Article January 1, 1990 Issue

Shine! With "borrowed light"

Whatever the situation we find ourselves in, we can immediately turn to God and shine with His intelligent, healing light.

Barbara J. Presler

As I stood in the lobby of our Paris hotel, trying to figure out the location of the Wednesday evening Christian Science church service, I was ready to give up. The desk clerk handed me a street guide, but the streets weren't listed alphabetically in her book, and I didn't have a working knowledge of the city districts or the transportation system.

I took the book up to our room and prayed about what to do next. Opening the street guide after a few moments of complete silence, I no longer felt frantic. I found the street. In the lobby two gentlemen from the hotel, heading to the subway, offered to walk my daughter and me there, and a patient English-speaking subway attendant explained the transfers. We got to church in time to hear most of the readings.

This was a small incident, but it illustrates an important truth in Christian Science. When we are in need, we can go straight to God in prayer. When I did this, I felt His presence there in the room with me. I asked for answers. What was the most intelligent thing for me to do? Was getting to church a legitimate need? It appeared to be, and I knew that God, divine Love, does meet our needs when we turn to Him understandingly. The result of the prayer was that spiritual intuition helped me find the street out of hundreds of possibilities.

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