
Through my prayers, I regained my determination to see God’s likeness in all of mankind, including this individual. Day by day I’m learning to listen to God’s angel thoughts and never to underestimate the presence and absolute power of divine Love to uncover and disarm evil. As I strive to consecrate myself more deeply to God, I include in my daily prayer this reminder: I am governed by God’s unerring law of right direction. And I know this principle is true for everyone. For this, I am grateful beyond words.
—Annette Kreutziger-Herr, Berlin, Germany