Article November 26, 2001 Issue

Bring down the walls of division—everywhere

When we resolve our personal battles, the world feels the blessing.

BY Cynthia A. Neely

Sometimes While Reading headlines in the newspaper, I come across an event or circumstance that demands immediate attention. The urgency of the account requires that I stop and pray about the situation. In those moments of reaching out to help another in distress, I've found it's me who is helped the most. These days many people are turning to God, the infinite Mind of the universe, for answers, assurance, and peace. As I sat down recently to pray about the present state of events, I thought of another time when an area of the world was in turmoil. It was when Cambodia was at war with Vietnam.

One day during that time, I was at a prayer meeting at work. The organization I worked for had invited everyone to attend this meeting to pray for peace in Cambodia. We spent ten minutes in silent prayer, and the room was very quiet. In that quietness, listening for God's ideas, I abruptly realized that I was engaged in a warfare of my own—with my boss. Forget Cambodia. I realized that at that moment I had a much greater personal need, that of bringing peace to a situation right in my own backyard. Before I could address the needs of Cambodia—which I sincerely wanted to do—I needed to heal the ongoing battle I'd been having with my boss. How could I promote and support peace somewhere else when I was fighting my own war?

Those ten minutes of prayer turned on the light in my darkened consciousness and made me realize my real need. So what did I do? I mentally held up my white flag and surrendered, right on the spot. I laid down my weapons of self-love, self-will, self-righteousness, and self-justification. In those few minutes, I gave up the mental battle I had been waging against my boss. My war was over. As the meeting ended, I became hopeful and determined that the tense situation between my boss and me could be worked out.

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