by David Evans
On the sixth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC, a new videotape of Osama bin Laden surfaced. In it, he called for a caravan of martyrs to follow the men who carried out those attacks.
A caravan of martyrs to kill themselves and innocent people for some poorly defined and unattainable goal? Uh . . . not for me. But how about a caravan of healers to help people and solve problems? I like that idea. And each one of us can be part of it.
This caravan of healers is already rolling. A report in The Christian Science Monitor notes that many people are trying to turn September 11 into a day for doing good deeds for others. For instance, 100 volunteers from New York are traveling to Texas to rebuild a house destroyed by a tornado last December. Students at a middle school in New Jersey are donating food to those in need. And, perhaps simpler but no less needed, one fellow has pledged to make eye contact with and smile at everyone he meets.
All good stuff. But a caravan of healers can go beyond rebuilding houses and donating food, as important as such activities are. We can actually help defuse the thought processes that hijack people into terrorism.
How can we do this? By doing our best to see everyone, ourselves and others, as God’s expression.
“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness,” we read in the Bible (I Thess. 5:5). And then there’s this: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. . .” (I John 3:1). These and other Bible passages make it clear that we’re all God’s children and that we’re all the recipients of His overflowing love.
A variety of folks throughout the centuries have joined the caravan of healers with some grasp of these spiritual facts. There’s Jacob, who overcame a longstanding rift with his brother, Esau, because, as he explained to Esau, “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God. . .” (Gen. 33:10). Elijah successfully thwarted enemy attacks and kept his own king from slaughtering prisoners, all of which led to the end of a war between Israel and Syria (see II Kings 6:8–23). And then there’s Christ Jesus, who walked unhurt through a mob determined to kill him (see Luke 4:28–31).
Another event in Jesus’ career deserves mention here. He once was confronted by a fellow who was overcome with destructive material ways of thinking; no one could control this guy, and he was even destroying himself. But Jesus cured him in an instant. The mortal ways of thinking that had been controlling this man were dispelled. As the biblical account notes, then he was “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15).
Like Jesus, Elijah, and others, we don’t have to be impressed by evil, however powerful and out of control it may appear to be. We don’t have to accept that evil minds are out there hatching all kinds of terrorist plots. We don’t have to accept that destructive thinking is the fact about anyone or that it can control anyone. Sticking with the spiritual fact that we all express God, the divine Mind—that we’re all children of the light, not of darkness—we can help put others on an even keel too. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, explains, “Holding the right idea of man in my mind, I can improve my own, and other people’s individuality, health, and morals. . .” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 62).
All this can be a basis for our own good deeds. As we go about our daily lives, we can refuse to accept any notion that people are controlled by anything except the Mind that is God. We may not always be successful—mortal ways of thinking can seem awfully persistent—but we can do our level best to keep our thoughts aligned with God and to let Him pull them back into alignment if we find them drifting elsewhere. We can count on this divine help. As the Bible puts it, “. . . God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (II Cor. 9:8).
We can do the spiritual good deeds that can have significant results for us and our world. This way, we’re part of a caravan of healers that stretches through the millennia.
Mrs. Eddy writes, “Christ’s Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God” (Science and Health, p. 271).
“. . . uniting all periods in the design of God”—a design of goodness and love that includes everyone and excludes none. That’s a caravan worth joining.
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I think it’s worth the effor tto jump on that caravan, but it can be discouraging to see so many problems in the world. How do you get around that?
I know where you’re coming from, Lissa. Sometimes it can be discouraging to see so many problems. But each time I look out the window I see a flat Earth. I must have seen it a million times now, but even if I see it a million more times I’ll never believe that Earth really is flat; I know it’s round, and I’ll stick with that. Likewise, I know whatever problems I see aren’t really true either, even if I see a million of them. I can do my best to stick with God, Love, and expect spiritual truth to have tangible human effects. As that verse in Hebrews (11:3) says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” And there’s this in Science and Health (p. 311): “Matter, sin, and mortality [and their problems!] lose all supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelligence. But the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by these phases of mortality.” I also like Mrs. Eddy’s question “But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” (Science and Health, p. 563).
Evan Mehlenbacher’s blog “Does God Need to Know about Your Problem?” touches on all this too. You might want to take a look, if you haven’t already.
I like the idea of a caravan of healers. Shortly after September 11, I thought to myself, “The world doesn’t need any more hate crusaders. For everyone that attempts to break someone down for their own beliefs, I need to bring someone on board to build others up.” Six years later, I can’t say that my efforts have been daily manifested with this thought, but they certainly are motivated by it. I de-escalate violent or intolerant situations by speaking up for peaceful solutions or fair dialogue. I encourage others to work for a positive cause that they believe in.