Dealing with fear and uncertainty through prayer—Tim MacDonald's replies to chat questions

During the live audio chat with Tim MacDonald on September 8, 2005, technical difficulties blocked questions submitted by listeners, and Tim wasn’t able to answer them. Afterward, the questions were retrieved and Tim graciously offered to respond to them in writing.

Since these questions were submitted at least in part to what people were responding to during the live chat, you’ll want to read the chat transcript or listen to the audio replay (see link at the end of the page) to get a fuller picture of the ideas being communicated here. A few editorial notes in the questions and answers below are also meant to provide clarity.

How does one know, without doubt, when faced with the issue of fear or uncertainty, that we are receiving divine guidance, and are not following our own will (thoughts or desires)?—Lois in Eugene, Oregon, USA

As we allow Life, Truth, Love, Mind, Soul, Principle, Spirit (the wholeness of God) to lead our every thought, word and action, then it is not us with minds of our own deciding what to do or how to do it; it is obedience to God that is leading us. We can do this in the midst of fear and uncertainty and know that our obedience will keep us on the straight and narrow road that leads to healing.

Would like to ask how or best way to always stay focused on God and not let the world pull us away with everyday issues—Jerry in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

By taking time to pray for ourselves each day, we are able to have dominion over the aggressive suggestions that would claim an existence and power apart from God.

When I say praying for ourselves, I do not mean only reading the weekly Bible Lesson or going over certain favorite references from the Bible or Science and Health that we have memorized. There is the need to go into our mental closets, shut the door on material reasoning and listen for inspiration that comes as we yield to the allness of God conveying Himself to the whole of His creation—Life conveying itself, Love conveying itself, Truth conveying itself. This reality will fill thought and exclude error, or evil, from claiming to exist at the same time.

As we allow only this firm foundation of reality to occupy thought and as we refrain from following any line of reasoning not in accord with this reality, we are now standing porter at our door of thought and excluding that which has no reality. That which is not present in thought cannot have an appearance in the human, since the human is a picture of thought at any given moment.

I’m thinking of preparing for possible hurricanes with some supplies like camping fuel, water filtering equipment, etc. Is that not trusting God?—Anonymous

If we do not yet have the ability to have dominion over storms as Jesus demonstrated, then we must do that which is in closest obedience to our present understanding of God, Mind. Mrs. Eddy reminds us in Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, “Wisdom in human action begins with what is nearest right under the circumstances, and thence achieves the absolute” (p. 288 ).

This may have been addressed, but how does one more effectively “turn away” from material claims that seem so strong (such as in the case of natural disasters, acts of terrorism or even seeming personal tragedies)?—Lois in Eugene, Oregon, USA

In turning away from error, which is a term Christian Scientists use to describe various forms of evil, we are really replacing it. All of us are thinking all of the time. There isn’t a moment when we aren’t. It is not a matter of doing more thinking as much as it is a matter of disciplining our thinking so that we keep it centered upon God and not upon mortality (an ignorance of God).

It’s important to discipline thought and keep it from the tendency to wander. Each of us has inherent power from God to keep our thoughts centered on God, good, and we have to affirm this daily. The human, as a picture of thought, evidences this God-centered thought more and more clearly and we see a clearer view of identity, health, purpose, provision, home, family—all that comprises our existence.

Jesus, through keeping his thought one with God, was able to still storms, feed the multitudes, walk on the water, heal the sick and sinner, raise the dead.

I’m struggling so much now with fear in regard to what the future will bring. Do you have any recommendation for letting go and letting God, because I’m surely not finding it on my own—Heather in Austin, Texas, USA

God is complete, whole. His creation, therefore, must be complete and whole. It always appears to be fresh and new because of its infinitude, but it is complete and whole. Because God is complete, whole, good, we know that the outcome of all creation must be good. We have nothing of which to be afraid or apprehensive.

Now, this is not meant to be a simplistic answer. It is an answer based upon absolute Truth. Truth is able to be understood and lived. While ignorance of Truth might say this can be a daunting task, it can be done. And we are safe and secure within the truth of all things even as we are gaining a more complete understanding of what Truth entails.

Since God is eternal and since eternity is real instead of the ignorance called time, past and future are forms of ignorance of God’s eternal nowness. Thoughts of the past and of the future are present thoughts coming to us, even though they may be couched in the past or future tense. They are thoughts coming to us now—now is when we are aware of them or thinking them. And, in obedience to the truth of God as we understand it at any given moment, now is when we are able to answer these thoughts with Truth and have dominion over them.

