WHILE OUT ONE NIGHT IN a quiet, rather dark area when visiting another city, a friend and I were accosted by two men with knives who demanded our money. I ran away, but my companion called after me to return, saying the men were threatening to harm him if I didn't. So I went back. When they saw that we had very little money to give they were not happy, and decided they wanted something more. I quickly found myself being held on the ground, a knife pressed against my side by a very large guy who announced that he was going to rape me, and ordered me to cooperate.
Up to this point, I'd been expecting someone to come along, some kind of help to appear. But at that moment it was clear that there would be no human help. I was more terrified than I'd ever been in my life, or even knew I could be. But I'd been brought up in the Christian Science Sunday School, where I'd been taught God's love, care, and protection—that He was the only power, always present in every condition and circumstance, forever ready and able to save no matter what was going on. I'd been clearly taught never to give in to evil, nor even to agree with it, as the Bible promises: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:7, 8). And Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures emphasizes, "Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothingness" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 446).
Although the situation seemed beyond hopeless, and terrified as I was, at that moment I felt something shift in my consciousness. Capitulation to evil simply just wasn't an option for me.
