Success story

It was the day of the interview. I'd been preparing for two weeks. I'd studied the institution's literature. I'd prayed.

But I was feeling anxious. This interview would affect my future. I knew it was important to get my thought straight and settled before going. So I prayed some more.

I've learned in so many different ways - through facing problems in academic and professional activities, personal relationships, finances, and health - that prayer is potent. As the Bible says, "Great is the power of a good man's fervent prayer" (James 5:16, "The Twentieth Century New Testament"). This is true for all men, women, and children.

Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," emphasized the connection between good and prayer. She wrote, "The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer" (pg. 4). The same book explains that God isn't distant or mysterious, but rather that God is right here with us. God is good itself, and the divine source of our good thoughts. Good is the supreme and only power. Good is the ultimate and only reality. Good is the ever-present Spirit, the benevolent, living intelligence that speaks to us, guides us, sustains us, and makes us unafraid.

Our identity is good because God is our Mother-Father. We are just like Her/Him in nature. So it's natural for us to express God's good qualities, such as wisdom, strength, fairness, compassion, patience, honesty, purity, health.

In this particular situation, my prayer for courage and peace was answered in two ways. First, I remembered that I already included courage and peace because I was the child of God! Courage and peace were now and always as everpresent as God, who was right there with me. Second, I saw clearly that the ultimate purpose of the interview was to bear witness to the reassuring power of Love, which is another name for God.

I realized that my interviewer and I both needed assurance that I was a worthy candidate for the job. I felt I could rely on divine Love to provide this mutual assurance. I reminded myself that divine Love - the interviewer's true Mother-Father as well as mine - was the reliable source of the insight, humility, poise, grace, and good-heartedness needed for the occasion.

My anxiety lifted. I recalled a favorite verse from Exodus: "Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" (4:12). I felt confident that this would be true for both of us.

Minutes before the meeting the anxiety returned, this time with greater intensity. I imagined questions I wouldn't be able to answer. Again, God calmed my fear - with a promise that came, which I wrote down: "The only thing you will hear will be the voice of divine Love reassuring you that all is well."

And that was true. Not a single question was asked that I'd feared. Before leaving the airport, I wrote down this post-interview prayer. It started with gratitude. It ended with an affirmation that the situation would continue to be blessed by divine Love: "Thank you, God. That was wonderful. Truly, Your reassuring love was present at that meeting. I sure felt it expressed by him [the interviewer]. And I think he felt it expressed by me. I know that Your love doesn't stop now - it's ongoing. Its power to bless and heal, to uplift and sustain, is unending. I know it will manifest itself in his life and mine in wonderful ways. I refuse to second guess what was said and not said. I leave it in Your hands. I know that everything will unfold according to Your special plan for all concerned."

Well, somebody else got that job. But it was a success story for me, too. I didn't despair. I trusted that God had brought another individual together with that institution in just the right way. That was reason for me to be happy. We are all one family. I knew that I could trust divine Love to take care of me in an equally good way. And She has! I'm now engaged in wonderful work that is clearly better suited to my family and me.

You can also see the reassuring power of Love blessing you and everyone else in good ways. No matter what.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society