Article May 19, 2008 Issue

QUIET PRAYER, BIG RESULTS

BY JACK LINDSEY

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO my wife and I were invited to a wedding in Barranquilla, a city east of Cartagena in Colombia. We were both well aware of the turmoil in that area because at the time Colombia accounted for about 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States. Besides the drug trafficking, there was a new cottage industry that was much in the news, namely, kidnapping visitors for ransom. So in addition to all the details related to planning a wedding—my wife was the mother of the groom, my stepson, David—I also felt a special need to prepare spiritually, wanting to trust God to keep us safe and secure during this joyous event.

For many weeks I prayed quietly and listened for God's voice. As our departure time neared, it became increasingly clear to me that the tender, loving presence of God and His Christ governs every event in human affairs, and that it was essential for me to understand this. I'd been to Colombia on business before and so was familiar with the political climate and the special problems posed by the drug cartel. These previous experiences gave me a further incentive to pray and to affirm that the relationship between God and man is indestructible, that man is never for an instant separated from the love of God, and that the one infinite Mind would care for us.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, stated, "Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth" (Science and Health, p. 258). This truth isn't an abstract concept; it has practical effects in human affairs. I affirmed our right to see evidence of Truth's care. Several family members would be traveling with us, and I mentally identified each of us as equally under God's spiritual law and controlled by divine Principle.

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