evil is not power

Spiritual resource to share: clarity

"It looks like in the battle of good over evil, evil won again," said a friend deflated by the results of an emotionally charged community meeting to save a beloved project.

"No. I can't leave it at that," said I. "I don't think that is true at all." We talked some more and hopefully shared some comfort, but on my way home, I prayed to affirm what good is all about and what evil is all about.

My favorite author, Mary Baker Eddy, is also known as a reformer and pioneer and most notably as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science.

She has this to say about good and evil:

"Good is not helpless."
"Evil is a mockery of strength."
Evil is not a person, place or thing.*

So how did that help me understand what had just happened?

Good is not helpless. The good that has been done cannot be undone. Those things that have brought life, creativity and growth to others is the most impressionable and powerful force that is present in a person's life.

Evil is not a person. Understanding this gives one the power to speak to the humanity (and I would say the Christliness) in others. Impersonalizing evil defuses its imaginary power until we are no longer impressed with the idea that someone or something can take away our ability to determine our own thought, our own destiny or that someone or something can take away something good.

There are times when a project, a job, a school or a business has to shut down. But the ideas and inspiration that made that project so effective and inspirational lives on. It is the ideas that are good and enduring that keep moving forward.

Both my husband and I were involved at separate times and in different areas, in projects that were truly inspired. The vision of the projects' leaders and of our colleagues was clear and the effects were gratifying and immediate. Then both projects were shut down. What happened was that those who were involved in the project continued cherishing those ideals and spread those values to a wide range of other activities. Both of us experienced a deep sense of grief which was healed when we realized that, like Mary Baker Eddy said, good is not helpless. And we realized that what we accomplished were the seedlings of things that continue to grow and be a blessing.

When a person's motives are based on evil (a false sense of strength) those actions then become either regrettable or forgettable or both. But when a person' motives are based on unselfish goodness, those actions give life to innovation, progress and continuing good. This is what we remember. This is what gives our lives meaning. This becomes the very fabric of life itself.

It isn't in the nature of evil to win anything of substance. Good is the only active power available.





*See MBEddy's Miscellaneous Writings, p. 284.

To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.