Peace at graduation time

GRADUATION from high school or college almost always involves significant changes in one's life and important decisions to be made. But this does not mean that graduation needs to be a time of anxiety. One can face this period of transition peacefully if he or she is willing to depend on the guiding love of God. God's love for His offspring is constantly available, an unfailing source of inspiration, courage, and peace. But we need to labor diligently, through prayer, to accept and rely on God's ample provision of good.

This lesson came home to me when I graduated from college without a definite job on the horizon. I had obtained a summer position and was praying frequently to follow God's direction in my career; but no doors opened. Each time I prayed, one particular job seemed right to me. I felt that I was qualified and could successfully assist many others in this position. In fact, I had felt divinely inspired to apply for the position. But the interviews with this employer, some months earlier, had not gone particularly well, and I was left with a vague, ``We'll let you know.''

My summer job was enjoyable, but deep inside I was lacking peace. Every day I speeded through the mail, looking for some communication related to this particular position, but nothing came.

Finally I realized that I was misplacing my trust. I was partially trusting God to supply me and partially believing in the control of chance, time, and personality. I knew that finding an appropriate job and feeling peace of mind would come as I learned to place my trust in God wholeheartedly.

As many people have found, this is easier said than done. But I set to work, studying daily the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. In a sense, I was right back in school. But this time I was studying spiritual truths and endeavoring to apply them in every hour of the day.

The simple truth that ``God is love,''1 as the Bible says, was the foundation of my prayers. I acknowledged that God's love was fully active and present, and that it was not being withheld or hidden from my view. It became obvious to me that placing any faith in chance or personality was a tacit rejection of divine Love's government. So each day I made vigorous efforts to resist these godless thoughts when they would come to me.

Gradually I felt a confident calm dominating my days, where before there had been considerable anxiety. In the proportion that I accepted God's caring mercy as a law of my being, I found peace. As the Bible promises, ``Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.''2

I was learning to trust God, and this brought all kinds of blessings. During the summer, physical healings were accomplished through prayer alone. Several friendships deepened. God's love was supplying me abundantly, and I had no doubt that this provision would continue beyond the summer.

Late in the summer a special telephone call came. The employer whom I had felt guided to approach many months earlier wanted me to begin work one week after the conclusion of my summer job. This position proved to be a blessing to me and many others. But I learned that we never graduate from our deep need to depend on God's guidance and provision.

Each period of transition we face can be one of learning. We learn that God has created His children with unlimited good. We find that divine Love has equipped us with the ability to radically obey God's guidance. And we discover that His love is practical in every aspect of our lives.

Peace is ours, at graduation time and always, when we place unreserved trust in divine Love. Mrs. Eddy writes: ``To the burdened and weary, Jesus saith: `Come unto me.' O glorious hope! there remaineth a rest for the righteous, a rest in Christ, a peace in Love. The thought of it stills complaint; the heaving surf of life's troubled sea foams itself away, and underneath is a deep-settled calm.''3

1I John 4:16. 2Isaiah 26:3. 3Message to the Mother Church for 1902, p. 19. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Delight thyself . . . in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:4,5

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