Television meteorologists in our city were warning of an approaching hurricane. I prayed when I heard this forecast as I am sure many others did. I recalled that Jesus had once calmed a storm, rebuking it by saying "Peace, be still." Mark 4:39 I also recalled a statement from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. Speaking of the God-bestowed right to turn immediately from sin and to have dominion over wrong through obedience to Him, it says, "If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right." Science and Health, p. 253
Like human lives, storms seem to have a course or direction of motion. But do they have a mind of their own? No. The only intelligence in the universe is the divine Mind, God, the creator of all good. While God has created man as His reflection, God has not created another mind or power to influence, control, or harm any of His creation. I reasoned that if yielding to God could change the course of a human life from destruction to peace, it could certainly help neutralize the supposedly destructive course of a storm.
This idea brought peace of mind until the early hours of the morning, when I woke up, restless and uncomfortable. Asking God for further inspiration for my prayer, I felt moved to look up references to the word tempest in Science and Health. There I found these words: "Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind and not of the immortal. It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, wicked, dishonest, and impure." Ibid., p. 192 In another chapter, the book also states, referring to sin, "It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with midnight and tempest." Ibid., p. 327
