Be a victor

Sometimes it can seem as if we live in an age of victimization. We hear about disease, disasters, war, corruption, and hatred. And while our hearts naturally reach out with compassion to those who have been victimized, we may fear that wrongdoing will never end and that we too will become victims. So where do we look for real and permanent help in conquering the wrong?

The desire to be a victor over evil is actually a prayer for good – for peace, security, and health. But to be effective, this prayer must lead us to humbly admit that we do not possess the intelligence or strength to defeat evil on our own and that we must look to a higher source – God, divine Truth.

Christ Jesus showed us that because we are the sons and daughters of God, it is indeed possible to live free from fear. And he expected us to follow him in thought and action on the straight and narrow path of obedience to the commandments to love one God supremely and to love our neighbor as ourself.

On the eve of his crucifixion, which was followed by his resurrection, Jesus lovingly told his disciples, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Certainly this doesn’t suggest that we should just tolerate tribulation until eventually getting into heaven. If that were the case, then what would have been our Way-shower’s mission here on earth? He overcame tribulations and exposed sin, healing body and mind of physical and psychological plagues.

St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (8:35, 37).

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was a true Christian warrior – a victor over sin and suffering – and this Science shows us how to be victors for ourselves and others.

The Christian Science textbook states, “An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in proportion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere. So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which banishes – yea, forever destroys with the higher testimony of Spirit – the so-called evidence of matter” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 128).

This “odor” or atmosphere of Spirit, when breathed in, removes the repugnant belief in life and being as material, and we gain a fresh view of God, Spirit, and His love for us.

My life has been blessed beyond measure through the study and practice of Christian Science. When I was 20 years old, five men robbed the store where I was working and then turned on me. The leader of the gang pointed his finger in my face, and they all yelled as they surrounded me. Annoyed by the finger in my face, I brushed it aside. Then they started punching me.

I felt God’s assurance that I was safe in Him as I stopped trying to physically defend myself. Uppermost in my thought was the first verse of the 91st Psalm: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

I did not hate the men, nor was I afraid. Soon they stopped hitting me, walked to their car, and drove off, leaving me still standing. Although I ended up with a black eye, it didn’t hurt, and it faded away in a few days. But the lesson I learned about God’s love for all has not faded.

I called the police, but also prayed to know that the experience didn’t leave these men where it found them. I had decided to take the stance of a victor, not a victim, by abiding in divine Love, and I knew that had to benefit everyone.

Evil is never the victor. We have the help we need to overcome evil in any form as we turn to God and His Christ for guidance, protection, and healing. Doing so, we will at last gratefully be able to say with Jesus, “I have overcome the world.”

Adapted from an article published in the Feb. 26, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.