Prayer rewards

The Christian Science Sentinel May 15, 2006

Like many teenagers, Mark Evans has nonstop days. He’s an Eagle Scout, captain of his school’s academic team, a trombone player in the marching band, an athlete, and a straight-A student preparing for college next year. For fun? Video games, running on the beach, and hanging with his friends.

But despite his busy schedule, Mark makes time for prayer and studying Christian Science—a discipline he’s found to be key in his life. Mark took the time to chat with the Sentinel’s Ingrid Peschke about this on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Mark, is there any one experience with prayer that really stands out to you from your senior year in high school?

Yeah—my AP [Advanced Placement] English class. The teacher had a negative reputation for giving a lot of work and not being very fair. She seemed to favor the kids who were interested in the same things that she was—like the drama club. Of course, here I was, captain of the band and often needing to be excused from class for band duties. She didn’t look too favorably on that.I tried to see beyond her reputation, but it was difficult. Often, I would stay up late at night and work hard to complete the homework load in her class. Pretty soon, I was having a tough time getting up in the morning to face the day—and not just because I was tired. I was really starting to dread her class.

Finally, I decided the best way to tackle this problem was to pray. My first thought was Mary Baker Eddy’s reference to waking “to the truth of being” in Science and Health (p. 218). I saw this phrase not as literally waking up from sleep, but as another kind of wake-up call. I decided I needed to wake up from my human, limited view of this teacher and really look at her with clarity—just the way God saw her. And God saw her as good and as expressing Him.

I decided to work on loving her—that is, seeing her as the expression of Love, or God. As I consciously did this, I started noticing how much care and concern she actually had for her students. In fact, over Homecoming Weekend she even gave us all a break on homework. That was a first.

Then, a friend of mine and I were playing in the pit orchestra for a school musical during a time she assigned an important essay to the class.

Because of my band commitments, I not only missed class but I also had to turn my essay in late. To my surprise, she ended up accepting it.

For a while, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it in her class. But as my thought changed, my attitude about the class changed for the better, too. And, through prayer, I came out on top—with an A as my final grade. That was pretty cool.

I really like what you said about “waking up” from how you and other students perceived this teacher, to a more spiritual view of her. How else have you seen this in your life—say, with friends?

When I was 13, I switched to a new middle school, and it was tough to make new friends. Finally, I started to get to know a group of guys—and one of the kids in the group was pretty obnoxious. Every day at lunchtime, he would give me a good kick under the table. It was pretty obvious this kid didn’t want me around.

I decided that instead of continuing to think this situation was so serious, I would see the joy in it. Sometimes difficult experiences can seem so mesmerizing—like there’s no way out. And admittedly it had been hard for me to get over thinking how obnoxious he was being. So I decided to insert some fun.

One day I hid a pair of shin guards in my lunch bag, and, just before we sat down to eat, I strapped them on. I was ready for his attack! This time he was the one who was surprised. He ended up laughing with the rest of us—and that was the end of it. In fact, this guy became one of my best friends after that.

What a great story! How do you stay unfazed when you’re facing a potentially daunting experience like that one?

Well, I like thinking about how God is always there for you, loving you—and that takes the fear and worry away.

I had another opportunity to prove this while I was working on my final project to earn my Eagle Scout ranking. I decided to clear a portion of a hiking trail after the hurricanes last year. When my dad and I went out to check the trail before clearing a lot of tree debris from it, we ended up getting lost.

By this time, it was starting to get dark, and my dad even jokingly pointed out a few places where we could spend the night! I suppose we could have given in to that thought, but instead we prayed with the story of Moses and how he was able to lead the children of Israel out of captivity through trusting that God would guide him. I never felt worried. I knew we were doing a right activity—something that would bless others. And God supports right activity. We ended up finding our way out after a few hours.

Thanks for an inspiring conversation. Any other thoughts?

I like thinking about how God understands everyone. No matter what, He loves you and He’s there for you.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Safety, Relationships, School, Friendship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.