Confronting Error

I’m very grateful for all the life lessons that I have learned here in this church through Christian Science, and many of them with the help of our practitioner and teacher, Mrs. Doris Evans. One of the things that was perhaps more difficult for me to learn, but definitely important to learn, was that there is a battle going on between good and evil — or so it seems to be going on — and we are part of it. We need to make sure we’re fighting on the right side if we want to have a successful and fulfilling life, and see the allness of good, the Allness of God. Well, this idea that we have to fight for what’s right was something I really didn’t appreciate before I came to this church. In fact, when our teacher first told me the importance of being on the right side of this battle, I didn’t like the idea that there had to be a battle in the first place. I thought it was appropriate to go through life being diplomatic about things and working things out peacefully. I couldn’t have been more wrong. As a result of that attitude, I had some serious problems in my life, being incapable of confrontation.

So, I had relationships with people in my career, and other places, that were just not healthy. It was all because I was far too willing to be soft on things that were wrong, and not fight for what was right. I was more concerned about not hurting people’s feelings than whether or not right was being done. Now, this battle is the Lord’s, it’s not personal. This was something that I had to learn. I had to learn to be one hundred percent obedient to God, to what is right, and not fear the consequences. I began to realize that this attitude of mine was an extremely selfish attitude. I was more concerned about my own well-being, or what people would think of me than anything else.

Then, I remember very well waking up one morning a changed person. I realized, yes of course, there is a battle going on, and I have a responsibility to stand for what is right if I am going to have a clear conscience. As I did that, a lot of problems that I had with facing confrontations were healed quickly. I have become more confident that God is in control of my life, and I have certainly found a peace that I didn’t know before this. I’m not so concerned about people’s feelings anymore. If there’s something going wrong, I am not afraid to speak up, out of love for them. I have learned, and am learning, that evil really is nothing, but it needs to be destroyed as a belief, and it gets destroyed in our own consciousness first. So, I am thankful for this lesson. It has changed my relationships with a lot of people, and changed my attitude toward a lot of things for the better. I am grateful to Mrs. Evans for helping me see what I needed to do, and I’m grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for standing in the heat of the battle before us, and winning it, and making this Truth available to the world.