When creativity struck at midnight
When a computer problem the night before a major project was due meant having to rewrite the whole thing, a man despaired at the situation. But the realization that we can never be cut off from God’s inspiration and wisdom brought peace of mind that enabled him to successfully fulfill the task.
I had a significant writing project at work with a firm deadline. The night before it was due, I stayed late at the office working on it. At midnight I was almost finished, when my computer dumped my document, and the most recent saved version was from two days earlier.
When I finally started to calm down, I realized I needed to pray for a spiritual perspective on the situation – an approach I’ve found helpful many times in my life. But it was hard to begin when I felt so stupid. I condemned myself: “The smart thing would have been to save the document periodically while working on it. If you had obeyed that intuition just a little, you’d be in a better position now, and God could help you. But you didn’t, so you aren’t, so God can’t.”
Yet from somewhere deep in my heart came the realization: “Wait! I cannot be separated from God.”
The Bible says God is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1). God doesn’t throw difficulties at His children to see how we do. Each of us is God’s idea – God’s spiritual self-expression. So we necessarily manifest the wisdom of the Divine. We are God’s accomplishment, made to express spiritual qualities such as patience, wisdom, and creativity.
That was the answer to my despair. I calmly returned to my computer, and by morning, the document was finished.
It’s possible that it was better than the first version, and I certainly learned a lesson about saving my work more often. But the real blessing from that experience was seeing that we can never be in a situation – whether due to outside circumstances or our own mistakes – where we are cut off from God, Love, or where divine inspiration is unavailable to guide us, one step at a time, in the right direction.
In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, wrote, “...divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object;...” (p. 304). Each of us is both: the manifestation, the accomplishment, of divine Love, and the object, the recipient, of God’s limitless love. Realizing this spiritual fact enables us to more fully feel and live the productive qualities God expresses in all His children.
We are all equipped to be what God makes us to be. And as I saw that night in the office, God always loves us for it.
Adapted from the May 31, 2021, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.
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