Article January 17, 2011 Issue

A spiritual model of employment

By Judy Spiers

According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of American workers have had their hours cut, are working part time, or have been—or are currently—unemployed. It may be enough to make a person cry out like David in the Bible: “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Ps. 61:2).

There is good reason to turn to God in troubled times. Divine Love can show us the way out of unemployment to good and satisfying job opportunities. And I’ve found that how we think about employment has a lot to do with our outcome.

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy explained: “We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind?” Right now, there just might be more talk about unemployment than employment! That passage continues: “Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding it before your gaze continually. . . . We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives” (p. 248).