My profession is in customer service with large corporate clients for an international financial services company. Recently, a challenging situation appeared which put me in an uncomfortable spot.

A large public company acquired my client which shifted my role to provide consultation on various aspects of the purchase transaction including terminating functions and projects that were not part of the acquisition, in accordance with federal law. Several of my client’s employees were suddenly and immediately released by the new owner, and the remaining employees, including my contact, found themselves unsure of their own futures as a result. There seemed to be no communication from the new company’s management also which added to the confusion and anxiety.

The acquiring company is also a client of my employer, and their consultant is a colleague of mine who invited me to join a call with her and her client the next day. Knowing this, my anxious contact asked me to use this connection to communicate her frustrations on her behalf to her brand new employer. This was completely outside of my role, not to mention my comfort zone! But I knew that if this unhealthy atmosphere continued, I would not be able to work with my contact to complete the required legal work.

So I was to tell my contact’s new boss on the next day’s call that her new employee was not happy with the way things were going and was not moving ahead with agreed tasks. I shared this with my colleague who encouraged me to approach the topic in a specific way so as not to upset her client but also to leave her out of the conversation. Oh my goodness!

Wanting to help my contact, but not wanting to overstep my bounds, take advantage of my colleague or compromise her relationship with her client, I turned to God for guidance. I was immediately comforted with the simple truth that God is Mind, one universal and all-encompassing Mind, as taught by Mary Baker Eddy. One divine, infinite Mind cannot result in many little human minds with competing interests! The Bible says in Romans that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” I knew that everyone involved wanted to do the right thing, and were individually being guided by the One Mind, One God, governing his one creation, toward one common good result. This must mean that all people involved were able to set aside their personal agendas and anxieties and work together for His good purpose! I resolved to humbly listen for the right words at the right time and leave all in God’s hands.

On the call the next day, my colleague unexpectedly and deftly handled the entire conversation, relieving me of the need to step in and speak at all. And, as if that wasn’t enough, when I spoke to my client following the call to report the good result, I found her in a completely different and calm state of mind. She had taken steps on her own to acquire needed resources and was fully prepared to move ahead with me toward our goal before I ever had a chance to share my own good news. A complete change of attitude!

God is indeed governing all things all the time!

When I was in college, I studied business just in case I might work at the family business.  I didn’t want to work there – I thought – but it would be good to get a business degree just in case.  When I graduated from college I started searching for a job.  I had an interview in Downtown Dallas,  It was a bit scary for me but I happened to pass by the Christian Science Reading Room downtown.  I stopped in.  I just spent a few minutes there but as I was browsing the literature an idea stuck with me. It was: Light extinguishes darkness but darkness can never touch light.  That idea took all the fear from my thought.  It struck me as so true and I held on to it.  Fear was the darkness that Light extinguishes.  Soon , I got a job as a paint store manager.  It was a wonderful opportunity with management training programs. But after 3 years of working retail for a very large corporation, I was not really satisfied.

As I had begun to do for everything, I prayed about the situation. I just started listening for God’s direction. I don’t remember my prayer exactly this time. On a Sunday evening, the extended family was gathered for dinner my dad pulled me aside and told me how the company was taking a new direction and would I like to come and work there.  I told him I would consider it.  Monday morning the regional manager at the Paint Company called me in to talk with me.  My store had been an experiment and was not going too well.  So they were closing it down and offered to move me to a designer position instead of a management position.  I smiled and said; “no, thank you.” I had other plans. I seemed so confident and not in the least upset, he asked me if I had known he was going to do this.  I had no idea, but I was so joyful that my Father – Mother God had already prepared a place for me at the family business and the timing was so amazingly perfect I could not help beaming from ear to ear.  The regional manager was taken aback but I walked out of his office so happy and I never looked back.  I have worked at the family business for over 30 years now. It has been a very fulfilling career.

After many years of living away from my childhood home and family, I felt a yearning to return. My brother had children who’s childhoods i was missing, and my mother was living alone in the now too-large home we all grew up in.

Though the idea was strong to make this move several states away, there did not seem to be any good way to accomplish it. I was working in the financial field and had built a local clientele which could not transfer. I would have to find a job in a different sector of my field but this was in 2010 and the economy was in a terrible state with unemployment at elevated levels, especially in the state where we wished to move. Even if we could sell our home, the price of property at our destination would be almost triple what we could afford.

However, my husband and I agreed that we would open our thought to the opportunity, and let God guide. We would explore opportunities over the next year or two as they presented themselves to us. I prayed about the concept of home. Several ideas from Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy guided my thought, including this one “Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven;” (SH 254:31 to I was needing to remember that “home” is not a specific place on a map, but a state of thinking. Jesus tells us (Luke 17:21) that the “kingdom of God is within you.” So no matter where we are, a true concept of home is in our thought, always with us. What is home? Comfort, joy, peace, stability, love, etc. Not one of these qualities requires a certain building, city, county or state in which to thrive, but only our willingness to let them live unencumbered in thought. We can “practice” home anywhere and everywhere.

Within a few days, I was led to ask an industry colleague, who had just changed from one financial company to another, whether he thought there were any opportunities for me in his new company. He knew of an opening in the exact area we were hoping to move that he thought might be just right for me. He offered to give my name to the recruiter he knew to be working on filling the position.

Within three weeks, I had an initial interview, had been flown out to the company for a final interview, and had an offer of employment in hand, at a salary double what I was currently making and adequate to locate housing in our new location. A friend of mine remarked that I had obtained the only job open in the state! Within three months, our home was sold, we moved and settled temporarily into my childhood home with my mother who appreciated our presence and assistance, and I was happily employed at this new company in a position new for me but which suited my skills, experience and talents perfectly. Later, we found our own place and purchased a home in the area.

This was an amazing demonstration to my husband and me of God’s ordaining the right home for us, and this would have been enough had it stopped there!

Seven years later, the need seemed to be to relocate to another state again, this time bringing Mom along to live with us. Again the challenge was to understand how God’s plan and how our concept of home would be manifested contrary to the negative predictions and expectations of friends and family, and even ourselves. Once again, after letting go and trusting God with all aspects of the move, my employer allowed me to relocate and maintain my position, we located a new home in one week in our new location which perfectly met our needs, and we sold both Mom’s and our home in one day. Idea to completion took a total of three months, and all went off without a hitch.

It became clear after both moves were completed, that God’s purpose in our relocations was to learn of, and then care for, the needs of my mother so that she could make the transition from living alone in a large house to letting go of the need to care for a home, a car, and her daily needs. It was all done gently and with the perfect timing for all of us to adjust. We never could have seen that plan on our own!