Article October 9, 1989 Issue

To be "hid with Christ"

There's a spiritual power in the love of God that protects and frees us.

Sylvia Messner

In my teens an instructor in modeling school taught us how to enter a room full of people and cross it confidently. We were told to pick an object across the room, focus on it, stand tall, and head for it. Then we were to station ourselves at that point as though we had purpose and direction and had found our place. As helpful as this might be for a model, I came to see later that there was much more needed for true confidence than a modeling technique.

Years later, after I had become acquainted with Christian Science and had begun a serious, deep, ongoing study of the Bible and of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I was reminded of the story of Christ Jesus' passing through a threatening crowd safely.^{See Luke 4:28–30 .} At that point in my life I seemed to be facing crowds of fearful circumstances that appeared to have gigantic reality. I was working at a high-pressured sales job in a state—with a new home, new terminology, and a new product.

Driving home after completing three sales calls that I felt were conducted poorly, I realized that I was trying to sell without much knowledge of the product or familiarity with the demands of selling. I felt that I had too little foundation but that the only way I could learn was by making the calls. I was jumping into the sales calls quickly, talking hurriedly, intensely—trying to get the order and run. I was doing my sales calls as I had been taught to cross a room in modeling school: I was focusing on my distant, material goal, blocking out people and surroundings along the way. Totally enveloped in my own fear, I had only a shallow, fragile appearance of confidence.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Research and development