Law, not luck

``DICE!'' the man's voice cried; and, in the suspended moment that followed -- as the spinning cubes arced through the air before rolling to a stop on the casino table -- the eye of every player was fixed on them. The players all believed that luck, the law of averages, or the force of will could cause the dice to spin in such a way as to change their lives for the better. Elsewhere around the casino, others were equally caught up in the promise that, with a little luck, they could make a big bundle. Today, hundreds of thousands of people have let such a belief consume their lives and their savings in a compulsive addiction to gambling. Millions more gamble periodically, trusting in luck and the law of averages.

But can you really place any more trust in a so-called law that gives you endless uncertainty about life and its outcome than you can in capricious luck?

Of course not. Because the very idea of law implies underlying truths that can be proved, usefully and consistently. The kind of law that Christ Jesus showed to people, rich and poor, was not capricious or arbitrary. It was sure and dependable. It wasn't a means of finding material wealth but of promoting spiritual renewal -- salvation itself.

The Bible tells us that as Jesus once walked by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem he saw a man, disabled for thirty-eight years, waiting endlessly by the water. The people there believed that, from time to time, an angel came and stirred the water, and that whoever was the first to get into the water after that stirring would be healed of whatever plague he might have. The man's problem was that he could not get down to the water quickly enough, and there was no one there to help him. You might say he was down on his luck. Nor could the so-called law of averages help him.

But Jesus' instant response was to heal him through divine law. ``Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,'' 1 he told the man. It was Jesus' divinely empowered authority, and not some supernaturally miraculous manifestation, that compelled the man to rise up and walk.

``A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law,'' writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. She goes on to point out, ``This fact at present seems more mysterious than the miracle itself.'' And later in the same paragraph she adds: ``The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law.'' 2

This law is sure and powerful. It can be brought to bear on any circumstance through prayer -- prayer rooted in an understanding of God's invariably good, perfect, intelligent government of man. The effect of divine law is always to bring healing into our lives. It can set in order the most disordered life.

The need is to turn our thought quietly, persistently, away from the play and show of false law and let it rest on the

divine law governing all true existence. This total reliance on God means silencing completely our own sense of how things should proceed and listening for the will of God to make itself clear. ``When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path,'' 3 Mrs. Eddy writes. Throughout the Scriptures we see lives and characters transformed through a willingness to follow divine law obediently and humbly. And that divine law is in operation at this moment to redeem those intimidated by cruel beliefs in luck and false law.

Whether we have long been wasting our lives and livelihood, or find ourselves just becoming involved with games of chance, Christian Science shows that we can set aside the belief that either chance or blind law is governing our lives, and discover the rich truth that begins the book of Psalms: ``Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.'' 4 1 John 5:8. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 134-135. 3 Ibid., p. 254. 4 Psalms 1:1-3. -- 30 --{et

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