Article April 30, 2007 Issue

SAFE in an unsafe world

BY DAVID STEVENS

A MOM RECENTLY called me to share an idea that had brought her a fresh perspective. Each day she'd been praying for the safety of her son and husband, as well as her own. But that particular day it had come to her that beyond just keeping our bodies safe from harm, our real need in prayer is to accept that because we are created spiritually, we're already safe from harm. There are simply no variables.

"What we call safety," my friend said, "is a fact of God's unchanging love." I agreed. Her prayer was addressing something even greater than the latest threatening condition or worrisome statistic. It was lifting her thought to a more spiritualized viewpoint and changing her sense of safety from an iffy proposition to an assurance that the divine laws of good are supreme.

God is Love, the actual cause of our individual existence. Safety is, therefore, a central fact of our life, even in a world that so often seems defined by dangers of all kinds.