Have you ever had someone unexpectedly come up to your face and verbally rip into your integrity and character, state crude falsities about you, totally mispresent your position, swear up and down words unspeakable, and felt he was doing you and the world a justice? I have.

It happened to me at a lecture recently. The event went very well, from my point of view, anyway. Dozens of people expressed gratitude afterward, and joy and peace was tangibly present in the room. But there was one guy hanging in the back of the line of people greeting me that gave me quite a surprise. When everyone else scattered, he came up to me, leaned into my face, uttered a few things and then ripped into me verbally like I’ve never heard before.

The fact that he kept his voice somewhat low, was evidence to me that he unconsciously knew he was out of place, but he felt compelled to tell me how wrong he felt I was anyway. He viciously disagreed with my position that spiritual healing was a legitimate form of healthcare. He was absolutely certain that anything a doctor ordered a patient to do should be followed, without exception, and that I was criminal to talk in public about any option that varied from the doctor’s opinion.

(I just put what he said much more pleasantly in writing than he verbalized it!)

At first I thought he was mentally unbalanced. But I don’t think so, in a conventional sense. He flat out hated what I stood for and could not control his anger and rage about it. He was livid.

There was nothing I could say to him that he would listen to, and I quickly gave up trying. He spoke and left.

I did not get mad or angry at him. That suggestion didn’t even cross my mind. And he did not get me stirred up. It was easy for me to let it go emotionally because I knew he was not sizing me up correctly. Spiritual healing is a very legitimate form of healthcare. I’ve lived it all my life. The benefit of Christian Science was undeniable for me.

But what did not settle quickly for me was how to place the experience in context. What was I to do with it?

Was I to just blow it off? Forget it ever occurred? Pretend like it never happened? I didn’t think so. That sounded like putting one’s head in the sand and ignoring the warrior-enemy running around with a saber ready to chop your head off at the neck!

I was not afraid of him or anything he said. I knew why I believed what I believed, and did not need to talk him into it. He’d have to work his issues out with God eventually.

I did not seek revenge. I was not looking for a continued argument. I didn’t even care to change his mind, necessarily.

So, what was I to gain from the attack?

While waiting in the airport later that afternoon, I found an answer to my prayers in Science and Health.

Eddy wrote, “Never fear the mental malpractitioner, the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind, tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God is the only power.”

I had witnessed verbal and mental malpractice toward me bigtime. When you put yourself in the public view as I do when lecturing, you become a target for those who disagree with your message. But in the above passage, Eddy was telling me to never fear the malpractitioner.

That was it! That was the lesson I needed to understand better. Never fear the opposition. Never be afraid of those who hate you, despise you, want to destroy you and stop you. Never cower, never shake or waver, never be intimidated, never lose your courage or confidence. God watches out for you and protects you when you are doing His work. You will be a target out of range.

Fear is the weapon of the terrorist. If there is no fear, the terrorist is helpless. His intents, motives and ways fail because he counts on fear to accomplish his purpose of intimidating his target and getting them to bow to his evil desires.

No fear = no foe to fear. Never fear the malpractitioner.

I started to send loving thoughts the way of this man who voiced so much displeasure against me. I had compassion on him. I prayed that God would open up a door somewhere in his life for him to see the benefits of prayer and the power of love to heal. He was worthy of it. He was a child of God too. The malicious views he held were not of God, but he had an inner core spiritual individuality that was of God and couldn’t help but surface someday and replace that mispresentation of truth I had witnessed.

You have to be spiritually tough to survive in the world of spiritual healing, because there are many who do not accept healing through prayer as possible, and want to stop and prevent honest seekers from pursuing that option. And their resistance can get pretty ugly at times. But, don’t be afraid! God is on your side. God is the only true power, and any other pretense to power is destined to fall at the feet of divine Love, helpless and  totally ineffectual.