‘Fear no ill’

Evan Mehlenbacher | from The Christian Science Journal

Legend has it that a region in long-ago Europe was once terrorized by an evil ogre. This brute of a beast would bully the local villagers—beating them, stealing their treasures, and making their lives utterly miserable. Even the sight of the ogre was enough to send the villagers into a terrified frenzy. So when word came one day that the ogre had been spotted, everyone scurried into hiding, hoping against hope that the tyrant wouldn’t find them.

But on this particular day, one little girl was standing out in the middle of the town square, wondering what all the commotion was about. She had never heard of an ogre, and was curious to learn more. Then, she spotted a hulking monster off in the distance lumbering her way. Even from afar, there was no mistaking the malice in his gaze. But the little girl was not afraid. In her innocence and childlike curiosity, she simply walked toward the beast to offer her greetings.

Just then, the oddest thing began to happen. As the girl got closer to the ogre, he became smaller. As she got even nearer, he shrank even further. Soon girl and ogre were within two feet of each other. The girl looked down at the feared tyrant, who was now no taller than her knee. “What is your name?” she asked. And he replied, “Fear.”

Fear cannot conquer when trust is placed in God.

This story is not intended to belittle anyone’s fears, but it does illustrate an interesting point: As we refuse to be intimidated by fear, we’ll see that there is nothing about fear that has the power to intimidate us. It was not the girl’s immense bravery that brought about the shrinking of the ogre. It wasn’t a display of mere human courage or warrior-like bravado. Instead, it was her innocence and childlikeness that allowed her to see the ogre for what he was—a whole lot of nothing trying to be something. I truly believe that as you and I adopt the same spirit of childlike trust in a God who is omnipotent and All, we, too, can witness each threat getting smaller and smaller—disappearing before the mighty presence of divine good. And more than that, we all can prayerfully contribute to the elimination of fear around the world.

In the face of uncertainty, it’s comforting to know that we don’t have to resign ourselves to hopelessness and despair. God is a present help. And because of this, there is a fixed, indestructible spiritual reality that remains forever intact regardless of what appears to be happening in the world. Storms may stir, malice threaten, and contagion loom, but no hurricane, terrorist, or plague can ever touch, hurt, or harm our common spiritual selfhood and life, which is at one with God.

Christ Jesus conquered fear through an understanding of this spiritual reality. When interrogated and threatened with death by Pontius Pilate during the trial preceding his crucifixion, Jesus told Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above” (John 19:11). Jesus knew that God was the source of his life and his being. He did not fear mortality. He did not fear worldly rulers. And after his crucifixion and resurrection, he walked out of the tomb alive, proving his life and substance to be spiritual, entirely out of the reach of his enemies.

We, too, can face down modern-day threats with this perspective and conviction. When evil swells its claims to intimidating levels and declares, “Don’t you realize I have power over you?” we can answer with a resounding, “No! You don’t have power over me. You cannot take away my substance, my peace, my joy, my sanity. I am spiritual. God is my Life, my health, and my well-being. I am safe. I am protected.”

Uncertainties should be faced with spiritual confidence.

People have no fear of events they consider to be impossibilities. For example, if you were lounging on a quiet beach in Hawaii one sunny afternoon, would you fear a blizzard moving in and ruining your tanning session? Probably not, since snowstorms don’t happen on Hawaiian beaches. Similarly, when you understand spiritual reality to be the only reality, you’re not so afraid of the uncertainties and insecurities of human existence. You can face them with spiritual equanimity and confidence. Knowing God’s permanent goodness maintains one’s peace of mind, calms troubled thought, protects us from alarm, and enables us to say, with the kind of conviction Jesus had, “You have no power over me.”

This is more than just hopeful thinking; it’s thinking rooted in the solid ground of trust in an Almighty God. And it’s what has enabled me to make a conscious choice not to leave the community I live in, where a large portion of the high-level nuclear waste in the United States is stored in huge underground tanks. Reports of leaks, contamination, and minor accidents periodically appear in local news. Experts are working diligently to clean up the mess over the next 40 years. I am not naive or blind to the demand for care and progress in the clean-up program. But I believe that conscientious prayer can protect my family and my community from harm, and also support the needed restoration for the benefit of the whole country. Spiritual reality includes the fact that we live in the atmosphere of all-knowing, all-wise Mind, speaking to everyone. I ]depend upon this Mind to tell me, my family, and others what we need to know to stay safe and at the same time support the work of the program engineers. Progress is being made on the project and our community is prospering.

Vigilant prayer can stop the temptation to lose hope.

In these days of 24/7 news reports, it can take vigilant prayer to maintain a spiritual outlook in the face of alarming events. But it is possible to triumph over the temptation to lose hope and retreat in fear, by knowing the truth about God’s creation. “For right reasoning,” Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence” (Science and Health, p. 492).

So what’s the nature of that existence? It’s spiritual. It’s created and maintained by a God who is Love. Who is good. Who is All. Evil is not a part of God. Evil is not power. Evil does not have a final say. Understanding the omnipotence and omnipresence of God keeps our thoughts out of gloom, maintains hope, and reveals healing possibilities.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous statement “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” could be progressively resolved into “We have nothing to fear, for God is here.” God is omnipresent good, and each of us has a permanent place in the divine kingdom. Our collective prayers to see this can help flood human thought with the light of spiritual understanding that assures people they are not alone struggling against impossible odds. God’s greatness is a spiritual reality that we are all a part of, and we can rely on this genuine reality to sustain us for eternity. We do not have to quiver and run in the face of evil. We can face it down with an understanding that God is in control. We can watch it shrink into its native harmlessness. Knowledge of life in Spirit conquers fear and maintains invincible peace of mind.