Supply and demand:in balance

Along with a lot of other people, I know what it's like to spend the entire day worrying if you'll have everything you need. You wonder if you can pay the rent or mortgage, buy the food, save for the future. If you'll be secure.

At the root of this preoccupation, of course, is fear, and sometimes especially the fear of being alone, with the weight of responsibility to meet all those demands.

Even when lack and insufficiency seem to be all around us, there's a way to feel safe. But I've found that it begins not with what I save, but with what I think. I've got to think beyond the surface of "supply and demand out of balance" to a deeper spiritual reality.

Here's how I reason with myself sometimes: The force that created us is totally good. And this force, which some people call God, is an omnipotent Mind that intelligently supplies every legitimate demand.

In God's universe, supply and demand are like an inseparable matched pair. The demand isn't for money or things, actually, but for ideas. Divine Mind is the source of all ideas and supplies the ideas that are needed for every demand.

For instance, when I'm short of funds, I first of all need a peaceful frame of mind, which is what breaks down fear. And I've found this need met by getting ideas from God about His love for me and for everyone. Thoughts about how God cares for us and keeps us safe.

Keeping focused on the spiritual cause of life has really helped me see that God's creation can't lack anything. As God's loved sons and daughters, we have a right to feel secure and to see our needs met. In fact, the divine Mind expresses its own abundant intelligence through each one of us. And there can be no withholding of good, because God is good and imparts goodness continually.

Thinking of how Jesus fed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish, I love how he gave thanks to God before any additional food appeared (see Matt. 14:14-21). He showed that demand and supply are seen to be in balance when we gratefully acknowledge God's intelligent control.

This relates to things other than money, too. One evening, I was getting ready to go out to dinner with my mother and a highly-educated man who has a Ph.D. Suddenly I felt overwhelmingly inferior intellectually. I felt I wouldn't have anything intelligent to say to sustain a conversation.

I began to pray. And the thought came to me that we are all created by the one Mind. This Mind supplies us with all the needed ideas, at the right time, for a good purpose. This calmed me down.

The evening ended up being inspirational for all of us, and the man remarked that he hadn't had such a stimulating time in quite a while.

This is just a small illustration of how turning to God can supply a demand. A trust in our Father-Mother's constant provision of ideas can quell those feelings of lack with whatever is needed. It's the beginning of endless possibilities.

I like to think of God as owning and operating the largest storehouse in the world, where anyone who wants to can shop for endless supplies 24 hours a day. The store is stocked and maintained by God, and He lets all His children shop there for free.

With this divine source of supply, you're always on secure ground.

The 'divine ear' is

not an auditory nerve.

It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom

each need of man is always known and by whom it

will be supplied.

Mary Baker Eddy

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society