Years ago, after finishing college, I moved to the West Coast, away from my family, friends, and comfort zone. The hustle and bustle of Los Angeles was quite different from the slow-moving Midwestern town I had grown up in. At work, I didn’t seem to fit in with my co-workers, and I returned home at night feeling defeated and unproductive. Soon after, I found myself unable to find employment and was suddenly unsure about whether I should have moved in the first place. With no friends or family nearby, I felt lost.
I had been raised in Christian Science, and so my first instinct was to turn to God to find my way. Although I read many of Mary Baker Eddy’s works and other Christian Science writings on place and supply, early on I found this statement in Science and Health: “Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution” (p. 3). Those words were the proverbial spark that ignited my thought.
I was never a math whiz, but after reading that phrase I recalled the principle of variables. Briefly, a mathematical variable is a value that changes, depending on the equation or problem. In life, there are many variables that are forever changing—our jobs, relationships, work-related issues, and so on. What is most frustrating about variables is that we seem to have no control over them.
However, in mathematical equations, there is always a constant. A value that remains stable and unchanged. The constant is not always known at first, but it’s there. And so it is in life.
As the first stanza of a hymn points out, “. . . e’en before we ask Thee [God] / Thou hear’st Thy children’s call. / We praise Thee for Thy goodness / And tender, constant care” (John Randall Dunn, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 374). With God knowing all our needs before we know of them, and tenderly caring for us every moment, it is clear that God is our constant. Whether we know it or not, our Father-Mother God is always watching out for us. God is an equal opportunity provider. Our Father-Mother does not love one of us more than another. I think God must love each of us as much as He did Jesus, and that’s quite a comforting thought.
During my job search, when I would start to become frustrated or feel stagnant, I would step back and remember that. It wasn’t long before I was led to a part-time position at a place I would never have expected to find myself. And yet, it was the perfect place for me. Before too long, I was hired full time. And one day a co-worker said she would introduce me to her sister. A year and a half later I was married to her.
Change is the nature of human existence, and oftentimes change tends to shake us up and frighten us. But no matter how the variables change over time, the one constant in life is God. We are constantly protected, supplied, loved, and nourished by Him, and that remains unchanged for eternity. The sooner we understand our one true constant, God, the more at peace we will be with the ever-changing variables of life.
