As I sat in my office, I could hear the angry screaming clearly through the thin walls. The same thing had happened the previous afternoon, and the one before—and the one before.

I was working at a small advertising agency, a position into which I’d been placed as a result of much deep, heartfelt prayer to find work. I’d previously worked for a nonprofit company, so the transition to a for-profit company was challenging. But because I felt sure that God had placed me in this position to glorify Him, I quickly and joyfully got used to the fast pace, producing profitable results and bypassing many “rookie” mistakes that might have cost our clients money—or gotten me fired.

I’ve learned that God never puts us in a position where He doesn’t multiply or radiate His blessings to us and to those around us. An immediate blessing occurred in a meeting on the day I was accepted to the position when the company president, a big ex-hockey player whom we’ll call Murray, generously offered to teach me the advertising business. I was shocked but thrilled at the offer.

And he did teach me. Patiently, day by day, he taught valuable business and life lessons that I would later use. But where was the blessing for Murray? I wondered. I was learning that, as the book of Isaiah says, “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever” (32:17)—and as I was about to find out, this would also apply to Murray.

As I settled into my job, I was assigned an office next to his. While Murray was a good family man, with a big heart and an easy laugh, he was also known for flashing bursts of anger. Most of it was leveled at media reps whom he thought incompetent. And when he roared at someone, his voice had a deep volcanic resonance that could be heard and felt through the small building we occupied.

About six months into the job, I began noticing Murray was taking longer and longer lunch breaks. Something seemed to be bothering him, but I didn’t know what. I also noticed he was drinking—a lot—and coming back to the office with a strong smell of liquor on his breath.

When Murray returned to the office drunk (his lunches typically lasted from noon to 3 p.m.), he’d storm past my office, slam his door, pick up the phone, and more often than not, scream at whoever was at the other end—mostly media reps, important vendors, and even our clients. 

One afternoon, after about a week of this, his high-volume, violent outbursts hit a peak. I decided then the drama had to stop. Since I was the trainee, I didn’t feel comfortable confronting Murray about his behavior. But I knew I had to stop accepting this behavior as a normal part of man as God’s expression. So I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me.

As I launched into my story about Murray and his behavior, the practitioner calmly requested that I repeat Jesus’ words—the words he spoke when facing a storm and winds at sea—“Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). She added, “I want you to say those words over and over again, until you can feel them and mean them.”

This was a case of Spirit itself bearing witness to the truth, and I was healed of my fear and anxiety on the spot.

As I put down the phone, I began repeating “Peace, be still” over and over in my thoughts. For about the first 20 times the words were just that—words. But the more I began to consciously feel God’s ever-present stillness and peace, the more at one with God’s peace I became. Soon I stopped repeating the words—they weren’t needed—as an almost indescribable sense of peace settled over me. As I bathed in this God-provided mental state, I began to feel transformed by it. At first, there was a certain mental shift. I no longer felt any connection to my previous judgment, anxiety, and fear, since they simply didn’t fit this new mental state. Next, I was no longer aware of my surroundings, including the yelling and the drama next door, as I felt the certainty of God’s immediate presence. Finally, I felt I was in perfect consonance with the peace of God I was asking for.

“If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth,” Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous” (p. 411). This was a case of Spirit itself bearing witness to the truth, and I was healed of my fear and anxiety on the spot.

In all, I must have been in this wonderful spiritual state of mind for about ten minutes. It was a soft knock at my door that brought me back to the awareness that I was sitting at my desk at the agency.

Standing in the doorway was Murray. He stood there silently, looking at me and scratching his head. He had a curious look on his face that seemed to say, “What just happened?” Well, for one thing, he was calm, cleareyed, peaceful—and no longer drunk. And he also seemed humbled. Actually, we both were.

The rest of the day was perfectly peaceful. But even more wonderful, that was the end of Murray’s drunken outbursts. God’s reflected peace had cleansed our office environment. The other employee never said anything about the new calm in the office—maybe she didn’t know what to say. And Murray never said a word to me about this incident, either. But during the next three months of my employment, before I started my own ad agency, he never again came into the office drunk. Nor did I ever hear him raise his voice to anyone again.

This precious experience showed me that just as the rising tide lifts all boats, so does our spiritually uplifted consciousness lift those around us. I didn’t pray specifically for Murray—in fact, that afternoon I didn’t even focus on him or the drama that was occurring. I believe God knew the true need and the spiritually attuned atmosphere in the office brought Murray’s heart the quietness needed.

In an address to her students’ association in 1899, Mary Baker Eddy pointed out just how one’s mental state affects and blesses others. She said, “Students are morally responsible to meet in themselves any error, and then it will disappear from the patient” (Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Towsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, p. 395). While Murray couldn’t be considered my “patient,” the experience showed me, in line with this, that when I let God’s thoughts flood my consciousness, they elevated me above judgment, fear, and anxiety, which proportionately elevated the office. So whether we’re facing angry people or an adversarial relationship, we can open our thought to God’s ever-present, healing love. Divine Love changes whatever’s out of sync “within,” which in turn changes and harmonizes “without.”