I'd known the man from a past encounter. The night he called, he asked if I could take him to my Christian Science practitioner office. He said he needed to talk.

When we met, he looked agitated, upset, and afraid. He explained that he was in trouble and talked nonstop all the way to the office. The office building was closed, but we made our way through the first-floor restaurant doors and up to my office on the third floor. No one else was on the floor that night.

He sat down, and when I did the same, he pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at me. He said, "Are you afraid?" Frankly, I was. But I told him that God's love for me and for him was much stronger than any fear he or I might be feeling.

He went on to tell me about the dire aspects of his life—the medical diagnoses and prognoses he'd been given, his irrational fears, and his total inability to trust anyone. He said his mind wandered and often seemed uncontrollable.

I looked at him and said that God loved him with a great love. That God's love moved and motivated him more than any chemistry of the brain. And that he could trust God. I shared with him these words from Mary Baker Eddy: "'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go" (Science and Health, p. 6). I explained that wherever he was, no matter how he felt, God loved him.

At this point, he put the gun back into his pocket.

I felt relieved, and we ended up staying in my office for another hour, talking about Jesus and his love for everyone, and especially for those who needed it most, the discouraged and ill. How Jesus taught his followers to rely on God, particularly in times of greatest fear. I told him of the time when Jesus and his disciples were on a boat. A storm came up and the disciples were afraid. Jesus turned to the wind and sea, and demanded, "Peace, be still." The storm instantly ceased. Jesus must have known that God was right there, even in the midst of this frightening situation, and that His all-power would stop the impending disaster (see Mark 4:35–41).

I told my friend that when he felt his mind was in a storm of confusion, he too could rely on God's all-power to still the storm in his head. He seemed relieved. Then we left the office, and I drove him home.

I've never forgotten that incident, and I think of it especially now when we hear so much about troubled people killing others with weapons of one kind or another. This came to mind as I prayed about shootings that occurred fairly close to my home in February 2008—at a retail store in Tinley Park, Illinois, and at Northern Illinois University. My oldest daughter is in college, and I pray for all college campuses every day. I think about Jesus' complete reliance on God and his stilling the storm. Later on in the New Testament, when Peter was captured and held hostage, there's a telling moment: "Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him" (Acts 12:5). This collective prayer led to Peter's escape.

Now, when I hear about threatening situations of one kind or another, I feel a responsibility to follow the example of that little congregation centuries ago. They may have been afraid, and certainly they were concerned that one of their leaders had been taken against his will. After all, another of Jesus' students, James, had earlier been captured and murdered. But this little group prayed, and prayed without ceasing. And their prayers brought Peter back to them, right to their door.

I have found this counsel greatly helpful when praying: "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 aresafe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited" (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210).

For me, having a mind "filled with Truth and Love" means yielding up all fears, apprehensions, and opinions, and turning to the Mind of God. I ask myself, What is God knowing right now? Wouldn't God know man—all men and women—as His own image and likeness, as a spiritual individuality who inherits the divine goodness? Right where a hating, controlling, terrifying person appears to be, the actual likeness of God is there. As God's own image, this individual must be in his or her spiritual identity loving, intelligent, pure, tender, kind, merciful, honest, unselfish, and unafraid—actually full of divine qualities, not human ones.

Just as frost melts before the warmth of the sun, so the ugly picture of a disturbed individual can melt before this kind of prayer. It may not always be easy to discern someone's spiritual selfhood, especially when news reports show so much discord and ugliness, but this was the kind of prayer that church in the book of Acts offered when Peter was in distress. And it describes how I was praying in my office that night long ago.

If praying in this way is not easy, the need may be to turn more humbly to the love of God. Sometimes one's thoughts have to be cleansed of hatred, fear, and helplessness by a deep divine surge of love that God alone (and constantly) imparts. A mind filled with this love of Love can let go of any feelings of victimization. To love God with all our heart and soul and mind impels going even further—to love others as we love God (see Matt. 22:37). That's what Jesus asked.

In obeying the Christ, God's message of love to humanity, we learn that we can love everyone, and help others when called upon to do so. Reports of hatred and violence are really calls for us to bear witness to the healing Christ—to pray even more deeply to understand God is always here, and that as His spiritual creation, we are each full of divine qualities, neither hating nor being hated.

I believe that praying in this way—keeping our minds "filled with Truth and Love"—will bring about peaceful resolutions to violent incidents, and can help prevent such acts from being committed. And in living these prayers, not only will those praying be less afraid of evil, they will begin to understand that before God's wholeness, evil is nonexistent. It's about praying with the Christ in our hearts—the truth of God's total presence and evil's consequent nothingness. As Science and Health promises, "Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless; ..." (p. 207).

It's a privilege, not a burden, to pray for our world. And I've seen the prayer of pure love disarm fear and anger.

css

This article first appeared on www.spirituality.com.