Whatever Is Said in the print or broadcast media can have tremendous influence. For example, last year fear swept financial markets everywhere when the media focused on the financial troubles in Asia. Some reports were balanced, but others were not and engendered fear. Then the emotional responses to the news became news.
As I felt myself being pulled into it all, I remembered some friends in what was formerly Yugoslavia. Years ago, I was visiting them during a time of great economic strife. Their currency was losing value daily. My friends, however, told me that they were now eating better than they had in years! The communist government was allowing people to grow food on their own land. More than 90 percent of the food eaten in their neighborhood, they judged, was grown within a few hundred feet of the dinner tables. Remembering this made me realize that there is often much more to a news story than is apparent in the headlines.
"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low." Isa. 40:4 These words from the Bible can encourage us to be less willing to ride waves of emotion. The valleys and mountains—the lows and the highs—of human fears and joys reported in the news need not determine our peace and stability. We can think for ourselves, and be spiritually perceptive as we read and watch the news.
The Bible states, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation." Dan. 4:3 We need to understand and affirm the presence of God's "everlasting kingdom." This is not to ignore the media's reports of panic and evil but to help bring healing to troubling situations. It's important that we cultivate a more farseeing perspective. A perspective that acknowledges the uncontested presence of perfect divine Spirit, God, and man as God's spiritual image, governed by His law of good. This is a healing perspective. It is the true nature of being.
It's important that we
cultivate farseeing,
spiritual perspective.
What will realizing this truth do to help in the midst of panic? To behold the truth as truth, knowing with conviction that God and the goodness of His kingdom, in which we all live, are everlasting and the only reality, brings the power—the law—of God to bear on any situation. The motto of The Christian Science Journal is "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." II Cor. 10:4 To pray, mentally beholding the permanence and power of divinity, is to use our best weapon. Insightful prayer reveals the infinite spiritual goodness already present regardless of reports to the contrary.
Even amid the cacophony of worldly emotion it is possible to sense spiritually the presence of God and His perfect spiritual creation. God is infinite Mind, unbounded Spirit, and is enveloping you right where you're reading this. Because God is infinite, He is the only real power in anyone's life. Through prayer we can feel that power governing our own thought and experience, and recognize its supremacy in every corner of the globe. Such prayer makes a practical difference in world affairs, helping to quiet human emotion and bring solutions to light.
Prayer helps
to bring
solutions
to light.
The true selfhood of each one of us, as Spirit's expression, exists intact eternally. Generally, the world believes that man is a material shell subject to everything mortal—time, pain, hate, fear. But that is a false, limited perception of creation. All along, the true man has been 100 percent spiritual, safely reflecting divine Spirit.
It's possible, and normal, to look to God to know what's actually going on in His creation. Doing so, we find there is something new to learn each day. Each day we can learn in a fresh way not only that "one with God is a majority"—because God is supreme —but that one with God is a monopoly. A monopoly of good that blesses everyone.
Even a small understanding of the exclusive power of God helps bring balance and healing to frightening media reports. "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good," writes Mary Baker Eddy. "God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.
"Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government." Science and Health, p. 393
The Apostle Paul, referring to hardships that were awaiting him, said, "But none of these things move me ...." Acts 20:24 Even when the commotion of news is itself news, we need not be carried along on the waves of emotion or pulled down by their undertow of fear. We can contribute constructively by staying above it all, starting from the standpoint of God's allness and of man as God's perfect, spiritual expression.
(Mark Swinney is a contributing editor.)
