Testimony of Healing April 7, 2008 Issue

PRAYER IN THE GRAND CANYON

SCOTT PUTNAM

Several years ago my wife and I took a two-week whitewater trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Another vacation plan had fallen through, and we signed up for this trip just a few days before we were to put in at river's edge.

In our first instruction at the riverside we were told what to do if we were flipped out of the raft. That was something I vowed we wouldn't have to experience. However, the huge rapids we soon encountered were intimidating, as we sat on the side of our small rafts, holding on to a rope with one hand and the side of the raft with the other. The quiet current of the river would suddenly give way to a thunderous roar as we approached each rapid, the noise reverberating between the canyon walls. For several days, the jostling of our rafts by the rapids was a near-terrifying experience. This was supposed to be fun?

I knew my wife was also frightened. Then I noticed that about the third day she regained her serenity as we moved through the whitewater. She said she was just holding on to Truth and realized that the kingdom of God, the ever-presence of omnipotent Mind, was within her and was greater than the churning water that seemed to engulf us. That was the instruction Christ Jesus gave his disciples—that God's serene kingdom was not "Lo here! or, lo there!" but within us (see Luke 17:21). The understanding of that truth brings a peace that can't be taken away. I realized that I, too, could view our present adventure in this light.

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