Article January 3, 1994 Issue

Nothing but the child of God!

Viewing others spiritually makes all the difference in bringing healing into the community.

Tony Lobl

One day as I was catching a ride on a subway train in London I chose the wrong carriage. I chose the carriage with a drunk vagrant, who was getting more and more abusive and volatile by the moment.

I wasn't alone in thinking that it was the wrong carriage. At each stop fellow passengers were getting off the train and walking to other compartments. The temptation to do the same was enormous. Yet I had been praying earlier. I had reached some recognition of man's inherent goodness as the child of God. Taking evasive action didn't seem logical in the light of that understanding.

What was coming to me to do, however, seemed in many ways even less logical. It was coming to me that I should reverse the attitudes and actions I was seeing so prevalently expressed around me and deliberately sit by the man's side and talk with him. Of course, this wouldn't always be the right action to take in such a case. Spiritual intuitions lead us away from trouble when there's a danger. But I felt sure it was just such a God-sent intuition that was impelling me to obey the spirit of Christ Jesus' instructions about loving others, and to do exactly the opposite of what I personally felt inclined to do.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

In next week's Sentinel—