"IT'S THE SEASON to be wary," a friend said recently, speaking of the June start to the Atlantic hurricane season. Many people would say wary sounds a bit like understatement in the US Gulf Coast region in particular, where it's been hard to escape the onslaught of concern since Hurricane Katrina hit last year.

"How about the season to be prayerful?" I thought.

Having gone through hurricane prep for a number of years, I feel I'm a bit of a pro—although my approach has changed over time. My thoughts and actions have gone from fear and concern, to stocking the pantry with emergency supplies, to prayerful consideration of how my neighbors and I might be protected. During the ten years I've lived in Florida, I've been through a number of tropical storms and hurricanes, including a Catergory Five storm, and I've experienced extraordinary protection.

While I've agonized over these all-too-regular assaults on our peace of mind, my approach has evolved from one of desperate anxiety to complete trust in divine intervention. Inspired by Bible accounts of storms brought under control by God's might, I have become ever more confident that through prayer I, and others, can be safe.

For me, there is no more vivid example of God's control of extreme circumstances than the description of Jesus' challenge to high winds and seas from the back of a fishing boat, "Peace, be still." And immediately the wind dropped, "and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39).

One-time miracle? I don't think so. To me, there's a common denominator running through countless events in the Bible, and that's a tireless, loving, protecting God—a Supreme Being, a divine Principle, an infinite Mind. As far as I can tell, the characters in those Bible stories weren't saved by a swoop of a magic wand. They had spent a great deal of time getting to know this God. Their prayers might be thought of as prep time, during which God became real for them—an all-pervasive, divine Presence. God became their friend.

I suspect those people's understanding of God's love and care inspired them to see and experience that which was not apparent to the physical senses. They achieved a state of consciousness where the reality of the human predicament—an obstacle, a lack, or a threatening situation—simply disappeared in the presence of divine Mind. What appeared instead were the true needs in those circumstances—safety, supply, a firm foundation, peace. They experienced God's infinite goodness expressed humanly, and that goodness is just as available today as it was in Bible times.

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy described the Science that underpins such events: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (p. 494). Had I not personally experienced the truth of those words, I might not feel so strongly about God's control and protection, nor feel so strong an impulsion to pray daily about hurricane season.

During my spiritual preparation, I find it helpful to realize that though we may not in the foreseeable future see an end to such storms, we don't have to be discouraged—or even persuade ourselves that prayers are futile. It is possible to keep praying when we have taken shelter in a coat closet or find ourselves clinging to a rooftop, and not lose our mind or faith. There is too much evidence that such circumstances are not beyond God's sphere of authority. It's always too soon to give up.

Spiritual consciousness is the safety that's within reach of all of us, and when the storms have passed, we emerge whole, free, and wonderfully calm—forever at peace in God. Mary Baker Eddy wrote about such calmness in a letter to her students in 1902: "O glorious hope! there remaineth a rest for the righteous, a rest in Christ, a peace in Love. The thought of it stills complaint; the heaving surf of life's troubled sea foams itself away, and underneath is a deep-settled calm" (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 19).

I sometimes study this passage along with a comforting Bible promise: "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith" (Mark 11:23).

I'm convinced that it's not just mountains that can be "removed," but hurricanes, tornadoes, and anything else that may try to invade our peace in these so-called seasons of storms.