Article August 24, 1992 Issue

Why not turn to God?

God's love isn't limited to helping us only when we face big problems.

Elaine R. Follis

Sometimes people take the thought of "turning to God" so seriously that instead of experiencing the benefit of His guidance in everyday life, they wait for a situation they consider sufficiently grim and desperate to warrant God's attention. The fact remains, however, that God is an ever-present source of help which is always available, and we realize this just as soon as we put pride, fear, or ignorance aside. From the standpoint of infinite Love, there is certainly nothing too hard for Him. Nor is anything too easy or too trivial for Him, either.

The Bible is filled with assurances of God's love for His creation in general, and especially for His idea, or expression, man. Both the Old and the New Testaments resound with exhortations to seek His help in daily experience. Some people do this seeking occasionally, when conventional human ways and means fail and an "extra boost" seems needed. Others, however—like the Biblical prophets and apostles and, most especially, Christ Jesus—live in a constant state of turning to God. For them, it would seem that turning isn't motion so much as it is a habitual posture, based upon an acknowledgment of man's oneness with God.

About a year ago, I needed to attend a meeting that lasted several hours and was very boring. About halfway through, I developed a headache that increased in severity until, by the time the meeting adjourned, all I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. The suggestion to blame the aching head on boredom and simply "sleep it off" was very strong. But as a student of Christian Science I knew better than to align myself with such reasoning, which would serve only to make me more dependent on material conditions (whether external, like boring meetings, or apparently internal, like an aching head). So instead, knowing that my life was actually governed by God, divine Life, I decided to turn to Him.

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