One thing after another

Some may feel that life is one long chain of troubles - that if ill health isn't a problem, then unemployment is; or if our trouble isn't unemployment, it's difficult relationships; or if it isn't difficult relationships, it's trouble at work or some other kind of discord.

St. Paul recognized the inevitable woes inherent in a material, earthly sense of existence. He wrote: ''We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.'' n1

n1 Romans 8:22,23

Yet the trials we suffer, while not desirable in themselves, are often blessings in disguise, as Paul realized. Would many of us consciously rouse ourselves from ease and comfort in materiality if we weren't prodded out of complacency by trouble? God, who is unchanging divine Love, doesn't send us tribulations. Yet these challenges turn us to Him and make us better acquainted with Him. A friend of a widow once said to her that he did not believe in God. ''Then you've never been in trouble,'' she promptly replied. Left on her own, with a family to bring up, she had learned to turn to God in times of need.

How thankful we can be that when we are at the end of our tether, perhaps in a desperate situation, we can turn to a divine source outside ourselves, beyond the perception of material sense, and find rescue and salvation. Referring to the false, materialistic basis on which we place happiness, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ''Science will correct the discord, and teach us life's sweeter harmonies.'' n2

n2 Science and Health with Key to Scriptures, p. 60

There is no situation, however grave, from which God cannot rescue us. Whatever the trouble, we can be sure that the infinite, immeasurable power of Love, operating through unchanging divine law, is able to lead us to a solution, even though this may well be quite different from anything the limited human mind can visualize. Didn't the power of God part the Red Sea to save the Israelites from the pursuing Egyptians? n3 Didn't His love provide manna to feed the children of Israel in the wilderness and cause water to flow from a rock for their use? n4 Didn't His law of supply maintain the oil in the widow's pot and save her sons from the creditor? n5

n3 See Exodus 14:21,22.

n4 See Exodus 16:35; 17:5,6.

n5 See II Kings 4:1-7.

Christ Jesus rebuked his disciples for their want of faith. He showed the ever-present power of God by his healing works. Dare we doubt that this power, so wonderfully demonstrated in his day and before, is still available and usable? Christian Science explains these ''miracles'' as natural demonstrations of divine power. ''A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law,'' n6 Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health.

n6 Science and Health, p. 134.

We can elect to succumb to trials and tribulations, or we can rise above them through prayer and prove their falsity and impermanence, conscious of our God-derived ability to do so. Our true selfhood as sons and daughters of God is spiritual, untouched by suffering, and we can begin to prove this.

Science and Health observes, ''Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not products of the infinite, perfect, and eternal All.'' n7 Because this is true these errors have no genuine power to oppose our challenge to their apparent reality.

n7 Ibid., p. 280

Although our problems may seem peculiar to ourselves, they are, fundamentally , the product of the universal belief in their substantiality and in the power of evil. Overcoming them through the Bible-based truths revealed in Christian Science renders a service to all humanity and reduces by at least a precious modicum their supposed power of perpetuation. Thus through each individual victory over discord we help bring to light for all mankind one good thing after another. Daily Bible Verse Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1,2