UPFRONT April 30, 2007 Issue

Safe as sentinels

WARREN BOLON, SENIOR WRITER

When the subject is safety, we sometimes think first of the people, places, and conditions that might do us harm. Who wouldn't want to be safe from robbers, dangerous roads, and toxic or contagious agents in the atmosphere? Specific threats call for specific protective actions, and prayer is an effective first resort when facing those kinds of challenges. I once faced a situation when all three of those concerns wrapped into one for me and two travel companions.

We were passengers in a car traveling on a narrow road in West Africa. As we wound our way through a dense section of bush that morning, we saw up ahead a felled tree blocking both lanes. We realized that the tree was a barricade—and that several men were waiting at it. The country was ruled at that time by a military dictator, and uncertainty was woven into the general mental atmosphere.

I don't remember whether those guys were armed. I was too busy praying, as were my friends, silently acknowledging the space-filling presence of the God who is Love, and seeing those men as our brothers—silently declaring that all of us were safe and harmless in the spiritual identity God creates. Our driver said the men were demanding to be given something before letting us move along. Bribery was a routine practice in that region. We thought of the Sentinels we had in the car and offered them, as the best gifts we could muster. The men looked through the magazines, nodded to one another, removed the barricade, and waved us on.

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