Be the Light: Overcoming Evil with Good

by Paul W. Meier

On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, a deranged twenty-year-old male murdered his sleeping mother, then drove to an elementary school, and in a span lasting only three minutes, killed twenty children and six adult staff members with an assault rifle.

NBC News correspondent Ann Curry offered a shocked and heartbroken nation a positive way to direct their kindled energy, suggesting people perform twenty-six acts of kindness in memory of the victims. The reason for this short book is to try to keep the love flowing beyond this one incident in Connecticut.

The world needs a functional and long term method for responding to evil rather than thinking revised laws or greater firepower will prevent imbalanced people from hurting others. Darkness has never gotten rid of darkness. All the spiritual traditions of the world have suggested the appropriate response to evil is with goodness or love, but few people have adopted or promoted goodness as their chosen method of response.

The author highlights various sayings from the wisdom traditions, redefines evil in terms of immaturity or lack of development of individuals, explains how goodness helps to overcome evil, suggests things people can do to grow in their own maturity, and gives examples of random acts of kindness that a person can use to become an agent for change in the world.

This ebook is dedicated to the families whose loved ones were taken from them in the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 100% of moneys received will be donated to a scholarship fund for financially challenged families of preschool children.

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

I enjoy finding new meanings in the Bible by researching the ancient languages of Greek and Aramaic.

You can see descriptions of each at my blog/website - http://www.prayingthegospels.com/books/

Reviews

[Adrienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very, short and easy read. Paul Meier starts with a horrified event that took place in CT where a 20 year old murdered 20 kids and 6 staff members at an elementary school in December 2012. We know there was a demonic force into play but others would see it as a mental illness in a deranged state that lead to taking the lives of others. The author clearly denotes this as EVIL, and gives various religious doctrine to focus on good or love in which overcomes evil. Therefore, he exemplified on random acts of kindness, and how we have a lack of harmony, peace, and unity. Moreover, he refutes that it is not about gun control, more restricted laws, or even firepower but instead to reach out to those who have an imbalanced mindset (or people who are hurting) is more important. He also tells us to use our brain, but this is like telling someone to use common sense, most evil acts happen based on feelings and emotions that are not under control than using our brains. I also feel it is evil spirits that can overcome our way of thinking, if we allow them to take control, that is why there is a battlefield of the mind. He does give varied examples of random acts of kindness to have a better world.

*I believe I won this book on LibraryThing Early Reviewer. I have the eBook version. This is a free download on Smashwords as well.

[NormaCenva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a fast and pleasant read. Short but straight to the point. It looks into practical steps that when adopted personally can bring immediate change to you and to others promoting acts of goodness.