On a recent vacation, some friends and I took a lesson on a jet-powered two-seat hang glider called a trike. We took turns and I was second in line to take an hour-long flight with the pilot instructor. It was absolutely amazing, and I was so in awe of the feeling of being like a bird, flying in the open air over spectacular cliffs along Hawaii’s island of Kauai, which is known for its garden-like beauty and lush vegetation and waterfalls.

We had just reached a steep cliff-like area over ridges and peaks when we found ourselves in the midst of a cloud. We started rising higher to find an opening above the clouds, but there didn’t seem to be any break. I began to feel fearful.

At that moment, Hymn No. 81 from the Christian Science Hymnal came to my thought. It reads:

God is with me, gently o’er me
  Are His wings of mercy spread;
All His way made plain before me,
  And His glory round me shed.

Safely onward
  Shall my pilgrim feet be led.
God is with me, and His presence
  Shall my perfect guidance be,

Till my heart that peace inherit
  God alone can give to me.
His all-power
  Helps and heals, and sets me free.

It was the perfect answer to calm my thought and bring a sense of assurance of God’s ever-presence and protecting power. I had this feeling of God’s protecting presence and peace, and shortly afterward the pilot reached an opening and we found ourselves above the ocean with totally clear skies. We even witnessed the beauty of a whale spouting below us with her baby calf along her side.

Living in San Francisco, I often find myself in cloudy or foggy weather. But all I need to do is go beyond the fog belt to find beautiful blue skies and warmer weather. The blue skies are there all the time; I just need to change my vantage point. Just so, I’ve found that we can rise above darkened, fearful, cloudy thoughts to a more spiritual perspective, a higher vantage point. God’s presence and His Christly messages of health and wholeness are always available to break us through, even at times when doubt and discouragement seem so real. Rising above the clouds of material sense, we discern our God-given joy and dominion as reflections of divine Spirit. As spiritual ideas, we can’t ever be “lost in the fog” or lacking dominion. The power and beauty of Spirit lifts us with the joy and buoyancy of hope and expectancy.

Many years ago I was between jobs and looking for work in the field I had been in for a number of years. During this time, I began experiencing a great deal of pain in my shoulder. The condition persisted for several days, and it started to feel like it was a part of me. I remember calling my Christian Science teacher for prayerful help. He reminded me that God was continuously guiding me, supporting me, and providing me with the necessary steps for my next position. I was reminded that, to paraphrase the words of Isaiah, the “government was upon His shoulders” (see Isaiah 9:6). To me this meant that I didn’t need to be shouldering a sense of responsibility or concern with regard to my next steps, since God governs “every event of our careers” (Unity of Good, pp. 3–4). God was supporting me each step of the way and His plan is perfect and established.

As I prayed, very soon the discomfort left, and I don’t recall ever experiencing it again. I also had a nice job offer within the week from a firm where I went on to work for nearly ten years.

Since then, I’ve looked to this healing many times as an example of gaining a spiritually based joy that can’t be taken away. I was lifting thought above clouds of discouragement and fear to behold God’s purposeful, joyous, and perfect plan for my life. As the Bible says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). This showed me that the search for employment can be a joyous, unburdened, and wonderful time for quiet listening and getting closer to God. I’ve loved this statement from the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, quoting St. Paul: “ ‘Rejoice in the Lord always.’ And why not, since man’s possibilities are infinite, bliss is eternal, and the consciousness thereof is here and now?” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 330).

I’ve had so many healings in Christian Science as a result of focusing on what God is, and on what I am as His spiritual idea or reflection. I love the promise of gaining a more spiritual perspective of our lives and our purpose. This assuredly brings us rewarding opportunities, peace, and confidence in God’s care for us. Mrs. Eddy wrote, “. . . I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth,—called error, sin, sickness, disease, death,—is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit” (Science and Health, p. 108).

Clouds of discouragement cannot get in our way as we recognize our real identity as ideas of the one Mind, forever guided by Mind’s intelligence, wisdom, and unerring direction and purpose for our lives. God’s law of love lifts us above the fog to behold the beauty and joy of a spiritual sense of being. In the Bible we read this promise in the book Ruth: “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust” (2:12).

I’ve often thought about that hang-gliding experience, and about the feeling of breaking through the bank of clouds into the sunlight. It reminds me of how we joyfully soar above the mists in our lives by finding our God-given joy and fulfillment as His image and likeness. We really do find ourselves soaring “on upward wing” (Mary Baker Eddy, Poems, p. 4)!