When I was still working, past retirement age, as a real estate agent, I had an opportunity to represent a client in the purchase of a condominium. The condo had been rented for many years by a very large family, and the family evidently had not been very good housekeepers. The three-bedroom, two-bath condo needed scouring of grime and filth that had accumulated over many years, from the bathroom shower fixtures to the kitchen stove to a horribly dirty fireplace and everything in between.
The buyer requested that the condo be thoroughly cleaned before the sale was closed. No one, however, was available to do the job. The seller was willing to pay a modest amount to clean the condo if I had a person to do it.
I knew that silencing my concerns, by humbly listening for God’s wisdom and guidance in prayer, would help me find a sense of calm and direction.
After giving the situation some prayerful consideration, I felt that I could clean the condo. It seemed to be an opportunity for me to earn some needed additional income, and I knew of no one else who could get the job done as soon as it needed to happen. As I prepared to start cleaning, I prepared mentally as well, by praying. I turned to God, divine Life, as my source of energy and inspiration. Everything in the condo was so filthy that I didn’t know where to start cleaning. But I knew that silencing my concerns, by humbly listening for God’s wisdom and guidance in prayer, would help me find a sense of calm and direction.
I prayed with a statement in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself” (p. 385). I knew that there is no harm or weakness in God, the source of all good, in whom we all “live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). I affirmed that because I had my being in God, as the spiritual expression of Him, strength was a spiritual quality that I possessed from my Maker, and it was reflected in me on a continuous basis, without depletion. I knew that I could express my spiritual strength by demonstrating that I had the ability to complete the job.
I was low on funds and owned only a few cleaning tools: rags, cleaning powder, and water. And there were only a few hours in the mornings during which I could devote time to this task, because I worked in my office in the afternoons. But each morning I worked, little by little, scraping off the stove and appliances with a razor blade. All the while I knew that God was the source of my action and strength, that I was reflecting God’s dominion.
After four days of labor, I can honestly say that the condo looked beautiful and was glistening. The experience was one of bringing myself to a point of humility, of learning to express more patience, energy, and inspiration from the Divine. The inspiration came from the desire and eagerness to see God work through me, to see how God’s power and presence would unfold each moment and be expressed.
These attributes of patience, energy, and inspiration, and all other spiritual qualities, are expressed in each of us by God, which means we always have them as part of our spiritual identity. Understanding this enabled me to do a most distasteful job with strength and grace. We all forever express, by divine reflection, all the spiritual attributes of God. My income, I realized, was not really in money but in the expression of these attributes and in receiving spiritual ideas from God. I was paid in money, but I took away a new, spiritual sense of income and supply, which can never be depleted.
The inspiration came from the desire and eagerness to see God work through me, to see how God’s power and presence would unfold each moment and be expressed.
For the first time I began to lose a sense that my income was meager, and to let go of anxiety over how to pay my many bills. I felt at peace knowing that I possessed, by reflection, all the spiritual qualities of God, and expressed them. I knew this included right supply.
Soon several properties came my way to sell. My 14-year-old automobile was exchanged for a new car. Friends and family gave me some lovely business clothes so I would look presentable. I applied for a managerial position at my office, which employed two hundred agents, and was offered the position. My bills were now offset by a substantial increase in salary.
The greatest lesson I learned through this experience was that whatever we need to do, we always have the wherewithal to do it, because the source of our strength is not in ourselves, but in the infinite, all-powerful divine Love, God, our Life, Mind, and reason for being. I am so grateful to God for His inexhaustible, ever-present guidance and care.
