My work in the construction...

Case M. Rutledge

My work in the construction industry has generally been connected with the erection of tall office buildings. Whether working on upper floors on open steel framing or in deep excavations for foundations, I have always found at least a few moments available during the day for prayerful protective work, for knowing that as a spiritual idea man is actually in the divine Mind, God, at all times and that there are no hazards in God's kingdom. Under so-called accident conditions, however, there is sometimes little or no time for conscious mental work.

A few years ago, while working on a twenty-one story office building, I was standing in the street next to the outside construction hoist, waiting to go up into the building. With me were several guests who were on a tour of the project. Suddenly someone shouted, "Watch out!" I knew something must be falling, but not knowing where it was in the air, I did not dare look up.

I immediately cleared my thinking as much as possible, particularly of fear, and waited for the still small voice of God to guide me. Suddenly something made me step to one side, and as I did so, a piece of lumber brushed my coat sleeve and fell harmlessly to the pavement. As I moved, my guests had also moved, making a clear opening for the falling object. I learned later that the piece of lumber had fallen from the seventeenth floor. In that case of emergency, there were a few seconds of warning in which to turn to God for protection.

A few months earlier, on the same project, I was up on one of the upper floors working under a wood plank decking that was to protect us from the steelworkers erecting the steel frame of the building seven stories above that. A two-inch diameter steel nut was dropped by one of the workmen. It fell those seven stories, went through a crack in the wood decking, and landed on the floor right in front of me, again harmlessly. In that instance there was no warning whatever, and I attribute my protection to my daily prayers. Through correct thinking and by obeying divine law, we are saved from involvement in accidents.

I have been connected with the construction industry continuously for over twenty-seven years without a single personal injury. God's protection has indeed been absolute and complete.

Equally as important as my protection from accidents has been my protection from illness. Only one day has been lost from work due to illness, and that occurred when I became ill on a Friday. The illness was completely healed over the weekend. A practitioner worked with me forcefully, using among other references from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy the definition of man on page 591, which reads, "The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."

I am very grateful for having had Christian Science all my life, for active participation in church work, for class instruction, and for all the blessings that have come to mankind through the truth as revealed by Mrs. Eddy.—Case M. Rutledge, Honolulu, Hawaii.

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