Article April 2, 1921 Issue

Opportunity

ELSIE FARR

The human mind is prone to make excuses, and one of the most frequent excuses put forth is lack of opportunity. This person or that person boasts of the remarkable achievements he might have attained had he had the opportunity, while another wastes time repining over a supposed lack of opportunity for progress, missing meantime the great opportunity to exercise his God-given dominion by overcoming the very circumstances which he has been accepting in the false name of lack of opportunity. Such individuals might well ask themselves what opportunity means to them. It might be at first unpleasant to admit that they had been regarding opportunity much in the light of a fairy godmother who in some mysterious way, without any effort on their part, would suddenly surround them with their heart's desire, but after all, might there not be some aptness in the illustration? A child who fretted because his mathematical problems did not "come out right," while he paid no heed to the rules of mathematics, would gain little sympathy, and yet the child's attitude is in many respects analogous to that sometimes shown by older persons. The fullness and completeness of infinite Mind are reflected as Mind's idea, man, and are equally demonstrable to one and all.

Now it is always well to be quite sure in what name a claim is made, just as men in authority, before acting on a claim or petition, if they are wise, first ascertain in whose name it is presented, and this largely determines its validity. If the petition was made in the name of a supposed organization found to have no valid existence, or was made without authority in the name of some one who denied all knowledge thereof, it would at once be declared null and void. The one Ego, divine Mind, being infinite, knows nothing of lack of opportunity, nor does its infinite idea, man, because his very being is infinite opportunity to express the completeness of good. Hence such a claim,—in fact, any argument of lack of any kind,—can only emanate from the counterfeit, the suppositional opposite, of the one Mind, and by reason of its false origin, it is on the face of it without validity; it is merely an excuse for the inevitable limitations of the human mind. But we can at least discover the truth by reversing the material fable. Thus we find that only evil, the suppositional absence of good, is without opportunity, because good is infinite, and therefore there is no place for its unlikeness. Good is All.

The ever presence of true opportunity has been affirmed and reaffirmed times without number, but never more clearly than in the words of the Christ, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." The Christ, or Truth, the Savior of mankind, is ever at hand for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, declaring the true sense of life and freedom and pointing the way to the realization of God's kingdom. The trouble is that mortals are so engrossed in the belief of pleasure in matter that they frequently do not hear the still, small voice of Truth, calling them away from the din of material strife to find enduring joy and peace in the conscious at-one-ment with the Principle of man's being. So absorbed has mankind become in a finite, fleeting sense of life that it actually resists, perhaps unconsciously, the opportunity which is always present to turn away from failure and disappointment to the fullness of Life.

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Opportunity

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