Power tends to corrupt , and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Nineteenth-century British historian Lord Acton's truism on power presaged with chilling accuracy what would happen in the following century to countries that fell under communist control. And Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu would be a worst-case example of Acton's insight.

Nicole Draghici (pronounced DrahGEECH) lives in Bucharest, Romania's capital city. She visited the Sentinel offices recently to talk with me about changes in her homeland. She has seen both extremes of corruptive power—the total personal power and corruption of the Ceausescu regime, and the near power vacuum and resulting social disarray in post-revolution Romania, after the communist government was overthrown and the Ceausescus were executed in 1989.

When Nicole was a young girl, her mother gave their copy of Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health, along with old issues of the Christian Science Sentinel, to Nicole's uncle for safekeeping. Her mother also burned her copy of an anthology of Mrs. Eddy's writings, fearing that in an unguarded moment young Nicole would say something she'd read or heard to someone who might reveal the family's religious convictions to the regime's security forces. At the least, the Draghicis could have been subjected to interrogation, as Nicole said did happen to at least one Christian Scientist.

Romania under autocrats

During the early phase of World War II, Romania sided with the Nazi/Axis powers, and Christian Science was locally banned, as it was in Germany. Romanians later fought with the Allies, but the wartime ban on certain religious eventually would reappear and morph into state-sanctioned suppression of religion under communism. In the 1970s and 1980s, Nicole recalled, Christian Scientists hid their faith practices, even to the extent of avoiding casual meetings as they passed one another on sidewalks.

During the pre-war years, Christian Science had had a visible presence in the country, with many Romanians worshiping alongside French, American, and British nationals, some of whom held foreign service posts in Bucharest. Church services were held in French, Nicole said, because the French and Romanian languages share linguistic roots. French was at that time the most commonly spoken foreign language in Romania, and there was a French translation of Science and Health. (Sermons in Christian Science services are made up of passages from the Bible and Science and Health, read by two lay readers.)

Power and peaceful paths at work

In her work at the American Embassy in Bucharest as a visa assistant, Nicole helps Romanians who want to travel to the United States. Work relationships have compelled her to deal with the power struggles that happen in any large organization. But Nicole says she takes any kind of struggle to God, to figure out how to deal with it. "I pray about the situation. I've learned to cool down quickly through prayer. If there's a problem at work, I think, wherever a conflict appears to exist, God is already there, govering everyone. That's the heart of my prayer.

"Sometimes you're taken for a moment by a wave of emotions, but we each need to find, in our own way, the peaceful path that comes with spiritually understanding more about God's control of our lives. Only God can show us, individually, that way," she observed.

Nichole is convinced that these are times when praying regularly about God's control—on national and global levels—is especially important. "This is a very interesting year for both the American and Romanian nations. We both have elections this year." She doesn't think of elections "as being humanly directed," even though she admits that at times the many candidates and parties currently vying for office in Romania can be a bit bewildering. She likes to pray about and act on the idea that "the most essential kind of government is self-government, and change has to come from each person changing himself or herself for the better. We can't change others, only ourselves.

"When I start my day by praying for calm, for spiritual understanding—to understand better that I am not in charge, that God is in charge—then things tend to go smoothly." When she feels rushed and doesn't get spiritually prepared before starting her workday, "it's sometimes another story." On those days, Nicole hinted, God's presence and control haven't changed; she just isn't as aware of that reality as she would like to be.

There are times, for example, at the visa application window, she says, when "I have a feeling of power, of being 'chosen' to be part of such an important work, of being different from other Romanians. It can be a tempting aura." But Nicole often thinks about advice that Mary Baker Eddy gave to a promising young spiritual healer: "Pray daily . . . Lead me not to lose sight of strict purity, clean pure thoughts; let all my thoughts and aims be high, unselfish, charitable, meek,—spiritually minded" (Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, p. 171).

The Bible speaks (in Romanian)

Praying for her workplace, and for a country in which "corruption remains a major problem," frequently takes Nicole to verses in the Bible that help her stay spiritually grounded. A passage in Proverbs, she says, reminds her where power actually lies: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (3:5, 6).

During the Ceausescu years, "the regime and security forces held all the power. One always had the power of feeling free, though—inside. But life was difficult. For example, food was rationed, and there were huge queues. If you had money, you could get more food 'under the table.' Looking back, and at the current situation in Romania, the question of who holds the power arises only when you fight for power and believe that power is ever in the hands of a person."

Romania's current social problems—lagging economic development, corruption, high unemployment, and high income taxes to support the large numbers of those who are retired or out of work ("I pay 50 percent of my salary in taxes")—still make life challenging. If that weren't enough, the part of the country that includes Bucharest is in a region of Europe considered to be earthquake-prone. But whether the trouble of the moment is social or seismic, Nicole finds assurance in the book of Psalms, especially Psalm 46, which she remembers in English by the first phrase, "God is our refuge and strength." The psalm adds that God is "a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."

On the block where she lives

When the communist regime began flattening whole swaths of historic Bucharest in order to construct Ceausescu's "People's House," an immense government complex, the block the Draghicis live on was designated for demolition. There was an old Orthodox church on the block, yet many other churches already had been torn down by government decree. Ultimately though, the nearby church was moved and the block was spared, even though many residents had favored demolition because they would have been given new apartments. "It could be said that the church [and their block] were 'lucky' to be spared," Nicole said, "but I think it was the power of prayer"—the prayers of many believers, including the Draghicis.

Nicole recalls being healed of illnesses during childhood, when her mother prayed for her. But eventually she found that tangible refuge in God's presence on her own. She'd lost interest in religion during her university years, but in 1992, about the time she was completing a degree in chemical engineering, Nicole began studying the Bible and Science and Health. And this spiritual exploration had transforming effects. "I gave up smoking in one moment," she said. "I just stopped smoking then and there, and I had been a heavy smoker." Here was a chemical engineering graduate proving that the chemistry of tobacco was no match for the force of spiritual growth.

Two worlds, one power

For Nicole, living in one of Europe's developing nations, and working for a geopolitical superpower, have brought benefits and frustrations. At one moment she's grateful for the democratic path her country is on, yet dismayed that for many Romanians democracy at this point seems to mean "I can do whatever I want," regardless of other's interests. That power is seen as something to get and wield, instead of coming from a universal source, to be used for the general good.

"We need to understand that there is actually only one real government, and that is the laws of God which underlie everything"—all that we call good in human government. The challenge of learning and living by these rules of spiritually governed relationships may be the new frontier for Romania and every nation.