I heard a yell from across the house: “Mom, there’s a lizard in the family room!” Rushing in, I saw a slender lizard, about a foot long, lounging under a small table, and our middle-school-aged son vociferously expressing his aversion to reptiles. Armed with a broom and colander, I attempted to shepherd this little one back out the door that had been left ajar, but to no avail. As he streaked under a nearby sofa, I knew it was time to call for backup.

About an hour later—during which I’d been standing watch in case our visitor decided to explore the rest of the house—a very calm fellow from Pest Control arrived on the scene. After assessing the situation and retrieving a bright flashlight from his van, he quickly and serenely redeposited the lizard into his rightful habitat in the backyard. “The trick is,” he explained, “you have to shine a bright light directly into the eyes of the lizard or snake, which temporarily blinds and paralyzes it, making it easy to remove.” What a thought! The peace of our home restored, I continued with my day.

That evening, while I was attending our branch church’s Wednesday testimony meeting, it occurred to me that there was a spiritual lesson to be learned from the events of the day.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Christian Science Church, wrote of the activity of evil: “The malicious aim of perverted mind-power, or animal magnetism, is to paralyze good and give activity to evil. It starts factions and engenders envy and hatred, but as activity is by no means a right of evil and its emissaries, they ought not to be encouraged in it” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 213). The term animal magnetism to me means a mesmeric state of thought fixated on the illusion of a power apart from God Almighty, which claims activity or influence in human affairs. Resentment, guilt, fear, envy, terrorism, tragedy, or sensualism, if indulged, can paralyze the normal progression of good in our lives and tempt thought to focus on darkness and negativity.

By reversal, the light of God, beaming with the brilliance of Truth, Life, and Love and illuminating every dark corner of consciousness, paralyzes evil and gives activity to good. In reality, the only animating power in the universe is God, good. Christ Jesus knew this and demonstrated it in the face of his disciples’ fear and a powerful storm. The book of Mark describes the scene: “Jesus was in the stern asleep on the cushion. They awoke him with the words, ‘Master, don’t you care that we’re drowning?’ And he woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, ‘Hush now! Be still!’ The wind dropped and everything was very still. ‘Why are you so frightened? What has happened to your faith?’ he asked them” (Mark 4:36–40, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English).

The Christ is Messiah, or “God with us,” and Christ Jesus fully embodied this ever-present power and comforting presence. God was not to be found in the violence of the storm, and it quieted in the dynamic light of Jesus’ unshakable faith.

It is reassuring to remember that we are not somehow responsible for generating the light of God; rather, we naturally reflect it. Christ Jesus affirmed this for himself individually, and for all of his followers. He said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), and he also told his followers, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Mary Baker Eddy wrote in her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, “Man shines by borrowed light” (p. 57). In other words, we shine because God shines!

But what if one finds oneself in a situation that seems fraught with injustice and fear?

The light of God illuminates every dark corner of consciousness and gives activity to good.

A number of years ago, while a dear friend was working in a tiny country across the world, it came to me quite clearly one day to pray with the Bible verse, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed” (Luke 12:2). Assuming that this nudge had something to do with my friend’s assignment, I obediently prayed. I declared that the truth of any situation must be clearly seen because Truth reveals itself to each individual and in every circumstance. Really, the presence of Truth is unquenchable light, which cannot be extinguished by darkness, confusion, or deceit. I held to that thought—that Truth uncovers and reveals itself in human affairs—until I felt at peace.

Several days later, I received a call informing me that this individual and a co-worker had been accused of committing a crime and had been unable to establish their innocence. However, during the intervening days others had come forward, and the real perpetrators had been uncovered. 

How grateful I was for the light of God, Truth, which paralyzes the activity of evil and thereby establishes innocence and perfect justice. This light dispels hatred, sensualism, resentment, guilt, self-will, fear, and disease, and gives activity to good.

The well-loved Bible story about Elisha, a prophet of Israel, further illustrates this healing transformation. When Elisha’s servant awoke early in the morning to see the army of the king of Syria surrounding them, Elisha quieted his alarm with these words: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (see II Kings 6:16–23). Then, with prayer-opened eyes, Elisha’s servant perceived the army of heaven, the “horses and chariots of fire round about” them. You might say he was enlightened by the truth of God’s ever-presence.

Most interesting, though, is the follow-up to this awakening. The Bible says that Elisha prayed to God, “Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness,” and the invading soldiers became blind. Is it possible that they, too, were suddenly aware of the army of God, and that the brilliant light of His saving power blinded and paralyzed them, thwarting their malicious purpose? The story concludes with the now docile forces of Syria being sent safely home, and the Bible notes that “the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.” Malice was neutralized, peace was restored, and all were blessed by the prayers of one prophet, who shone the reflected light of Truth in the face of impending evil.

World events—including acts of terrorism, epidemic disease, violent storms, and economic woes—call each of us to consecrated, spiritual, scientific prayer in order to lift humanity out of darkness and suffering to the healing power of God’s presence. These words, part of a favorite hymn, offer beautiful hope and benediction as we strive to witness more fully this light of God paralyzing evil and giving activity to good: