Lifting Limitations
SOME years ago I left a job with a nice salary for a lower-paying job in a nonprofit organization. My father had come to live with us and needed companionship and help. I felt it was right to leave the original job, which had required an hour and a half travel each way, to take the new one, which was within walking distance. I felt reasonably sure that after the three-month trial period, I would get a substantial increase. But this proved not to be so. My boss told me that although they were pleased with my work, an increase could not come for a year, and then it would be a small one. The policy was a rigid one; he deplored it, but there was nothing he could do about it.
I was baffled. I urgently needed additional income but could see no solution. I decided to ask a fellow Christian Scientist to help me through prayer. He assured me that God is just. And he reminded me of a Bible passage I knew well: ``All things work together for good to them that love God.''1
Although this encouraged me, I kept wondering how things could possibly work out. Finally I decided to be more grateful for my work, try to do better each day, and let God take care of the compensation. I really began to trust God's infinite goodness more. As I began to do this -- as I began to stop looking to merely human sources and to trust God, the source of all good, to supply what I needed -- I began to see that I didn't need to put up with a limited income.
I had learned from my study of Christian Science that good comes from God and is infinite. This good, of course, is spiritual, so we don't have to look for it someplace else; God has already given us all good. Christ Jesus said, ``What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.''2 What an affirmative statement that is; what confidence it shows in God's power and willingness to supply all good. As I thought about Jesus' words, I could see that good is already established in Mind, in God, and when we acknowledge its presence, we will see its tangible effect in our lives -- though perhaps not in the way we imagined.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, also assures us of the abundance of God's goodness when she writes, ``Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept?''3 We can learn to accept -- and give gratitude for -- the good that's pouring into our lives.
Within a few months an amazing thing happened. A salary study was conducted for the entire organization (some five hundred employees). As a result of the study, to my joy and astonishment, I received a large increase in salary. Furthermore, I heard that many others in the organization also received an increase. I thought of Mrs. Eddy's statement ``In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, -- Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.''4
The steadfast and expectant prayers of my friend and my own increased trust and gratitude had born abundant fruit. I continued for fourteen satisfying years in that position.
From this experience I learned more about God's inexhaustible supply for His creation. We do not need to look anxiously around us for good; we need only trust and know that God, our Father-Mother, does not forget His children but meets their every need.
1Romans 8:28. 2Mark 11:24. 3Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 2. 4Ibid., p. 206.
