“It’s going to be a long, difficult afternoon. I have to sit side-by-side with this guy for the next hour or so, and he’s got to be one of the most ill-tempered people I’ve ever encountered!” Not the best attitude to adopt at the start of an important television news project.
I was a writer/producer at a station in San Francisco, and he was the editor who had been assigned to work with me. Turning to God in prayer, I remembered Christ Jesus’ admonition to love our neighbor as ourselves (see Mark 12:31). I realize that’s sometimes easier said than done, but considering the alternative, I knew I had to give it a try. Then I recalled Jesus’ statement, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6).
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, amplifies Jesus’ statement in this passage from her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life and Love” (p. 15). In this sanctuary of Spirit, Mrs. Eddy says several sentences later, “We must close the lips and silence the material senses.”
