TeenConnect: Q&A November 13, 2017 Issue

Safe from the storm

John Biggs

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Q&A - September 19, 2017

Q: Can we really stop bad weather with prayer?

A: Here’s my story. I was helping on my uncle’s ranch one summer. As with all ranches and farms, weather played a big role in both day-to-day operations as well as in the farm’s success. So there was always an awareness of the weather. One afternoon, I was working with some animals, and my grandpa pulled up in his truck to let me know that there was a huge storm approaching. From the looks of it, the storm included hail and a high probability of major crop destruction.

My grandpa was a Christian Scientist, as am I, and he asked me to pray for the ranch. I was tempted to feel in over my head. What was I against a massive storm? But I had recently taken a 12-day course on spiritual healing called Christian Science Primary class instruction, and I remembered that I’d learned the importance of starting and staying with God in my prayers, instead of trying to balance fear with trust in God. I didn’t know how to “turn off” the fear I was feeling, though. So I just turned my thoughts to gratitude for the ranch, for the country, for my family, and for the rightness of diversity in God’s creation, which naturally includes a variety of only useful and harmless conditions governing all things.

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