Article April 3, 2006 Issue

A JOURNEY INTO THE LIGHT

BY VALERIE THIBAUT

There are events that challenge people to earnestly seek a glimmer of light to lead them out of the darkness of adversity. I live in Covington, Louisiana. Clearly, Hurricane Katrina brought such a challenge. And in the aftermath of devastation, it is essential for us to focus on God's all-inclusive and inexhaustible love for each one of His children.

As I've talked with neighbors and others impacted by this storm, they've repeatedly used such words as overwhelming devastation, uncertainty, frustration, depression, and discouragement to describe their circumstances. By turning to prayer, and my favorite spiritual resources—the Bible and Science and Health—I'm able to mentally combat these negative states of thought and maintain a better way of thinking that looks instead to the active presence of God's good, rather than on destruction. Christian Science teaches that maintaining a perspective that rests on life as spiritual corrects and cures whatever is wrong—because it aligns our thought with God, divine Love, the only power. I've learned this from experience.

Mary Baker Eddy's life and accomplishments have always inspired me with hope. Her discovery of Christian Science, based on Christ Jesus' ministry, was met with active and severe opposition, but that opposition did not keep her from healing the sick, writing and publishing Science and Health, establishing a church, founding The Christian Science Monitor—and all else that she felt God leading her to do.