The lie of evil seems to always have a new name to try to reinvent itself. No matter what the claim is, there is always the same thing behind it-- The lie that evil exists. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Error repeats itself." (SH 28:28) But, even though it seems to repeat itself, that doesn't mean it has power.
I remember, maybe about ten years ago when the swine flu or "H1N1" pandemic happened. It was all over the news. Although different influenzas made news before, this time evil (or the lie that it exists) was masked or disguised as a new name. That year, the name was swine flu. I couldn't turn on the TV without seeing it.
I wasn't feeling well all of the sudden. Because I was in school ten years ago, it was a requirement to be tested if any symptoms occurred. While being tested, I saw the hysteria on the TV in the waiting room. When I was told that the test was positive, I had a choice-- I could mentally freak out about this, or I could choose to pray about this, keep thought calm and on God. I chose the latter. I did follow the protocol and stayed by myself for a while. But, I remember the issue disappeared quickly and did not return. I didn't accept treatment for the issue from the doctor (nor was there one anyways, I believe). From that experience, I learned that it's important to handle the "if" (or however the fear suggests itself to be true). "What if" I get this? Well when it seemed that I did "get" it, I could know the truth about my identity, as God's safe, spiritual child. When these ideas are applied correctly, we are safe and see wonderful results. I saw that "even IF" someone *says* I have the "scariest" claim out there, I can still be safe. This is true for everyone, and this truth applied in prayer has wonderful benefits. This is because God sees all of his children as safe.
It's important to note that we don't have to go through a situation like this to know our safety. We can know it now, because safety is a law of God.
Mrs. Eddy writes (underlines are my own), "If a crisis occurs in your treatment, you must treat the patient less for the disease and more for the mental disturbance or fermentation, and subdue the symptoms by removing the belief that this chemicalization produces pain or disease." That's what I did. I removed the fear, and the mental disturbance. I was shown that I could be calm in tribulation, and unmoved.
We all can feel this freedom today and everyday.
-Elaina Simpson, C.S.
More ideas below: (Underlines are my own) "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited. The self-seeking pride of the evil thinker injures him when he would harm others. Goodness involuntarily resists evil. The evil thinker is the proud talker and doer. The right thinker abides under the shadow of the Almighty. His thoughts can only reflect peace, good will towards men, health, and holiness." (Mary Baker Eddy, My. 210:2–17) "We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection. When this mental contagion is understood, we shall be more careful of our mental conditions, and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's advocate... Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from association. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain diseases should be regarded as contagious, this law obtains credit through association, — calling up the fear that creates the image of disease and its consequent manifestation in the body." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy 153:25–8) "This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the following incident: A man was made to believe that he occupied a bed where a cholera patient had died. Immediately the symptoms of this disease appeared, and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient had been in that bed. (SH 154. 9-11) "If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the mother is frightened and says, “My child will be sick.” The law of mortal mind and her own fears govern her child more than the child's mind governs itself, and they produce the very results which might have been prevented through the opposite understanding. Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought the mischief." (SH 154:9–23) "If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil, since God is omnipresence, how much more certain would be the doctor's success, and the clergyman's conversion of sinners." (Mis. 229:9–12) Have a lovely evening,
Elaina
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