The right time

I was heading for an important meeting, and I really wanted to be there on time. But the traffic was slow, the traffic lights all seemed to turn red just as I arrived, and anxiety dominated my thinking. I would be late; plans would be spoiled; and on and on.

Then came a thought (in the midst of all the traffic hubbub!) that turned my thinking about time to an entirely different viewpoint. It was this: I'll be there at the rightm time. The right time - that is the time that will bless both me and the others involved.

Certainly we should strive to be punctual, to make every effort to be on time for our appointments. Even so, time isn't the determiner of our well-being. Love is. And Love, the Bible indicates, is another name for God.

The turnaround in my thinking that afternoon was expressed in an inner peace and in clear signs of dominion. I found that the remaining traffic lights were green when I came up to them; I was able to ease the car gracefully past slower vehicles; to discover a convenient parking place on arrival at the hall; and to slide into my seat at the meeting just at the moment I was expected to be there.

The right time, I reasoned later, is a crossroad where the right information or person or idea is available when the recipient is ready or needs to receive it. And this is a manifestation of God's perfect government of His creation.

In starting up a small business, my husband and I lamented that the customers were somewhat slow in coming to us. ''The customers will come when you are ready for them,'' a friend told us, and she was right. As soon as we were completely ready with stock, employees, and procedures in place, as well as a spiritual understanding of the real purpose of our business, which was to serve humanity, customers started flowing in. We were ready. The timing and the receptivity worked together for the benefit of all.

Christ Jesus proved in innumerable ways that God governs man entirely and that from the standpoint of spiritual truth we're not hedged in by limits of time and space. (See, for example, John 6:21, John 5:2-9, Luke 7:2-10.)

Every phase of our lives can be seen as under the jurisdiction of divine law. The Psalmist sang: ''I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.'' n1 And these lines from a hymn carry the same message: Lord, my times are in Thy hand: Thou my daily task shalt give; Day by day to Thee I live; So shall added years fulfill Not my own, my Father's will. n2

n1 Psalms 31:14, 15.

n2 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 46.

In order to gain some degree of dominion over the concept of time, we need to realize that our actual selfhood is unlimited, the very image of God, and that everything pertaining to our life is totally under His government. Our being isn't truly confined by material conditions, even though the evidence that it is may seem very convincing.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ''The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind.'' n3 Trusting this fact of God's supreme jurisdiction, we let the divine nature shine forth in our lives. Then we're less apt to argue, ''I can't get things done on time,'' or, ''There's an impossible amount of work to be done.'' We stop fearing a phantom cause that we think makes us make mistakes or causes us delays.

n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 379.

Instead we express the calm confidence of spiritually directed, Christly thinking. We become quietly conscious of the fact that we can always accomplish what is right for us to do because Love is motivating us. We begin to see in small ways, in our own well-ordered lives, that God does indeed control His universe with precision and harmony. DAILY BIBLE VERSE The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way Psalms 37:23

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