Article April 6, 1946 Issue

One's Right Place

MARJORIE C. SELLERS

Do we believe that we live in surroundings with which we have become dissatisfied and which in some cases we even hate? Are we convinced that our job is uninteresting, that our efforts are unrecognized, that our progress is impeded, and that generally we are in a rut? We may have striven with great urgency to free ourselves from the present material conditions with which we are so dissatisfied, and to put ourselves into others which meet more with our approval. But often such human strivings are found to be unhappy and fruitless.

The longing to change one material condition for another is a danger signal which really indicates our need for an understanding of spiritual being and the ever-present reality of God's perfect creation. We need to see the absolute nothingness of a material concept of man, environment, and work, and the satisfying nature of the plans that unfold for us without effort as all human planning is put aside, and Principle, divine Love, is allowed to govern thought and action. Mary Baker Eddy knew how essential it is to do just this, for she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 185), "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness."

Contrary to mortal supposition, man's environment is not four walls, or a certain material locality, be it beautiful or tidy. Nor is it a country either materially prosperous or suffering from the effects of war. Nor is man a dissatisfied mortal, loathing the surroundings into which a capricious fate seems to have thrown him, mesmerizing him with the belief that he needs to move from one geographical locality to another in order to be happy. Man, as Christian Science reveals, is a spiritual idea, inseparable from his creator, God. Man's only environment is the kingdom of heaven. This fact was never stated more plainly than by the Apostle Paul when in speaking to the Athenians about God he said (Acts 17:28). "In him we live, and move, and have our being." Man is always conscious of the ever-presence of this kingdom. His true home is spiritual consciousness.

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