The sweeping nature of Love

Like fish in the ocean looking for the water, sometimes evil would blind us to the good already around us.

Evil is not power.  That's a pretty big idea to take in. The world's stage plays out the drama of good and evil daily, so how can we make this claim?  It's been made before. Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer and founder of Christian Science, wrote "Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. " (from Science and Health p. 102)

But have I ever experienced this phase of nothingness? I think we all have in some degree.  One time, I had a disagreement with a neighbor, but I refused to give in to anger and self-justification.  Instead I deliberately decided to love this individual and to do something kind.  The result?  We became good neighbors for years, until we moved!  A small thing perhaps, but looking at it more closely, I saw that evil - showing up as anger - could only be acted upon if I agreed to it.  And if I agreed to it, it would only become more self-destructive.  No resolution toward peace would have been made. But as I agreed to something good, my actions took on a meaningful and multiplying influence that lasted.

So what happened here?  What principle of peace was operating? Is it that goodness is the only power and that evil is a supposed vacuum needing to be plugged in to a power source in order to have influence?  Evil is not a power source as it has only the power it is given.  So when we are deliberate about not giving it power, not entertaining it, not fearing it, we feel the Love that is already there.

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To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. 
                                                                 from Science and Health p. 428

Evil would blind us to the good already operating.  Taking on the identity of a person or place or a thing, it may appear frightening and insurmountable.  But we can choose to detach evil of any identity.  Evil, unplugged, no longer has influence.  Once the fear is gone, only what is real, substantial, harmonious -- all that is sustainable -- fills consciousness.  We then feel the divine energy of Spirit, the calm strong currents of true spirituality and are at peace.

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration 
of divine Spirit and to God’s spiritual, perfect man. 
from Science and Health, p. 99