From the Editors May 16, 2011 Issue

Behind the masks, a single solution

The Editors

Few Americans see natural disasters as a sign of God’s wrath or displeasure with humanity. That’s the finding of a March 2011 survey conducted by the Washington-based Public Religion Research Institute, following Japan’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. At a time when people may feel quite justified in asking, “What more could go wrong?” it’s in and of itself an encouraging sign—that so many realize God isn’t our enemy but our greatest friend! 

Today’s society has ever-expanding, minute-by-minute access to information of all kinds. Much of it is good. But much is focused on those natural disasters—as well as on the wars, accidents, crimes, diseases, and everything else that afflicts humanity. While this keeps us aware, it can also intensify the feeling that this life is a futile act of fending off danger after danger. Whether trouble is mounting in our personal lives or on a global scale, we need to begin countering what seems so out of control with the widely accepted fact that God is good and has all power. Knowing more about Him is always what will best keep us from sinking.   

Fortunately, this doesn’t mean eking out a new prayer for each new facet of each new problem. That kind of numbers game can put evil in the driver’s seat by heightening the appearance that it is overwhelming. Effective prayer must give us the upper hand. It needs to reveal God’s control right where trouble seems to be propagating itself. And practicing the Christ Science that Mary Baker Eddy discovered in 1866, we each have the power to reduce evil in any form to the essential status of a lie—and then correct that lie with the understanding of spiritual truth. 

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