Does God Really Help (Me)?

Does God really help us?

Surely He did after I heard these words in April of 1979: “Rod, you’re fired.”

I worked then for the State of New Jersey, first and second shifts in the Treasury Department Computer Room, with an unblemished record. But I blew it one night in a three-minute act of disloyalty, earning my supervisor’s immediate distrust.

I felt completely distraught. My two-year-old son and young wife at home, all of us, relied on my income. Now it was over, kaput, nine hard years down the toilet through an unforgiveable error of judgment.

But was it unforgiveable? I heard those dreaded words on Friday, and on Saturday I went to my supervisor’s home and begged forgiveness. He listened, but I had no real hope for a reprieve. Back home I prayed, I moaned, I went through scenarios of doom. Only my wife Janet had positive words of comfort.

But Monday I received a call, “Rod, come in.” Immediately transferred to a new section of the Bureau and a new boss, I began afresh what would be another 30 years in the Treasury Department. “Oh thank you Lord!” I said that night, many times over.

I’ve always asked myself since, “What made them change their minds?” Was it my sincere pleading? Or was it God’s intervention?

O ye beloved of the Lord! Beware, beware lest ye hesitate and waver. Let not fear fall upon you, neither be troubled nor dismayed. Take ye good heed lest this calamitous day slacken the flames of your ardor, and quench your tender hopes. Today is the day for steadfastness and constancy. Blessed are they that stand firm and immovable as the rock, and brave the storm and stress of this tempestuous hour. They, verily, shall be the recipients of God’s grace, verily shall receive His divine assistance, and shall be the truly victorious. – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, pp. 17-18.

Abdu’l-Baha addressed these words to the Baha’is, alluding to his inevitable absence and death, and urging them to remain steadfast. I took comfort from them.

Steadfast. Like my wife Janet at the time of my firing and subsequent depression, who said, “Surely Rod, you have skills. You’ll find another job.”

How many times have I called upon God’s unknowable essence to protect me, or us, or our children and others, to help and assist! How many times have I looked within myself for some trace of the traceless Friend, the Supreme Being who helps us all:

Upon the reality of man … He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self.… These energies … lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the lamp…. Neither the candle nor the lamp can be lighted through their own unaided efforts, nor can it ever be possible for the mirror to free itself from its dross. – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, pp. 65-66.

As in this personal example, where did my supervisor’s mercy come from, and his boss’s, and their bosses? It seems to me that mercy, an attribute of God also possessed by humans, “latent,” was at work in my case.

So it is in life. We do not live unaided. By or through God’s will, or by or through His will discovered and opened in others’ minds and hearts, we manage and thrive.

Have you had an experience you attribute to God’s assistance?