HerWork

God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies.

--Mary Baker Eddy

Ideas. To get a business rolling or to create a new product, you need ideas. But what happens if you’re not feeling particularly creative or insightful? Your connection with Spirit can open the floodgates.

Some time back, I got laid off from a job I loved. For about a month, I was depressed, I missed my work friends, I had no idea what I would be doing next. It was even hard to pray. It was like my mind was shut off, and I kept coming up dry. But I know I had friends and family who cared about me and were praying for me.

My mom in particular never lost faith that I am governed by divine Spirit, which I also think of as infinite Mind. In retrospect, I think her knowing this truth about me helped a lot. It kept me receptive to what Mind was sending. And if there’s one thing an infinite Mind must have, it’s ideas. Mind is sending these ideas to its creation every moment.

Not surprisingly, one day I woke up with an idea. It was: Start writing. So I did. It was little things at first—Weblog entries, emails, short essays. This gave me a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Then, I got another idea—to visit a local church I’d never been to before. This was pretty out of the ordinary for me, because I was already an active member at my own church. But, the other church’s services didn’t conflict with my own, so I decided to go the next weekend.

That Sunday, after the service, I joined their little social gathering. I met a man who overheard me talking about my denomination. He had always wanted to connect with someone of my faith because he had a particular business he thought would be a good fit. He asked what I did, and I sort of halfheartedly admitted to being a writer. He instantly recommended that I attend an upcoming business expo in our area. He insisted that it would be a huge help to me. I scribbled the information on his business card and looked it up online when I got home. It looked harmless enough, so I made up my mind to go.

The expo had several hundred vendors with booths. I wandered around with a fist full of home-made business cards, claiming to be a writer. I made eight or nine good contacts, one of whom invited me to his networking meeting that week. I thought, heck, even though it’s about a half hour from home, I’ll give it a try.

The networking meeting was a blast, and it turned out to be one chapter of a much larger organization. Several other chapters were closer to my home. I set out on a voyage to visit each one over the next few weeks. I met scores of new people, and even garnered some clients. One chapter in particular fit me like a glove, so I filled out an application to join. And suddenly, I was a professional writer with a new start-up business. More clients came on board, and income started rolling in. The business has continued to grow since then.

I used to think that a job was something I had to go out and get. A company or a boss would assign me a task, I would do it, and they’d pay me. Now I could see that there’s more going on. At about the time I joined the networking group, I came across the quotation at the beginning of this article: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies.” I suddenly saw this is what had been happening to me.

At each point along the way, I’d had an idea. To go someplace, to talk to a certain person, to follow up on an invitation. It was almost like the ideas were breadcrumbs leading me to a destination, which would then turn out to be a step to another destination. My “job” was to follow the breadcrumbs—to take action on the ideas that were coming to me.

Now I think of that as my only job. Responding to ideas is all I have to do. The ideas lead to daily supply. Only following up on ideas after I’ve gotten what I need is doing things in reverse. It’s by following up on ideas that I get what I need.

Whenever I’m worried about running out of money, I remember that my supply comes from ideas. As long as I’m getting ideas, I’ll be fine. And I’ll keep getting them—because they’re coming from the infinite Mind, God.

Visit SpiritOnTheJob.com.

We were out of money—and the tax-man cometh.

Some months prior, I’d been laid off. But instead of getting back to the corporate scramble, I decided it was a good time to fulfill an old desire. I wanted to grow spiritually, to help my fellow man, and to serve God. I was sure this would not only benefit the world, but also myself and my two kids.

I volunteered, I headed up projects that allowed others to serve, I prayed for people, I began a ministry as a spiritual healer. Some projects allowed me to earn money, others did not. But every moment felt firth—I was growing in my understanding of the Divine, and my family was happier than ever.

When I dragged out my budget spreadsheet in preparation for doing my taxes and ran some numbers, it looked like we were make it through the spring. But when summer hit, my unemployment insurance would run out. In the fall I would start a new project (for pay), but until then, our negative variance would be $2,500—and this was before figuring out the taxes I owed.

I stared at that number, displayed in stunning red on my spreadsheet. It was such a little number compared to the income I’d had before going into spiritual service. Was this the end of my new career?

I’d been convinced that the best plan was to devote 100% of my time and energy serving God. But I still had the children to consider and our long-term well-being. Was I crazy to think that I could get very far in this money-fueled world without always knowing when the next influx of cash was coming?

Underneath all the budget concerns and bills was a deeper fear—that if I couldn’t make it financially, I’d somehow fail God. I was almost afraid to ask Him. The thought snuck in that maybe He’d never really wanted me to do this work in the first place.

But I went to Him anyway, in prayer. Where else could I go?

“Okay,” I prayed. “You’re in charge here. I know You love me and the kids. I know that if You want me to work for You, You’ll make sure I get the job done.”

In those moments of prayerful humility, I felt reassured that God was with me, that I wasn’t facing things alone. I thought about all the good I’d been doing, and got a sweet sense of God’s ongoing approval. The spiritual progress I’d been making was permanent—it could never be taken away from me. He wasn’t disappointed in me—I was still His beloved daughter.

With new confidence, I was able to let go of how I thought I should serve Him, and instead became more willing to consider other options. I could say in my prayers, “If You need me to get a part-time job for a few months so that I can then come back and serve You again full-time, I’m willing. Just let me know.” And it occurred to me that wherever I wound up, whatever job I’d be doing, I would still be serving 100% if I did it to glorify God. So for a few weeks, I just waited, knowing that the direction would come—because God loves me.

April 15 was approaching, and I’d put off finding out the bad news long enough. My financial situation had brought me into unfamiliar tax territory, so I asked an accountant friend to help me. He called me after a few days.

“Brace yourself,” he said. “You’re getting a $3,000 refund.”

The shock of gratitude I felt left me sputtering for a few moments. Then I laughed—then I almost cried. Not only were my next several months taken care of, but there was even a little bonus. God always had loved me.

For the next several years, the children and I saw similar examples of that love. My employment situation has changed frequently, but that love has never wavered.