For a couple of years I lived in a country that tolerated very little political dissent and that seemed in many ways quite oppressive to me. Before too long, however, I began to hear stories from those living around me of far worse conditions in the neighboring nation, whose border was just two miles from where I was living. Local residents often talked about the creative ways people found to escape from that highly oppressive country into ours to find refuge.

Most people probably don't know firsthand what it's like to want so desperately to flee from political or religious persecution in search of a safer, freer home. For many, oppressive conditions are strictly the state of things in other lands, touching other lives. But such things as weariness, depression, illness, are also a kind of oppression. They would tend to hold us down, keep us from being active, from living a full life.

We may not normally think of these things in terms of oppression, but rather see them as a natural part of life, and with no option open to us of finding permanent freedom. Yet, increasing freedom from such oppression is available. The Bible says we find it in Spirit, God, who is "our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1).

People who have opened their hearts and minds to God, good, know this is true. Faced with persecution and other hardships, Christ Jesus always turned to God, whom he called his Father and ours, and found His intelligent, perfect care of man to be trustworthy and provable under every circumstance.

The refuge we find in Spirit isn't escapism. It's not fleeing to an imagined haven from suffering; rather, it's utilizing, as our Master did, the very real and powerful and present laws of God, the spiritual laws that produce all harmony. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy explains, "Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science" (p. 494).

Science reveals the fact that man is spiritual because Spirit, God, is his creator—the only creator. And God's creation is perfect because God is perfect. It's on this basis, and being willing consistently to conform our lives to this truth, that we can fearlessly, even confidently, confront oppression in whatever form it appears.

If we feel weary, if it seems our strength and vivacity are being crushed by demands coming at us from all directions, we find "our refuge and strength" is at hand. This assurance comes from apprehending more of the undiminishing power of God, feeling the ever-presence of divine Love through prayer, and seeing ourselves, not as personal producers or maintainers of strength, but as expressing His power, His love. While it may be a considerable temptation to ignore this fact, or to deny it because of what the physical senses report, to do so closes our hearts and minds to what God, Truth, is revealing of His spiritual and upright creation, even in the midst of difficulties.

Arguments that we have to wait until circumstances change before experiencing the protecting power of Love stem from the belief that we live apart from God and that His creation can fall victim to evil. Human logic, dependent upon a material outlook, would persuade us that we're essentially material creatures, subject to restrictive, oppressive, physical conditions; that safety and well-being are found in some other place. There may be times when we're impelled by wisdom to make a change. Yet as our conviction and understanding grow that we are truly spiritual and that Spirit is the source of all intelligence, all love, we'll find that turning to Spirit wherever we are is sufficient for our needs. We'll see that God's direction is truly wise and always available. His love is more tender, more secure, more powerful than any human circumstance or material condition can be.

This doesn't mean we have no responsibility ourselves, that finding refuge from troubles is simply a matter of waiting passively for God to do something. As long as we maintain a vulnerable, material sense of ourselves and our world, we have much work to do. The true consciousness of existence is entirely spiritual, without material fetters. Christian Science shows us how to cultivate this perception of spiritual reality and to experience its practical effects. Science helps us see that disciplined prayer and spiritual study reveal the allness of Spirit. It shows the nature of the divine creation as good and teaches that we are empowered with spiritual truth to destroy the claims of limitation and evil.

The deeper need for all of us—whether we think of ourselves as victims of oppression or not—is to understand the ceaseless, inviolate care our Father-Mother provides for each of His children. This is a divine refuge, where man is seen to be the unfettered expression of good, the safe and secure idea of infinite Mind, where oppressive conditions are unknown.

Russ Gerber