Driving Home Unexpectedly in the middle of the workday, I saw a young man sitting alone on a stone wall, kicking at it rather disconsolately. He looked the picture of purposelessness, and my heart went out to him. I thought of the times I had found myself feeling the way he looked—times when I was between jobs, worried I'd never work again, feeling as if the world simply didn't need what I could give.
And then I was reminded of something I'd read in the Bible. It was about the prophet Elijah during a period of drought and famine. See I Kings, chap. 17 . God told him, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." Elijah did so, and encountered the woman. He asked her for water and bread, but she said that she had just a tiny bit of meal (flour), with which she would cook something for her son and herself before they died. Elijah wasn't fazed by this; he knew God's goodness and His purpose to sustain them, so he asked the seemingly unreasonable: make him, Elijah, "a little cake first," and afterward she could make something for her son and herself. She did so, and there was enough food for all for "many days."
This story is not a fairy tale, and it doesn't simply illustrate a miracle. It shows the natural effect of grasping the spiritual laws of God, which are absolutely good, and always at work in behalf of all. People today are proving on a daily basis the authority of these laws in the healing of sickness and other difficulties.
Each one of us expresses God's nature in a distinct way.
But what does this account of Elijah have to do with experiencing God's purpose for us? I was struck by God's assurance, "I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." Yet when Elijah met her, it was obvious she knew nothing about the command. She didn't know what a great purpose God had already called her to fulfill! On the contrary, she thought her situation was hopeless and that she and her son were going to die. But it was to be her privilege to feed the great prophet.
God has a specific purpose for each one of us—to express His nature, His pure goodness, in a distinct, individual way. This purpose is manifested through the useful work we do and in other ways. Employment and activity are actually spiritual concepts. They're inherent in the divine nature, and therefore we include them as God's spiritual image. When we begin to recognize this even a little, we experience it more fully in our lives.
As I was driving home, I thought back to a period when I was afraid I would never work again. I remembered how I prayed to recognize more clearly the activity that is right now going on in spiritual Life, in God: it's the activity of divine Love. I strove to realize that I, as God's idea, am the manifestation of that spiritual activity. As a result of such prayer, after months of unemployment a lovely job came along, bringing me new interests and insights. Later I took another job that called precisely on my expertise and that enabled me to make a contribution in an area that meant a great deal to me. I had been growing while praying, and during that period the jobs also had been developing. God had a good purpose for me, and this was to be expressed in worthwhile activity, just right for me. But, like the widow, I hadn't known it! I had not been able to believe He had a purpose for me. That didn't stop God, of course. But I had to learn to put the things of Spirit first. (The widow had to make a cake for Elijah first, before making one for herself and her son.) Using the spiritual sense that each one of us has, I had to look to the spiritual evidence of abundant activity—to the reality of man as the active expression of God—instead of to the material evidence of little activity.
God has called you, too. He has given you a wonderful purpose, and through prayer you can come to see it clearly at each step. And if you encounter someone who seems unaware of God's purpose for him or her, you can help by realizing that the laws of infinite good are in operation right now, upholding each one of God's children. Just as the sun shines on all, God is expressing His purpose in all, and nothing can prevent it from appearing.
