How concerned should we be about crime in our international community? Are local happenings symptoms of global trouble? It may seem odd that these questions bothered me while I was reading about a local police officer who, though off duty, was killed when he helped another officer arrest a criminal. yet the fact is that the city where I live is becoming increasingly international in outlook. This helps to inform my view of the city and the events that take place in it.

So I asked myself: Is anyone exempt from responding to disasters anywhere? Is anyone excused from the moral and spiritual obligation to address crime or other trouble through prayer no matter where the trouble occurs?

Honesty compelled me to acknowledge that blindness to humanity's well-being does need healing. As many people do, I turned to the Bible and found these words very helpful: "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (I Thess. 5:5). For me, a Christian Scientist, this reveals two basic points: Only God, infinite good, defines and determines reality because God is Truth and light. Therefore reality is "not of the night, nor of darkness," and evil (darkness) has to be a mistaken belief about reality.

Then, solutions to human problems must be found metaphysically, prayerfully. Problems aren't hard facts of realities. They are untrue, mortal beliefs. To overcome them, we need to obey Christ Jesus' command "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). What is temptation and how do we avoid it? How do we watch and pray about trouble in our own areas and in the world?

Jesus' teachings give us answers. He is the master Metaphysician for all time. He was so pure and prayerful that he knew God, his Father and his Life, always determined reality. His example urges us to set aside time for prayer that brings us the spiritual conviction that we are "all the children of light" not of darkness. Isn't it reasonable to conclude that God's child—the true being of each of us—can't represent both good and evil? We too must reflect our Father, God, who is man's only Mind, intelligence. We must watch against the temptation to believe that Life is not always spiritual and good. The Bible tells us truly that God is invariable and doesn't include, know, or create evil (see Hab. 1:13).

As we let Jesus' example and teaching govern our thinking, we become so conscious of Truth as Life that existence appears less and less material and more and more spiritual. This illumination of our experience is the Christ the divine light or the presence of Truth, which erases belief in darkness or evil. It enables us to accept the fact that God is the only Mind and He is good. To believe in many minds, then, is to give in to temptation—not to watch against it. But evil in any form, obscure or obvious, has no real identity or power. To believe that evil exists or has power is the temptation.

True watching, then, alerts, and arouses! It means observing, caring about events, being vigilant. I recalled how wisely Jesus watched as he freely moved among the masses of people and boldly challenged ungodlike religious or social beliefs that would deny Truth. He felt the slightest touch or the feeblest yearning. He showed us how true watching includes and induces prayer, energizes spirituality, initiates action, blesses each and all. It advances civic, religious, and global progress.

How do watching and praying achieve this? They lift us out of mediocrity that passively accepts material evidence with its deceptions and limitations. Watching and praying enable us to discover and to be the alert, intelligent, responsive, love-filled man God has made each of us to be.

And as we express our true being, we fulfill the Christian necessity to love others as ourselves. We prove our commitment by responding to human needs. We don't just read about crime, and then forget or overlook our obligation to pray about it.

Heartfelt Christliness commands us to go right to the core of an issue or need. When we listen for God's direction, we'll know the difference between minding our own business, praying specifically about a condition or situation, and offering a cup of cold water—that is, taking human steps to meet the need. This listening often requires some self-searching (even struggle), which may reveal self-righteousness or fear within our own thought. We may have to love more unconditionally, more inclusively, and to step down from our pedestal and be more childlike. Then we behold the all-embracing love of God for His spiritual creation—His perfect spiritual reflection, man and the universe.

Such prayerful watching also makes us conscious of God's universal presence. We begin to see that all true being is secure in God. We see more clearly the undeniable goodness of God and man. When God's nature and His perfect expression, the Christ, are given priority in our thought, we overcome indifference to mankind's needs. We find it natural to pray to see that reality is heaven, harmony, on earth—as Jesus prayed when he said, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).

Finally, does prayer to God, who is Spirit, actually relate to events and the people involved with them? True prayer is powerful because it is scientific. Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, explains the scientific power of prayer when she writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it" (p. 2). And in her Miscellaneous Writings, she says: "God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Nothing: and this is just what I call matter, nothing. Spirit, God, has no antecedent; and God's consequent is the spiritual cosmos" (p. 26).

Learning to know God as "All, in all" reveals "the spiritual cosmos" right here on earth. As we allow Truth to interpret and harmonize events, God's Christ becomes the spiritual catalyst of our lives. We're different—changed—filled with confidence in God's power to lead us all to help and healing. This makes prayer for our city, state, nation—world—a joyful activity. As alert, responsive citizens, and as prayerful patriots obedient to Truth, we are able to fulfill our moral and spiritual obligation to watch events—near and far—with spiritual insight and prayer.

JAMES

Is any among you afflicted? let him
pray. Is any merry? let him sing
psalms. ... The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:13, 16