Editorial December 26, 1936 Issue

Man Is Not in Trouble

George Shaw Cook

This is the usual time of year for casting up accounts, reckoning one's financial status, and forecasting the budget for the coming year. At such times some find themselves to be in a sound financial position; others, perhaps, not so much so; and still others in anything but a desirable situation. There are those in the last category who may ask, "Why am I always in a hole?" meaning, of course, Why am I perpetually in financial difficulty? Why do I continually experience a sense of insufficiency?

There may be many reasons, humanly speaking, why some people habitually experience lack and limitation. They may, in belief, lack wisdom, foresight, good judgment, moderation. Or they may seem to lack intelligence, initiative, energy, persistence, honesty, integrity. Lacking these desirable qualities, they quite naturally manifest a sense of deficiency in their income, a sense of discrepancy between income and expenditure. But perhaps the most frequent cause for being "in a hole," or in difficulty, is the general belief of mortals that such a condition exists. What is needed, then, to get out of the "hole" and to stay out of it? Recognition of the fact that no such thing exists, or ever did exist, in reality. God, divine Love, never made a difficulty or predicament; and since God did not make it, it does not exist; for God, infinite good, made all, and "without him was not any thing made that was made." Therefore there is no "hole," predicament, or difficulty in which one could be. The only thing that is in a "hole" or in difficulty is mortal mind, and that is quite a natural place for it to be. Let it stay there, then, but do not let it make you believe that it is you.

Writing about the Biblical story of Jonah, the religious editor of a large daily newspaper credits a well-known Bible scholar and student of Aramaic as saying that "when the writer of Jonah depicted the prophet confined within the belly of a great fish, he was merely saying with more elaborate imagery what an American means today when he says, 'I am in a hole.' " The fish, according to this Bible scholar, is an Oriental symbol for "trouble, disturbance, and indecision."

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