Working for the family firm
Some years ago strategic planning at the company where I worked changed the criteria for employment in certain departments in a way that affected me. I knew that I would be phased out because I couldn't meet the new requirements.
It was pretty scary, because I had worked for this employer for some time. I decided to use the time before my job ended to think about my options and specifically to pray.
I have long believed that our real work comes from God, even though it may look like a job in an office, on an assembly line, or in some other place. Mary Baker Eddy explained in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that each individual is the reflection of God. This means that everyone is always at one with God, the spiritual reflection moving in accord with the original. Your reflection in a mirror can't move unless you do the moving.
I thought about that idea a lot because it struck me that the reflection doesn't lack employment. Its job is to reflect the original - nothing more, nothing less - and it always has that job. So that means that as the reflection of God, each individual is always employed at reflecting God's intelligence, goodness, and power, no matter where he or she may be.
Because reflecting God can always be satisfying and good, and since we are designed to do this, we can never lack the opportunity to express God's nature. These thoughts were very helpful to me.
But as the weeks went by, there still wasn't any evidence that things had changed or that my job might continue. And I didn't see a new job on the horizon.
One afternoon as I was driving home from work, I found myself saying to God that I wished I had been born into a wealthy family with its own business so that I could work for the family firm. I'd never have to worry about finding a job. Whether I was cleaning or sharpening pencils or putting out the garbage, I'd be doing something useful, without the anxiety I was then feeling. I would always have useful work to do.
There was a pause and a kind of twinkle in the air. A very strong thought came with a quite unexpected answer to my request: "You do work for a family firm - My Family Firm!"
Since God is everyone's Father-Mother, it follows that we can all trust in His loving care. He is the ultimate CEO of the universe, you could say. So His firm is interplanetary, multinational, universal in outlook, and has infinite Love as the management philosophy.
This was a totally new outlook on my situation, and I felt quite inspired by it. Whenever I felt scared during the next few weeks, I would remind myself that I worked for the Family Firm. And even if my present job ended as expected, I would have a new job that was satisfying, useful, and progressive. This strengthened me because I wasn't getting any signs that there would be another job where I was working.
Then, the day that my old job ended, I was asked to report to another supervisor who described to me what seemed like the perfect job. I was glad to take it and spent many happy years in that position until it was time to move on to another spot in the Family Firm.
One of the things I love about this divine firm, besides the fact that it always has a job for me, is that it doesn't run on whims or personality preferences, but on divine Love. Mary Baker Eddy put it this way: "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, 'Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters' " (Science and Health, page 13).
That's everyone, not just a certain chosen few. All people, everywhere, are the children of God and can experience His goodness and love. That means that no matter what your or my personal employment situation may be, each of us has a useful and satisfying place in infinite Love's Family Firm.
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
Isaiah 43:1
