Views of the news

THERE was the answer. In the Bible. I read, ``In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.'' 1 As a concerned citizen and a Christian Scientist I had been trying to find a balance between compassionately caring, and counteracting the gloom and doom elicited by coverage of a current news item. The Bible passage quoted above prompted the question ``Which will I do? Trust the mental pictures left by screen, radio, and print? Or refuse to `be put to confusion' and instead trust in God, who, according to Genesis, `saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good' ''? 2 Believing in the Bible truths, one tends to put his trust in God, good. We're wise to trust what's true and enduring, to trust our creator, who is Truth itself. This is not to ignore suffering but to discern the spiritual remedy for it--the power of God. Listening to the news, then, doesn't have to lead to confusion. Instead it can compel us to clarify our understanding of God's supremacy. Following the example of Christ Jesus is an indispensable help in this respect. Jesus didn't divorce himself from the human cries for help. When presented--even bombarded--with graphic pictures of distress, he responded with compassion. However, his Christliness rejected mankind's misery as without foundation. Why? Because he understood some important fundamental facts of God and man: that God exists; that He is good; that He is all-inclusive; and therefore that man, as His image, is and has only good. When Jesus applied his understanding of actual, spiritual fact to mankind's misunderstanding, the results made Scriptural history. His was no glib guarantee of comfortable materiality. Rather, his conquering of limiting material conditions assured humanity of God's substance and maintenance. Jesus' God-derived logic left lack, disease, destruction, even death, without validity. Thus, he turned the bad news of blind, leprous, sick humanity into the good news of sight, purification, and healt h. His understanding of God's continuing good enabled him to bring practical help to mankind. Following Christ Jesus' example, we can refuse to accept confusing, frightening pictures as irreparable or permanent. It isn't a matter of looking the other way but of looking another way, from the standpoint of reality as God has formed it--spiritual, perfect. Mankind needs a spirit of hope in order to cope with drear confusion, and each individual effort to magnify the good news by intensifying one's trust in God's goodness and the well-being of what He has made will contribute more to soci ety than will sensationalism. When what is read and heard promotes fear or prurient curiosity, an unnecessary burden is placed on people. As we emulate Jesus, our love for humanity will be expressed in a Christly effort to lift its burdens. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, showed a beautiful balance of Christian caring and spiritual support when she wrote President McKinley's widow: ``My soul reaches out to God for your support, consolation, and victory. Trust in Him whose love enfolds thee. `Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.' `Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.' Divine Love is never so near as when all earthly joys seem most afar.'' 3 Far from ignoring the human need, Mrs. Eddy answered it with compassion and Scriptural authority. Headlines need have no power to agitate or frighten if we realize that decrees of doom have no stature in the universe of God's creating. With the mind stayed on God, trusting Him, one is able to view the news with the divinely derived ability to exercise a healing influence on the day's events. 1 Psalms 71:1. 2 Genesis 1:31. 3 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 290.