'The notion of chance'

The small boy who rang my doorbell was most appealing. He had a shy smile, polite manners, and was offering a wonderful opportunity. For a modest sum I could buy a chance to win an expensive color television set.

''Here's your chance to win, lady,'' he beamed. ''Just one dollar!''

I smiled back but shook my head firmly. ''I'm sorry, but I don't take chances.''

Why don't I? Because I believe my life is based on an unchanging divine law of harmony, on fixed Principle, God, and not on chance.

There are two sides to chance. The chance of making a quick profit, and the chance of losing one's investment. The chance of meeting someone wonderful, and the chance of an unpleasant encounter. The chance of being in the right place at the right time, and the chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The world of chance offers, at best, a roller coaster existence.

Christian Science offers a better answer. Its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, ''Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.''n1F

n1 Science and Health With Key to the scripturesm P. 424

Christ Jesus said, ''I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.''n2 What authority this gave the Master! He based his life on the certainty of divine guidance and law; not on the uncertainty of fate , fortune, luck, or lot. We today can follow his example.

n2John 5:30.

The physical senses portray life as corporeal, separate from God, subject to unpredictable circumstances and forces beyond our control. But life isn't a lottery or gamble. It's infinitely above what appears to the senses. Life is spiritual, ordered being, expressing the activity of God, divine Life itself, in whom, as Paul said, ''we live, and move, and have our being.''n3

n3 Acts 17:28

As God's offspring, man has a totally good divine destiny. But we need to trust this fact, discern it through prayer, bring our thoughts and lives into harmony with it. To the degree that we do, we'll prove that we're not at the mercy of a speculative existence; that we need not live in jeopardy, fearing unforeseen circumstances. We'll increasingly realize that man is not a casualty of matter but is forever safe in God, Spirit, governed and protected by His law of good.

Spirit includes no element of risk. Mrs. Eddy states, ''He risks nothing who obeys the law of God, and shall find the Life that cannot be lost.''n4 Not possibility or even probability governs man, but the certainty of eternal good.

n4 Miscellaneous Writings, m p. 211.

What order and peace we bring to our lives when we exchange ''the notion of chance'' for Principle's certainty. It's our privilege to say with the joy of conviction, ''I don't take chances!'' DAILY BIBLE VERSE He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. . . . Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thyhabitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalms 91:1, 9-11