Leaping off the 'fiscal cliff'
A Christian Science perspective: God's angel messages are at hand to guide each of us, financial expert or not.
Forcing the leap would be a monumentally wrongheaded move on everyone’s part. Blaming the political party you most dislike would scarcely be an improvement. It would, instead, be a gesture that solves nothing. Yet, while it would be hugely wasteful, leaping off the “fiscal cliff” would not be a financially fatal move. Why can one say that? Because leaping off the fiscal cliff would ultimately plunge you into your Father’s lap.
Divine care is that constant. In truth, you – and the economy – would still be in the Father’s safe keeping. In truth, you – and the economy – would still be within the reach of the Father, under His watchful eye, subject to His spiritual resources, and receptive to His inspired, problem-solving ideas. Those ideas, often referred to as His angel messages, are on hand for everyone, financial expert or not. To glimpse even one of those angel messages is, in some sense, to make it more available and accessible to everyone.
Think of His wisdom, His balance, provision, spiritual plenty, and more. They are among the countless angel messages, the countless problem-solving ideas at the ready to solve crises such as the one posed by the fiscal cliff. Taken together, they serve as a kind of spiritual safety net. The Father’s divine provision for you, and for us all, is never ending.
Christ Jesus was not one to stockpile merely material goods, as if holding them for some “rainy day.” Nor did he shirk his civic responsibilities. Remember what he said to his disciples in a conversation on taxes. “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Did he realize, at some deeply spiritual level, that expressing the God who is Love and Mind and Truth is a way to live one’s prayer? This does not deplete an individual. This does not deplete an economy. Instead, it serves as a kind of spiritual underpinning to an individual’s best efforts, or a nation’s best efforts.
Of course, just because God will catch us is no reason to be needlessly reckless or to ignore the angelic promise that divine Mind’s understanding is ever at hand to guide us away from the cliff and toward saner, more God-inspired pathways. God-given wisdom is designed to do just that.
Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy once wrote a brief article on angels. She said in part: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 307).