Iran and a path to peace
Eight countries (including Syria, Iraq, and Iran) share borders with Turkey. Under the current government, Turkey’s policy for peace and cooperation in the region has been to have “zero problems with our neighbors.” This is quite a tall order, especially since Iran continues to increase its nuclear capability and some day may build its own atomic bomb.
There were no nuclear weapons in Jesus’ time, but there were breakfasts! And if we were to host Jesus for breakfast and ask him how to have zero problems with our neighbors, he might focus on something like “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19, New Living Translation). Even though Jesus lived in a nonnuclear world, he was advocating a radical kind of defense, a spiritual weapon that is more powerful than anything mankind could ever come up with, either by splitting hairs at peace talks or splitting atoms at weapons plants. This absolutely supreme weapon is divine Love.
If our next breakfast guest were St. Paul (who also lived in a pre-nuke era), he would probably describe this weapon “of our warfare” as “not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.” He might tell us that it works by “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4, 5 ). His missive speaks not of missiles, but of humble prayer. Every thought that obeys Christ, that genuinely loves all humanity—including one’s immediate neighbors—as God’s innocent offspring, is a sure defense against any evil thought that would try to enter individual or collective consciousness and get a strong hold.
Every thought that obeys Christ, that genuinely loves all humanity, is a sure defense against any evil thought that would try to enter individual or collective consciousness and get a strong hold.
Fear is one of the weapons the carnal mind (the opposite of divine Mind) has in its arsenal. The carnal mind would use its weapon of fear in order to bring us into captivity to its evil ways and means. If we were to invite Mary Baker Eddy (who lived in near-nuke time) for a breakfast interview, she might start by telling us not to be afraid. It’s likely she would remind us, “Fear is the weapon in the hands of tyrants” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 99 ).
To fearlessly face down fear and destroy it along with the carnal mind, which claims to have a strong hold over our consciousness, we can put Christ Jesus’ neighbor-loving law into our prayers, words, and deeds. We can trust with all our heart, soul, and mind that divine Love’s law of universal love is effective and more powerful than any other so-called law or weapon of the carnal mind. We can look to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection as the perfect proof that prayerful affirmations of truth and denials of error (evil) destroy hatred of the truth and calm fearful thoughts.
As Mrs. Eddy learned when she discovered Christian Science, or the laws of God, we can safely abide in the oneness and allness of Spirit, infinite Mind, divine Love, because they reveal the absolute nothingness of matter and evil. Matter, evil, and would-be evil-doers may try to claim to be all-powerful, and in control, but divine Love has already proved their impotence and unreality. As the image and likeness of divine Love, we too can destroy the stronghold of any seeming power, presence, or reality of evil in thought, which is the only place it can ever seem to be. As we hold strongly to the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God, we are sure to witness outwardly the effect of that strong hold: perfect peace.
The next time you have a breakfast interview with yourself here in “real-nuke” time, ask if your thoughts about your neighbors (next door or far away) are holding strongly to God’s law of impartial, universal love. It’s the sure way to have zero problems with your neighbors, who are never tyrants wielding fear but always God’s children yielding to Love. Seeing ourselves and others in this way makes for good neighborly relationships. This is our desire. This is our prayer.
