Being that people read my blog posts who are not adherents of my religion, thought these thoughts on someone who's out of a job and looking might be helpful.
Just yesterday as I was driving along, heard a reporter interviewing a lady in the London area about the rioting going on there. She said it was a lack of jobs for the young people fueling the unrest, that her own son went out every day to find a job and could not. There are opposite views of the cause of all this, some saying it's mere hooliganism. But it did start me thinking about those who need work and can't find any.
And closer to home, we have a friend who feels desperate about being unemployed. He's sent out hundreds of resumes, gone to other states for multiple interviews, and still no offers. Don is a self-sufficient individual, and feels too proud to ask God for help.
And this reluctance to seek divine help when we need it led me to think of something. We were at some neighbors' house recently. They have the cutest little girl, and she happened to be building a castle with wooden blocks. She stopped, however, when the pieces wouldn't fit, and without a moment's hesitation said, "Help me,Daddy". This brought her father's immediate help.
As I observed this simple display of childlike confidence, I thought, "If adults would only turn as wholeheartedly to their heavenly Father, how much more easily would complex, challening problems be resolved!"
Each of us, regardless of circumstances or problems we face, can turn immediately to God, divine Love, our ever-present help. Christ Jesus taught this. He said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11)
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." (page 494) God is a tender, loving Father, One we can turn to for help with any problem -- and this covers unemployment as well. In fact, we can turn to Him nonstop, and still not exhaust His tenderly patient, unlimited care. It's so right to seek God's help. As Jesus counseled, "Ask, and it shall be given you." (Matthew 7:7)
How should we turn to Him? With half hopes that He will favor our request? Or should we approach Him with the prayer of heartfelt understanding -- that is, with a knowledge of and respect for His eternal laws? When one is equipped with what Christian Science reveals of God and man, seeking out God's solution to a problem is no hit-or-miss proposition.
Let me repeat, Christian Science shows one not only how to ask God to deliver him but how to do so in confident expectation of answers. Its teachings which are in accord with the inspired message of the Bible, reveal the Christianly scientific prayer that Jesus practiced so successfully.
Before our great Master raised his friend, Lazarus, from the grave, he spoke this prayer of spiritual affirmation: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always." (John ll:41, 42) The human picture portrayed hopelessness and grief. Yet Jesus thanked God for being all-powerful and ever present! This may have seemed startling. Jesus didn't turn to God in mere optimism, just hoping He would hear; he knew He would. His understanding of man's unity with God, divine Love, gave him absolute assurance that God answers every call.
Christian Science makes available to any seeker the understanding Christ Jesus had that man is actually the child, the spiritual reflection, of God, divine Love. This realization will help any man or woman to turn radically away from the discouraging human picture of inactivity or frustration. It will encourage him or her to accept the spiritual fact that God, divine Mind, is ever active, and that man, His image, must also be continuously and happily engaged in meaningful, worthwhile activity.
And do you know, opportunity can never really be absent. As the Bible assures us: "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." (II Corinthians 9:8)
As we confidently claim our God-given right to satisfying purpose, joy, and achievement, you and I will find more and more occasions for being about our real business. And what is this business? Reflecting God, good. Because God has created His child as His own perfect expression, no matter how despairing or desolate any circumstance may seem, it can be turned completely around, and we can be restored to our normal state of activity, joy, and purpose.
Finding out who we really are, beginning to grasp the glorious fact that in our true, spiritual being we are now the beloved, constantly cared-for expression of our heavenly Father, gives us the confidence and intiative we need to express more of good, more of God, in everything we do. This is where successful activity lies.
Nothing brings opportunity to our door quicker than the desire to be useful to God and to our fellowmen. We don't even have to take a very long look about us today to see how desperately needed our efforts are. Endless opportunities abound! As we recognize and take advantage of the means God is continously providing us to show love to our fellow beings, we will not only be making a difference in this world; we'll find ourselves continuously employed in satisfying work that human conditions cannot touch.
