Your 'something' is needed!

''Feed seventy people with a twenty- pound turkey? That's ridiculous!''

The opinion was expressed by one of us in anything but dulcet tones and shared openly by others. We were part of a caravan traveling through Mexico. The setting for perhaps the most unusual Thanksgiving most of us would ever experience was an idyllic cove on the Gulf of California. The turkey was to be cooked in a mesquite-fired brick oven belonging to a nearby bakery, and the meal was set for three o'clock. In their skepticism regarding the bird's size and the cooking method the doubters overlooked two very important factors: the cook's knowledge of her oven and the willingness of everyone to ''bring something.''

We not only ate on time, but the tables were laden with enough food for all.

Many conscientious people, impelled by their love for humanity, are asking, ''What can I, one individual, do in the face of the great need I see all around me?''

Consider a man in the Bible named Nehemiah. He rebuilt Jerusalem's wall in spite of great opposition. The story says, ''So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.''n1 One God-oriented man along with people who ''had a mind to work'' got the job done.

n1 Nehemiah 4:6.

Moving forward to Christ Jesus' time, think of what a world of problems he encountered--disease, immorality, political intrigue, national and religious discrimination, poverty. Jesus brought the world his total willingness to obey God. He was the very embodiment of the Christ, illustrating its power to deliver us from sin, disease, and decline. He proved God's absolute supremacy and man's indestructible, spiritual nature as God's offspring.

About now you may be saying, ''What have I got in common with Nehemiah or Jesus?'' Well, for one thing, a world that needs you--and you have the God-given ability to bring something to it. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy n2 writes, ''Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."n3

n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

n3 Science and Health, p. 1.

Through prayer we are guided to God-inspired action. But if we are trying without divine direction to determine how we can best contribute, or to find solutions to problems, we may indeed meet with frustration.

Christian Science, in accord with Bible teachings, shows us that our true nature is the image of our creator, spiritual and perfect, unlimited in ability and capacity. God--Life, Truth, and Love--gives us our identity and is the very source of our being. The more we understand and yield to this truth through prayer--and see it as the truth of everyone--the more freely we can bring our talents to the world. Our prayers will also help bring to light healing solutions to the challenges facing humanity.

Whatever our activity, perhaps the greatest thing we can bring is an attitude of spiritual, healing love. I once moaned to a companion that I didn't have any of the talents needed in a particular situation. She immediately replied, ''You have what's most needed: love.'' None of us are left out when it comes to having something to bring.

Surely, not all of those who worked with Nehemiah on the wall were professional stonemasons or hod carriers. Perhaps some even came with nothing but a firm conviction that the job could be done. Science and Health says, ''Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action."n4

n4 Ibid., p. 454.

Let's stand ready and willing to bring our ''something'' to the world. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. . . . There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. . . . And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. I Corinthians 12:1, 4, 6, 7