"Our various theories will never lose their imaginary power for good or evil," Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 339-340), "until we lose our faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony and God." In discussing this statement with a Sunday School class recently, I was struck by the way in which the practice of Christian Science has made my life over the past several years "its own proof" of God's omnipotence and of the harmony God confers on man.
Late in 1969, with only a few weeks' notice, I was released one year early from active duty in the United States Navy. According to human theory, this meant I was unemployed during a recession, with a wife and baby to provide for; but as I had learned something of God's law of harmony, I saw it instead as a new opportunity to serve my fellowmen. I decided to seek employment in journalism. Though we were told that my formal qualifications for such work were few, we held to Mrs. Eddy's declaration about the true employment of God's man: "I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165). As each letter of application went into the mail, my wife and I backed it with scientific prayer to that divine Love which we knew can turn apparent reversals into blessings today just as it did for Joseph in the Bible.
I soon received and accepted an attractive job offer from a major newspaper. Shortly before I was to begin work there, however, I was invited to join the staff of a government official. The offer came by telephone, totally unsought, from a man I had never met. At first it seemed less like a blessing than a cruel joke, disrupting my peace of mind and unsettling my neat plans. Feelings of confusion, anguish, and unworthiness such as I had seldom known took hold of me, but at last the prayer which negates human theories and reveals the divine harmony showed me the way.
