"Job has come to realize that if he is patient and waits by his food bowl, all of his needs will be supplied," says Journal contributor Benjamin F. Gladden. Job is his cat. And although the feline Job's namesake is the well-known Old Testament character, "That's a story for another time," Gladden promises. In his article "A successful turnaround" (p. 12), Gladden explores the Biblical Job's trial—losing all he had—and the insight that turned his life back around.
"Can I take the mercy one?" Clare Turner asked during a staff discussion of this year's series on the Beatitudes. At the time, Clare had been editing part time for the Journal. But her lessons in mercy have more to do with her work as a singer than as an editor. As she relates in her article "The outstretched hand of mercy" (p. 14), Clare's Sunday-morning job—as a church soloist—has provided many opportunities to put Jesus' teachings into practice.
For David F. Stevens, a Christian Science practitioner in Petaluma, California, figuring out a topic for this month's Deep Think article was a snap. "Today's political and religious divisions separate the world into good guys and bad guys, causing cynicism and fear," he says. "Yet people love goodness and long to find out that they are good—and why." That's why, in David's own practice of Christian Science, he's made it a habit the last few years to "consciously connect any good to God, the source of 'every good gift.' "And he'd like you to "Choose good," too. You can start on page 28.
