Stalemate?

“The chimney doesn’t draw correctly; the fireplace smokes,” I said.

“I can’t take it down and start over,” the mason replied.

“I can’t pay for a chimney that doesn’t work.”

“My business can’t survive if you don’t pay me. You have to pay me.”

The mason had just built a three-story, two-flue chimney that didn’t work properly. I couldn’t accept that product for our home. He couldn’t accept the financial loss if I didn’t pay. There didn’t appear to be a solution or a way to move forward. We were at a stalemate. What to do?

As a student of Christian Science, my first inclination was to pray. I’d seen on other occasions that, as Christ Jesus taught and proved, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

I started my prayer by affirming that God, who is divine Mind, is always present, and that His nature is creative, all-wise, and all-knowing. As God’s children, we reflect His qualities, including wisdom. We can trust that divine Mind provides inspiration as to how to solve problems, blessing all involved. So, I realized, neither the mason nor I needed to fear that there would be a bad outcome, even though I couldn’t imagine what the solution might be at that moment.

In my prayer, I considered what I call the “problem behind the problem.” The outward difficulty appeared to be faulty construction, but the underlying issue was the faulty belief that God’s children could ever exist outside the purview of divine Mind. There can be no situation beyond the reach of God’s solution-bringing inspiration.

I knew in my heart that this was all true, but in the face of this apparent stalemate it was tempting to doubt. Then a Bible story came to mind. In the story, the outward problem is obvious: There was not enough food for the more than 5,000 hungry people who had followed Jesus into the desert to hear his healing message. The five loaves of bread and two fish on hand would hardly feed so many.

But, wasn’t the problem behind the problem the concern that a situation could exist where God could not, or would not, take care of His children?

From the healing work he did, we can conclude that Christ Jesus knew his heavenly Father continuously provides for all. He was so sure a solution was at hand that, in a gesture of gratitude, he looked up, blessed the little food they had, and instructed his disciples to pass it out to the crowd. The Bible narrative reports that everyone ate their fill, and there were even 12 baskets of leftovers (see Matthew 14:13-21).

In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, writes, “What cannot God do?” (p. 135). Christian Science reveals that God is not only divine Mind but the underlying Principle of all existence, as well. Turning to God, divine Principle, enables us to find a way forward through any kind of impasse, large or small. No matter what a problem looks like, the underlying reality is that God is infinite good and has boundless provision for all.

As we come to recognize this spiritual reality, we find that we can begin to prove it in daily life. I knew that this was true for the situation with my chimney, too.

A few days later the mason called. He told me that he had gotten an amazing idea of how to surgically cut the chimney in order to remove and replace the too-small flue with a larger one without disturbing the second flue. He could do it without taking the chimney down, and he was confident this idea would work.

We were both delighted. He went ahead with the idea that had come to him, and in the end, the chimney worked beautifully and I was happy to pay him.

Understanding that the divine Mind and Principle is ever operative inspires and encourages us to work toward finding a solution whenever a stalemate or other difficulty looms. Indeed, with God all things are possible.