No Need For Accidents

OFTEN it seems as though everywhere we look there's an accident--whether it is something as minor as a spilled glass of milk or is a major event where injury occurs. Sometimes the fear of having an accident is almost as bad as the experience itself. But prayer can help us no matter what our circumstances are.

As the Bible brings out so well, Christ Jesus turned to God in every need, and his divine Father never let him down. Through his teachings, the Master showed how others could follow his example and experience God's help in their lives. In other words, as you and I learn of our true nature as God's spiritual offspring, we can depend on God's protecting presence as Jesus did. Clearly, materiality is the opposite of spirituality. So to be spiritual is to recognize that our actual and permanent identity is not matter but consists of God-derived qualities such as love, joy, goodness, intelligence, patience, purity.

As our understanding of God grows, so does our knowledge of our spirituality. Man, who is made in God's likeness, is naturally included within the divine creation and is inseparable from God, good. Being inseparable from God's love, this true man cannot have any accidents.

In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes about how to overcome the belief that we might expect to have accidents. She declares, ``Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony."

I had the opportunity to prove that this past summer. A friend and I were standing beside a small river, and the rocks underfoot were pointy and rather unstable in places. At one moment, as I was changing position, I lost my balance. To my dismay, I was unable to recover and fell onto my back with only a heavy shirt to cushion the blow. As a younger person, I had had many back problems and had always been sensitive about my back.

This time, however, my first thought, even as I was hitting the riverbank, was that there is only one Mind and that this Mind governs totally. I felt confident that this meant there could be no accidents, and therefore I could not be injured. I affirmed that I could not be separated from God. After a few moments of praying in this way, I was able to get up with little pain.

My friend and I made a nearly 300-mile automobile trip later that same day, and throughout that whole time I had no more pain. The next morning I experienced no stiffness or other aftereffects, and there were no bruises. I was completely free.

A statement from the book of Psalms in the Bible has always meant a lot to me, and it seemed especially relevant to this experience. The Psalmist sang, ``The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand."

Through my prayers I had been able to see that God was upholding me. Each of us may be challenged to prove this spiritual fact, but with prayer and with our knowledge that God is wholly loving and intends only good for each of His offspring, we will be able to overcome not only the effects of accidents but even the tendency to have them. -PATHNAME- /usr/local/etc/httpd/plweb/DBGROUPS/paper/database/tape/92/sep/day30/30171.