UPFRONT September 8, 2008 Issue

Shine a light on it!

INGRID PESCHKE, MANAGING EDITOR

Thinking about our cover topic this week, I remembered the vivid image of floodlights in a park from an article I'd just read in The Christian Science Monitor, "To deter crime, Los Angeles leaves the lights on" (Michael B. Farrell, August 8, 2008). What a brilliant idea. In some of the city's highest crime areas, the L.A. Summer Night Lights program floods parks and recreation centers with light until midnight. So instead of gang members moving into the parks under the cover of darkness, the voices of children are heard laughing and playing. While it's too soon to determine the full impact of this program, the article reported that early figures show L.A.'s lowest monthly total of homicides since March 1970.

There's a spiritual message here, and it starts with following through on good ideas. But how can the average citizen help? Our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote: "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" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). Then the question becomes, How can we each flood our consciousness — especially the dark spaces — with enlightened prayer, so that we effectively prevent harmful thoughts, and in turn harmful events, from ever taking place?

We think you'll find answers as you read on. For example, Elise Moore, who wrote the opening article, proved her safety when she reached out in prayer to God during a physical assault (see p. 6). "Training our innermost thoughts to seek spiritual sense, instead of struggling through the torrent of input from the human scene can take practice," she explains. "But the result is being able to recognize and utilize the law of Love for defense and healing."

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