Enemies? - or Friends

`WAR has broken out between . . . , said the radio news bulletin, referring to two countries that until recently had been one. It's something that has been happening in all too many areas of the world lately.

It seems, in fact, that our own lives aren't immune. Recently, a friend and I were aware that we differed on a subject about which we both felt deeply. So that we could retain our longtime comradeship, I had carefully sidestepped the subject in our conversations. Probably my friend was making a similar effort. All went well until my friend made a statement that to me was totally inaccurate. My immediate one-sentence response in turn made a point that to my friend was absolutely untenable. We didn't conti nue the discussion, but for a moment it felt as if we were enemies. I realized that more than simply avoiding the topic was required. I needed to pray in order to put our friendship on a firmer basis.

I reread the Bible account in First Kings where Solomon was faced with a seemingly insoluble problem. Two women both claimed to be the mother of a baby. Solomon had been praying wholeheartedly to God for wisdom and as a result was able to see how to decide between them. The true mother was the one who was able to give up her claim to her baby in order that it should not be harmed.

I knew that my friend and I both valued our friendship. And my prayer helped me see that I could give up trying to be the one who was "right. I could instead pray unceasingly to know, as Christ Jesus taught, that God's will be done--the will of that God who according to the Bible is divine Love, the Father of man.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, says of God, divine Mind, in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows. Being totally obedient to God's wisdom enables us to make the right decisions and trust their power. This wisdom is reflected by all of God's children, and as we think of others we need to know that this is as true of them as i t is of us. And this spiritual wisdom can show us how to resolve even seemingly baffling and complex situations, whether between friends or warring nations.

If we see as the result of our prayer that actions need to be taken, we must first make sure that it is not our own will but God's will that is governing us. Mrs. Eddy warns in Science and Health: "Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities. But how safe to be governed by the true will, the will of God! We can love and cherish divine wisdom, operating in every place. Because God is all- powe rful, all situations brought to His wisdom are healed.

My friend and I later sat side by side at a meeting where the situation we cared about so much was discussed. Though we voted differently, we were comfortable in each other's company, trusting that though at the moment we saw things in a different light, each was praying wholeheartedly that God's will should be done.

Our loving Father, God, has infinite good to give to each of His children. Neither nations nor individuals need fear that more good will be given to their neighbor than to them; they do not need to fight to gain ascendancy and hold on to a limited good. God has His own infinitely wise and loving way in which to unfold good, and we can trust our needs to Him, praying always for His will to be done.