Letting God take the reins

Often we are tempted to think that we control our own lives – making decisions and being responsible for the outcome, good or bad. But this leaves God out of the picture.

I know all too well both the feeling of being personally responsible for my work and the consequences of trying to will good things to happen. Some years ago, I purchased two theaters in my city with the intention of starting a performing arts center for children. There were a lot of local news reports praising my efforts, and social media was behind me as I forged ahead.

Very quickly, though, it became apparent that I had overestimated my capacity to manage such a large undertaking. I felt overwhelmed. I struggled unsuccessfully to move the project forward, until it finally collapsed under its own weight.

I felt I had let many people down, and I stopped going in to work at our family business and avoided social interactions or places that reminded me of my failure. My distrust of my own abilities got to the point where I couldn’t even decide what to make my family for dinner. I needed a deeper understanding of who truly directs our path and empowers us to follow it.

“Mortals are egotists,” writes the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. “They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 263).

In reality God is the only Mind, and we are God’s ideas, His spiritual offspring, not mortals with personal minds that can lead us astray. We express God’s intelligence. From a spiritual perspective, God is always at the helm, guiding all right activity. Only by getting willfulness out of the way and looking to the divine Mind for wisdom and ability can we be led to the best course when it comes to our work or any other decision that needs to be made.

One day I listened to an online Sentinel Watch program, published by a sister publication to the Monitor, on humility and healing. This helped me realize that I needed to express more humility. Although my motives for the theater project had originally been pure and God-directed, I had allowed ego to take over. I had come to think of myself as a personal creator and was self-righteous as well as critical of those who didn’t see things my way. That led to conflicts with others involved in the work. To bring harmony to the project, my perception needed to change.

I had been immobilized by weighty decisions because I thought they had to be based on my own limited, ego-driven sense of what should be done – and I was afraid of making mistakes. Humbling myself meant yielding my personal sense of responsibility to the spiritual truth that God, good, directs and governs His universe and that we are created to act in obedience to Him. God’s spiritual creation, which includes all of us, is always operating according to His law of harmony.

Instead of imagining worst-case scenarios and fearing failure, I focused on “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5) with full confidence in divine Truth, God. As I continued praying over the following months, new uses for the two theaters unfolded. I was able to sell one to exactly the right person, and the other has served as a day care center, a music store, a dance studio, and a church. In each case the community has been blessed – not because of me but because of divine direction.

Leaning entirely on God’s wisdom allows us to see our experience through the divine lens – to see the spiritual reality shining through what might seem to be a difficult or hopeless situation. As we approach our work with unselfish motives and allow God to lead, we’ll make sound decisions that will benefit all concerned.

Adapted from an article published on sentinel.christianscience.com, March 21, 2024.

Inspired to think and pray further about fostering trust around the globe? To explore how people worldwide are navigating times of mistrust and learning to build trust in each other, check out the Monitor’s “Rebuilding trust” project.