Mrs. Eddy’s thoughts in her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, are most helpful on this subject. She wrote: “It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man’s real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. It is ‘as a tale that is told,’ and ‘as the shadow when it declineth.’ The heavenly intent of earth’s shadows is to chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and happiness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being.

“The awakening from a false sense of life, substance, and mind in matter, is as yet imperfect; but for those lucid and enduring lessons of Love which tend to this result, I bless God.

“Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. To this end, but only to this end, such narrations may be admissible and advisable; but if spiritual conclusions are separated from their premises, the nexus is lost; and the argument, with its rightful conclusions, becomes correspondingly obscure. The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged” (pp. 21–22 ).

[In your remarks during the chat, you said] you decided [after a period of questioning] that God does exist. How did you come to that decision?—Mary in Seattle, Washington, USA

It would be difficult to put into the few words I am able to share here what took place over the period of a year or more. In short, I realized that the truth about everything exists, and God is the name we have given to everything that is true. Each of us finds his or her own path to that answer because the answer is there.

You might enjoy the third chapter in a book entitled A Century of Christian Science Healing. That chapter is called “The Horizon of Healing.” It may give you some further thoughts with which you can work.

As I write this I am sitting in the palace once occupied by Saddam Hussein. I could use some advice on how to apply prayerful thought to deal with the terrorism and uncertainty that surrounds me. The roots of the social, religious and political issues here go back hundreds if not thousands of years. Solutions seem impossible—Ken in Baghdad, Iraq

Much of what I have been sharing in answers to previous questions centers around the power and dominion we have over mortality (past, present and future) as the effect of understanding the truth of our identities as children of God.

On page 8 of Unity of Good, Mrs. Eddy poses the question: “Is anything real of which the physical senses are cognizant?” Part of her answer is: “Everything is as real as you make it, and no more so. What you see, hear, feel, is a mode of consciousness, and can have no other reality than the sense you entertain of it.”

That quote, coupled with a previous reference from Retrospection and Introspection that I mentioned in my answer to Heather [above], gives us a greater feel for the dominion we have over mortality. This dominion is not a personal dominion as if we have minds of our own, but it is a reflected dominion based upon the fact that the truth of God precludes error in all of its forms from existing. It is much like 2+2=4 precludes all wrong answers from existing.

In explanation of the Biblical statement that man has dominion over the world, Mrs. Eddy wrote in Science and Health: “The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. ‘Let them have dominion.’”

How does one deal with both fear and uncertainty when one has prayed for a long time about a problem that has not yielded?—Carla in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Jesus shared many things with his disciples that hinted at the basis of his healing work. This included how to handle thoughts of ineffectiveness.

For instance, when the disciples were presented with a man’s son who had what might currently be called epilepsy, the disciples couldn’t heal him. The father then took the son to Jesus and Jesus was able to heal him. When asked by the disciples why they couldn’t heal him, Jesus replied that “this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting”—faith.

Here are some references I’ve found helpful to my prayers:

Prayer by a growing understanding of God; an unselfed love: “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, —a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love” (Science and Health, p. 1 ).

Fasting by refraining from admitting the claims of the senses: “When his disciples asked him why they could not heal that case, Jesus, the master Metaphysician, answered, ‘Because of your unbelief’ (lack of faith) .... Also, he added: ‘This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting’ (refraining from admitting the claims of the senses)” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 222 ).

Faith by firmness, constancy: “In Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One kind of faith trusts one’s welfare to others. Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one’s ‘own salvation, with fear and trembling.’ ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!’ expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, ‘Believe ... and thou shalt be saved!’ demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.

“The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love understood and practiced” (Science and Health, pp. 23-24 ).

You also might enjoy an article by Joanne Shriver Leedom in the April 1972 issue of The Christian Science Journal, beginning on page 183, and entitled “How long?” You should be able to read it in any Christian Science Reading Room.

How do we encourage non-Scientists to stay positive and less fearful of terrorist attacks when they don’t understand the power of God?—Ginger in Montecito, California, USA

Often, examples will speak louder than words, and be less apt to back someone into a corner where they feel they have to defend themselves. By allowing our neighbors to see the smaller healings, they will begin to understand that there is a law at work that overrides the claim of material law. This begins to open thought to accepting that greater works than these can also be accomplished by this same law. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16 ).

You might also look at the next answer below.

A friend of mine believes that God sent Katrina as a punishment for the immorality occurring in New Orleans. Apparently, this is a widespread belief. How would you address this?—Ming in Grass Valley, California, USA

If sin, sickness, disease and death were part of God’s creation, Jesus would not have gone against his Father’s wishes by healing disease and sin, stilling the storm, raising the dead.

