Editorial May 13, 2019 Issue

Can an honest inner victory change the headlines?

Tony Lobl

At an interfaith talk in London a few years ago, I heard a Sufi Muslim explain the main meaning of the term jihad in a way that was quite different from what I’d become accustomed to seeing in headlines and news reports. He described it as the inward, spiritual effort to search for God, to shun materialism, and to struggle against the temptation to sin.

Of course, the word has other meanings. Muslims generally would say jihad also refers to self-defence when they are under attack. And there’s no escaping the notoriety the term has garnered through association with atrocities by Islamist militants—both in predominantly Muslim countries and in other nations.

But the idea of the “greater jihad,” as the internal spiritual struggle is often described, is common to most faiths, including Christian Science. And while violent conflict in the headlines can make us fearful and angry, an honest inner struggle—which won’t make the headlines—can enable us to challenge such reactions, until we gain a spiritual sense of “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7, New King James Version). We can do this through seeking and finding God, through rejecting materialism as a lie about everyone’s true identity, including refusing to resign ourselves to accepting the sin we see in others.

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Bible Lens—May 13–19, 2019