In speaking of opportunity Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 271), "Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise Christian healing." Opportunity, then, comes as the result of spiritual activity. Opportunity appears in the human experience as we are willing to turn from matter to Spirit, as we are willing to learn and to practice Christian healing.

Mind, God, conceives man and knows his completeness. Man reflects that knowing. So he includes the ability and opportunity to express his completeness continuously and progressively. The acknowledgment of this spiritual fact operates as a law of unlimited opportunity for progress in the human experience.

Are we employed and accepting the argument that opportunity is limited or that our employer does not like us? Perhaps we have been told that there is no future in our job. Or perhaps our work is what is called routine. Through reflection Mind's provision for its beloved son unfolds continuously and progressively. This spiritual fact understood and maintained will either give us a new position or enlarge our present one.

Let us not be tricked into thinking we have no opportunity. The very circumstance of which we complain gives us our opportunity: our opportunity to cast our net on the right side for Truth; our opportunity to learn and to practice Christian healing. Every adverse circumstance is an opportunity to demonstrate the truth of being.

We must be alert not to lose sight of the reality of God's oneness and allness. We must not become so concerned with the details of what we seem to be doing humanly that we do not do the scientific right knowing which demonstrates the needed truth. To accept every circumstance as an opportunity to think rightly is to practice Christian healing and so to demonstrate progress.

As we acknowledge the spiritual fact of opportunity, we are freed from unwise human planning. Willful outlining limits our progress. Real opportunity is as infinite and ever present as its source, divine Mind. And it is always available and unlimited.

Opportunity does not depend on chance, time, person, influence, geographical location, or education. Real opportunity is Love's provision for the man of Love's creating. Your opportunity, my opportunity, is not dependent on what anyone else does or does not do. It is not limited by anything that may have happened to us in the past. Real opportunity is spiritual awareness of Truth. Since this is so, illimitable progress becomes evident in the human experience as we demonstrate the truth of being.

This was proved to be true in the experience of a Christian Scientist. He seemed as hemmed in by limitation on every side as were the children of Israel when they came to the Red Sea. In reading this Bible story in the fourteenth chapter of Exodus he realized that Moses was not deterred by the material arguments of obstruction. That which appeared to be an adverse circumstance to the children of Israel was to Moses merely an opportunity to prove the power of God.

Every time this Bible story was read a sense of peace came to the student. Then as he prayed one morning the words, "The way will open for you," came clearly to his thought. The earnest affirmation of perfect God and perfect man as the basis of demonstration continued for about ten days. Then the full plan which met every requirement unfolded in thought in its entirety. The plan was acceptable in every detail to all concerned. The student went steadily on and on into greater opportunity for progress than he had ever envisioned.

Let us accept the spiritual fact of opportunity and hold steadfastly to this truth. Then the unfoldment of opportunity in the human experience comes naturally and normally and appears as that which meets the human need.

As spiritual activity, opportunity is not personal; therefore it is not competitive. One of God's children does not have more than another. If we wish to demonstrate unlimited opportunity, we must understand that our opportunity depends upon our individual demonstration of our true selfhood.

A belief in incompleteness leads to envy and rivalry. Mrs. Eddy says in speaking of the law of God (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 204, 205), "The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry, evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself."

We do not find the answer to any problem within the problem. We do not find our progress in mortal mind. Let us turn from the limiting arguments of mortal mind and accept only the illimitable law of the divine Mind. Then we find outside the problem the peace and power necessary to demonstrate progress.

Progress appears in human experience in the degree that we claim our spiritual birthright. Mrs. Eddy assures us (ibid., p. 183), "Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection." The acknowledgment of this spiritual fact unfolds in consciousness as the law of God. It appears in the daily experience as constantly increasing good.

If we desire to demonstrate unlimited opportunity, we never compare our progress with another's or compare what we possess or earn or understand with what another possesses or earns or understands. When Peter asked Jesus concerning John (John 21:21), "Lord, and what shall this man do?" Jesus replied, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me."

Are we disconcerted by the activity of others in our church, our neighborhood, or our business? If we are dissatisfied in our church, we have the opportunity to practice Christian healing and thereby change our concept of church. If we are unhappy with our neighbor, we have the opportunity to practice Christian healing and thereby change our concept of neighbor. Wherever we seem to be, the change always has to be in our thinking. The command of the Christ still stands, "Follow thou me."

To acknowledge God and His ideas as All gives untold peace and power—unlimited opportunity. All good belongs to God. It is ours now, but only through reflection, not through self-aggrandizement. In the words of Paul (Rom. 3:27): "Where is boasting then? It is excluded." Let us claim unlimited opportunity through casting our net on the right side for Truth. Unlimited opportunity is ours now as we practice Christian healing.