At one time or another, most people have probably felt so troubled by a situation or another person that they've sought some place to escape to. A cat chased by a dog may scurry up a tree. A child bullied on the playground may hide during recess. There are certainly times when it seems logical, and often wise, to keep oneself out of reach of danger.
No matter what the circumstances are,
our refuge is always at hand. It's not a bomb
shelter, a life of solitude, a drug, or a drink.
It's the understanding that God, divine Mind,
is the only real presence and power.
But what about menacing thoughts and feelings, fears about sickness, sorrow, death, hatred, immorality? Where does one find refuge from or overcome such enemies?
Simply changing one's location, hiding from evil, or ignoring it is not really the answer. Our refuge is not so much in a location as in the understanding of who we are as God's spiritual creation. This state of consciousness has nothing to do with thinking happy thoughts while trying to drown out the bad ones. It is the refuge of spiritual sense, where we perceive God to be in truth our Mind—all-powerful, loving, and therefore absolutely impervious to evil. And since this Mind is God, infinite All, evil can have no power or substance in His kingdom.
One morning I realized quite clearly that because God is at once All and all-knowing, the only thing He can possibly know is His own infinitude and sovereign power. I reasoned, then, that God knows me as His spiritual idea, man. There was, in reality, no entity or power apart from Him that could know or influence me. With this realization, I lost the sense of being a frail mortal and knew myself at that moment as the very idea of God.
In a poem entitled "The Mother's Evening Prayer," the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes:
Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.Poems, p. 4.
To me, this speaks of being so conscious of the allness of divine Love and its omnipotent law that the various guises of evil, as malicious as they may seem, lose their ability to grip and terrify. In this state of thought we realize that Love is our very Life.
This is by no means turning our back on the many forms evil would assume, nor is it being stupid or callous. Instead, as we become conscious of Love's habitation as embracing man's being, we will see "the snare, the pit, the fall" as powerless. Many episodes in Christ Jesus' career confirm this approach. When he slept peacefully in the stern of a boat during a raging storm, when he passed unharmed through a mob intent on killing him, the presence of his Father's love must have been far more tangible and real to him than the apparent threat.Mark 4:35-41; Luke 4:28-30.
Often it takes tremendous courage to look at the malicious masks of evil and see beyond them to evil's nothingness. But there is no other way to find refuge. Until we stop believing we are mortals trying to become immortal and acknowledge our present status as spiritual children of an all-loving God, we will go on viewing ourselves and others as vulnerable.
One evening I was preparing dinner when my husband went out for a good long run. Shortly after he left I was bombarded with very insistent suggestions that some tragedy could separate me from him. The thrust of these insidious thoughts was so unsettling that I began to feel physically ill. That morning while I was teaching in the Christian Science Sunday School, my pupils and I had been discussing the verse from Psalms "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."Ps. 46:1. As I was praying about my fear for my husband that evening, I suddenly recalled my asking the pupils where they thought this "refuge" was. And I began to think about where I thought my refuge was, since I felt my life was being invaded by this fear and sickness. I reasoned, "Yes, God is my refuge. But how? Where?"
As I thought of God as Mind, I realized that God is my refuge because He is present in truth as my Mind. Not that He is a big Mind off somewhere that I try to reflect, but that as His man I can only know His presence as the very basis and substance of my thought and being. With God present as my Mind, I can have no separate mind that is unprotected and vulnerable. Because Mind is infinite and All, Mind can only know the presence of good, because that is all that constitutes God's creation. I had to be very radical in rejecting the notion that I was a little mortal in a mortal universe, struggling to join God in His. I accepted instead the opposite view as true right then: that man, being God's expression, is His indestructible creation. Certainly if God can't be annihilated, His idea, man, can't be either.
I continued praying along these lines until I was absolutely convinced of the inseparable, indestructible relationship God has to His precious idea, man. I found my peace, and the physical discomfort ceased. There was no longer any fear that danger was threatening me. I was free, even before my husband returned— safely.
No matter what the circumstances are, our refuge is always at hand. It's not a bomb shelter, a life of solitude, a drug, or a drink. It's the understanding that God, divine Mind, is the only real presence and power. Whether the threat confronting us appears to result from our own carelessness or ignorance, from our surroundings, from circumstances that seem beyond our control, or from someone else's malice, the common denominator is a belief in an intelligence other than God, good. And evil seems real and threatening only to the extent that we accept the belief in a mind apart from God, the All-Mind.
Founding our safety on the basis of this Mind takes persistence and consecration. It involves an honest willingness to obey Paul's declaration "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."Phil. 2:5. But as we experience even a little success in this endeavor, we discover a peace that assures us there's no other real basis of security.