I often ask individuals, “If you had the ability to create all of creation, would you create anything that could hurt or harm that creation?” I think, without exception, the answer has always been “No.” When I ask the individual why, the answer always centers around the fact that their love or wisdom would not allow them to do so.

If we know that our present understanding of love and wisdom wouldn’t allow us to hurt or harm someone or something, then God has to be at least that loving and wise or any of us would be more loving and wise than God. And that just couldn’t be true. So God has to be only good—only a creator of good.

Since God is also all power and All-in-all, there cannot be another power or presence that could create something in addition to God’s creation, or alter or interrupt God’s creation. That which is the opposite of goodness must, by logic and absolute reality, be a form of ignorance of God and His creation; an ignorance that is able to be replaced by truth—to be healed.

How did you deal with the challenges of leaving the Navy, making a major career change to one with little income at the beginning and a wife and two school-age children?—Bobbie in Mesa, Arizona, USA

As with a previous question [see answer to Mary, above], it would be nearly impossible to condense all that took place during that period into a relatively short answer. I can share that, once I realized that God is real and is everything we are taught He is in the teachings of Jesus and of Christian Science, I knew I could no longer waste my efforts in mortal pursuits, no matter how noble they may be.

As I continued to understand the truths of God and His creation more deeply, I also realized that the ability to entrust myself entirely to my Father-Mother was a present possibility and that I could no longer put an intermediary between me and God. It was at that point that I gave up secular employment.

I also knew that God would not require obedience to Him without providing the means by which to be obedient. So questions of supply, family, home, purpose, all had to have their answers in entrusting myself completely to God without fear of the consequences—not a passive waiting, but an active “being” of all that I was growing to understand. That included an absolute conviction that all of this could be demonstrated now. It was simply a matter of doing it and doing it and doing it. Failure or discouragement were not options with God, therefore, I knew they were not options with me.

Out of that understanding, obedience and conviction came the answers for which I was looking and the human, practical appearance of those answers that met our needs right where we were at any given moment.

How do you deal with the gnawing fear of relapse or additional harm?—Elizabeth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

No matter the form error would take as it presents itself to thought, it has to be a lie about the allness of God and His creation. That being the case, I treat such aggressive thoughts as lies and find the truth that is able to replace them.

The things mentioned in the question are predicated upon the premise that there has to have been an already existing problem. That incorrect premise brings error into the conclusion, no matter how long we pray or how diligently we pray. So one of the foundational parts of answering this question is to start from a correct premise—man is not flawed, and we are not trying to use Christian Science instead of material science to unflaw him. Man is perfect and we are using the teachings of Jesus and Christian Science to understand that truth so deeply and thoroughly that we cannot be taken in by a lie.

According to the question, error has built at least three other lies upon that one primary lie or false premise: fear, relapse, additional harm. All of these are addressed thoroughly and individually by becoming more acquainted with the truth(s) that replace each.

As Mary Baker Eddy put it in her book, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: “You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so. Christian Science is absolute; it is neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it; it is at this point and must be practised therefrom. Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration. By this I do not mean that mortals are the children of God, — far from it. In practising Christian Science you must state its Principle correctly, or you forfeit your ability to demonstrate it” (p. 242 ).

The anticipatory anxiety over illness/death I find physically and mentally overwhelming. Much of the day is spent in prayer and reading but if one is unable to get relief from anticipatory anxiety or of demonstration of other minor ailments how can one have confidence for dealing with the actual event itself?—Anonymous

As I pray for myself each day, I have to ensure that I am not just talking with error. If I truly am working for myself, then I won’t find myself dwelling in anticipatory anxiety. If I do find myself dwelling in that or any other thought that I know is not true of God, then I stop that line of reasoning the moment I recognize it and replace it with what I do know to be true of God and His creation.

Such work is not ignoring the problem. Ruminating about the problem is ignoring it. Disciplining thought to reason only with what I understand to be real and true is actually bringing the answer to bear upon the problem.

At some point, all of us have to realize that our metaphysical work is not for the purpose warding off evil or of holding error at arm’s length so that it doesn’t touch us (even if it appears to be touching someone else). Our work is to understand that error is nothing. And we don’t want to waste any opportunity to do this by daydreaming about “What if ....”

Error’s only claim to reality is the momentary time we give it in thought. If we refuse to do this, error doesn’t wait out there for a better opportunity. If error is not held in thought, it does not exist. Anywhere.

Or, as Mary Baker Eddy put it in Unity of Good: “What is the cardinal point of the difference in my metaphysical system? This: that by knowing the unreality of disease, sin, and death, you demonstrate the allness of God” (pp. 9-10 ).

And in Science and Health: “The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in order to prove the somethingness—yea, the allness—of Truth” (p. 346 ).