Employment status: no change

David DeWitt Boggs | from the Christian Science Sentinel

There is a way out of unemployment when we rely on God.

Over the past year there have been many news reports about the state of the US economy and its worldwide ramifications. Many people are struggling to make ends meet as jobs have been cut and food and gas prices have steadily risen. If you look only at your own material resources, the situation can look quite depressing. But as I’ve experienced in my own life, there is a way out of unemployment, need, and decline when we rely on God, or Spirit, as the source of all our provision.

A few years ago, during an economic boom, my business partner and I purchased the office furniture dealership where I’d been employed. During the first two years, it was all we could do to keep up with the increased demands on our capacity, and we congratulated ourselves on our decision to purchase the company. But before long, the economy began to cool down. It was the time when many “dotcom” companies were shutting down. Stocks of many companies were downgraded, and government agencies began to report deficits in their budgets. There were reports of increased layoffs and higher unemployment figures. And then, after two quarters of negative growth, the United States economy was, by definition, in a recession.

The economic downturn was an opportunity for me to deepen my trust in God’s care for all.

As a student of the Bible and the teachings of Christian Science, I’ve had many tangible proofs in my life of the blessings of relying on God’s power as well as recognizing God’s protective presence in others’ lives. At this time, I realized that the economic downturn was an opportunity for me to deepen my trust in God’s care for all. I began by acknowledging the fact that because God is All, He is conscious only of Himself. God, as the Creator of all good, can lack nothing but is aware of His abundant nature and creation. The Bible tells us that “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). As Spirit’s image and likeness, our true identity, makeup, and substance are in fact spiritual. And because of this, all of us can experience God’s abundance and constant care.

As I prayed in this way, I gained a degree of calmness about the future of our business. But before long, worry again edged into my thinking. When one of our clients filed for bankruptcy, we were faced with uncollected monies, and I grew even more anxious. Over the months that followed, my joy in running the company began to turn into fear, as my partner’s prognostications about the need to change our business to accommodate the slowdown became more alarming. However, I knew I had a choice to make. I could either let fear and doubt rule my thoughts, or I could endeavor to understand what God knew was true about the economy and our place and purpose in it.

Driving home one night, I thought deeply about an idea that came to me. Crossing over the bridge that connects San Francisco to Oakland, I happened to catch a glance of San Francisco’s dramatic skyline. Golden light from the setting sun outlined the office buildings and seemed to embrace the city in a blanket of gold. From my viewpoint, all was quiet and still. Filled with inspiration, I reached out to God, asking that I might feel and understand His embrace and His care for me and my business.

Instantly, this thought came to me: The opportunity to buy this business was prayer-based and guided by relying on the loving Father’s direction. I recalled these passages from Psalms: “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all …. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth” (Ps. 104:24, 30). The good that we all have is God-created, God-protected, and God-ordered. I asked myself, “Can Spirit ever dry up or slow down?” It simply couldn’t happen, because Spirit is immeasurable, limitless. Spirit is all there is because God is infinite. I earnestly desired to see our business in the light of this truth. I asked the Father to help me release my fears. I asked Him to show me His view.

The answer that I received took the form of a question: “What’s changed?” This was startling, and I began to list the obvious—the economy wasn’t as strong as before; our business wasn’t as busy as before; and so on. Then I began to ponder this in relation to a particular Bible story that came to thought, about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. That death was very real to those nearby. And I wondered what Jesus’ answer would have been if, when he approached the tomb, that question had been put to him: “What’s changed?” Jesus’ answer would have been very telling.

Later at home, I looked up what Mary Baker Eddy explained about this Bible account in Science and Health: “Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it” (Science and Health, p. 75).

Understanding God’s all-power, Jesus knew that Lazarus had not died. He said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep” (John 11:11). Because those around him misunderstood his words, he was forced to speak to their level of understanding. And so “said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (John 11:14). But he knew nothing had truly changed with respect to Lazarus. Jesus’ clear understanding of His Father’s nature, knowing that God created His sons and daughters completely spiritual, untouched by mortality, never subject to death, enabled him to raise Lazarus from the tomb. The Apostle Paul must have known this same truth when a young man named Eutychus fell from a third-floor window during one of Paul’s sermons and appeared to be dead. Paul said, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him” (Acts 20:10). And he brought Eutychus back to life.

God was sustaining and providing for all of His children without change.

Then I asked myself, “What was God doing when the economy changed speeds and began to slow down?” It must have been the same as before—God was sustaining and providing for all of His children without change. To admit that God changes, by slowing down, retrenching, or even speeding up and attempting to handle the pace, would be to admit that God was subject to mortal conditions and not equal to the eternality of His creation. Could the Creator be less than His perfection? This could not be true and never had been. God was just as powerful then as He had been when we first bought the business, and I could continue to trust and watch for evidences of this power in action.

As I exchanged my limited view with its incumbent fears and doubts for a more expansive view of God’s creation and His protective, guiding sense, I was less and less anxious about the economic situation. Daily I became more comfortable in releasing my limited sense of personal responsibility for the success of our business to God’s unerring direction and guidance. Step by step our company began to move forward, until it became more active than ever, employing and serving more people. And that activity continues today.

Praying to glimpse a better understanding of God’s economy, I’ve discovered that God’s supply of good always equals legitimate demand. It stands to reason that if God made all, then our lives, and our employment, fall under His jurisdiction and protection. In the Bible, the writer of the Epistle of James states, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (1:17). Our job is to count on this unvariable guidance and express it in our daily lives.

David Boggs lives with his family in Walnut Creek, California.