Freed from symptoms of heat exhaustion

Gabriel McManus

It was a summer day in the California desert, with the temperature expected to exceed 110 degrees. I was working with and supervising a crew, unloading office furniture in a parking lot before moving it into a customer's office. We had started late because the semi–truck filled with the furniture hadn't arrived on time. Everyone moved quickly, hoping to finish and get out of the sun, but I knew this job was going to take all day.

I worked outside while the other men moved the furniture inside. It soon was apparent that two workers were disappearing into the air– conditioned building for longer than was necessary. That made me mad. Here I was, racing around in the heat to get the job done, and they were selfishly prolonging the time it would take for all of us to complete the work. So now I had two jobs — getting the furniture ready and keeping watch on the others out of the corner of my eye. I wanted to talk to them or yell at them, but I couldn't risk losing them altogether or having them slow down even more. After a couple of hours, I began to feel sick. I wondered if I would be able to finish the day, but that wasn't an option. This job had to be completed. I became frightened that I wouldn't be able to do it, so I began to pray.

I thought about how people once worshiped the sun as their god and sometimes even feared it. But I had learned through my study of Christian Science to have only one God. And I see God as infinite and only good. God does not share His power with any other power, including the sun. To myself, I said, "I don't worship the sun, and I'm not afraid of it, either." And then I went back to work.

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