On Losing One's Job
EXTREME ``swings'' in the economy can be sudden and disruptive. Good workers are often laid off -- sometimes after years of employment. Do we have to go down in suffering and defeat? No, but we may have to go back to some basics in our thinking.
For instance, what is the basic power of the universe? Christian Science teaches that this power is God, infinite Spirit, or divine Mind, omnipotent and everywhere present. We can turn to His almighty law to help us when the discords of a material, uncertain sense of existence claim to deprive us of rightful employment and livelihood. God will show us the steps we need to take. His love will enable us to turn every experience into a step of progress, however difficult things may seem to be.
What do we need to do? We need to understand God better and love Him more -- to accept our perfect, indestructible relationship to Him as the essential truth of our selfhood, and live our lives in accordance with His goodness and greatness!
Consider this experience. While recovering from financial losses that required my selling almost everything that I had of value, I was fired from a job I loved. The rejection cut deeply, leaving me feeling worthless and a total failure.
After weeks of prayer, a clearer understanding took root that God is actually man's very Life and that man is God's means of expressing Himself in all His beauty and goodness. I saw that God is the infinite Mind of man. Thus, the fact that man's true, spiritual identity reflects divine intelligence and Love, stood out more clearly. My work came into better focus as the evidence of spiritual unfoldment, in accord with divine law.
The results of this kind of praying were wonderful. Greater usefulness and abundance grew. My joy returned. Old debts were paid to me, and assistance came ``out of the blue.'' Fresh ideas for employment opened up, and my income increased. Life took on new dimensions!
My awareness is deeper now that every individual, as an idea of divine Mind, has an indispensable purpose in God's scheme of things. This is the spiritual reality, the truth of our being. Each of us, then, can find his or her own appropriate place and job. No genuine, God-supported power exists to keep us from the place where we belong or to put us where we do not belong. No short-sighted self-concern, willfulness, or self-centered pride can interfere with our ability to contribute something good in our own individual way!
Christ Jesus set the standard for us when he said: ``Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.''
When our priority is to glorify God in all His qualities, to deny reality to anything opposed to Him, and to bless everyone with whom we come in contact, new horizons open to view, and we are sure to find ourselves rightly employed and rightly recompensed.
Referring to God as Love, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes, ``Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way.'' And she continues, ``Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.''
We have, then, the God-given ability to face the challenges of the work-world with authority and grace, wise initiative and helpful flexibility. As we do this, the vision of our scientific unity with God as His offspring shines out more brightly in our outlook and meets our needs. This is the way God works.
Divine Love governs! The Father does not leave us comfortless. We can count on that.
