So, what do I do now?
That's what I was wondering. I had no place to stay! It was my first day of graduate school, and I'd just been told my application for on-campus housing was received long after all the rooms had been assigned.
The man at the reception desk showed me where I was on the waiting list. He said the chances of getting in were nil. He suggested I look for an apartment in the city.
Bummed out, I sat down on a park bench and tried to think about what I should do.
In the book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man" (pg. 256). What that meant to me was that God, who is divine Love, would not bring me this far and then abandon me. Not any more than a loving parent would abandon his or her child.
I thought: "Love knows where I am supposed to be. All I need to do is to listen to what God is telling me to do and then act on it."
I started thinking about all the times in the past when trusting the power of the Father-Mother of all had produced real joy in my life. How could this be any different? There was a place for me somewhere, and God would lead me to it.
Quite a few newspaper ads I read were for places that seemed like they'd do. But I received the same answer each time I called - "already taken."
I thought some more about God as my Parent, and realized that He was looking after all His children. There's also this from Science and Health: "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals" (pg. 12). I was truly glad that other people were finding places to stay, but puzzled that I hadn't gotten an answer about my place, especially now that it was beginning to get dark.
The thought came to go back to the residence hall and ask if someone knew of a place nearby where I could spend the night. There was a student at the desk. He told me to wait a moment and disappeared. He returned a couple of minutes later and said they had a place for me to stay in the hall.
It was for the night ... and for the entire year! To my amazement, it was not the normal small dorm room but a three-room suite overlooking a river. I would have been delighted with anything. But God's idea of my right place was far better than anything I could have thought up. It also included a kind and considerate roommate. My stay during the next year was great.
This showed me that trusting the God-Parent - listening for His/Her direction and following it - brings good results. As time went on, I learned that this phenomenon is not an isolated experience but that it takes place over and over again. When we refuse to wallow in discouragement or to put limits on the solutions to our problems, we allow God's superior idea of good to show itself.
Sometimes it looks like there's no hope. When my dad's company lost a major contract, he lost both the job he enjoyed and his life savings. At the time, this looked disastrous. But time was to show this not to be true. It led to our family's relocating in a new city, where my father found a far more interesting and satisfying job, and where I was able to attend a good school we'd never imagined possible.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for
them that love him. But God hath
revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of
God. Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are
freely given to us of God.
I Corinthians 2:9, 10, 12
(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society
