The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote,

Should our plans go "a–gley," or awry, it may not mean that disaster has overtaken us; it could be that the very best thing has happened, though we may not see it at the time.

The plans of Saul of Tarsus went completely awry. After obtaining letters of authority, he set out on a campaign to persecute, torment, and imprison as many adherents of the Christian faith as he could find. But, as we read in the twenty–sixth chapter of Acts, something took place which set at naught what he had planned to do. A light from heaven shone round about him, and a voice from heaven told him of his true mission. He was temporarily blinded; but with the full understanding of his mission, his sight returned, and he was ready to go forward at God's command and under His direction.

Hitherto Saul had honestly believed that he was doing right. It took spiritual illumination to show him that he was wrong. Speaking of this later, he wrote (I Tim. 1:12, 13), "I Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief."

If we have been working "ignorantly in unbelief," albeit with the best of motives, the same divine guidance that shaped Saul's course will take a hand in our affairs, possibly in a way of which we never dreamed, when the light of truth illumines our thought. God spoke thus through Isaiah (42:16): "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things willI do unto them, and not forsake them."

Study of the Bible in the light of Christian Science reveals that the promises voiced by preacher and prophet were not merely assurances of good to be bestowed at a later date but that they represent present facts supported by spiritual law. Whoever acknowledges them as such, and understandingly accepts them, receives the offer, the promise, and the reward.

What if the way seems strange? We have but to follow, knowing that God, divine Mind, is omnipresent. The darkness and insecurity, whatever is complex and difficult, will fade out of our thought and experience as we let the light of joy, trust in God, confidence, and hope shine in our hearts. When we realize that God is all–inclusive, all–pervading, all true Being, we can safely rest in the truth that He careth for us. We are never forsaken. The unity between God and man can never be broken.

Mrs. Eddy's human experience included a broken home, estrangement from friends and family, reversal of fortune, envy, ridicule, sickness, and over–whelming odds of many descriptions. Yet she writes out of the depths of her experience (Miscellany, pp. 149, 150), "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee."

There may be many lessons to learn before we have learned the full lesson of Love. We may have to learn that pride rides to a fall; that self–assertiveness blocks the way to progress; that greed, envy, and personal ambition lead into mazes of confusion and doubt, culs–de–sac of disappointment, frustration, and destruction. Our human experience is not so important as our way of thinking. Conversely, our way of thinking will determine our human experience.

Who can say what plans the two brothers, Simon and Andrew, may have had before that memorable day when Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and said to them, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men" (Mark 1:17)? One thing we do know, however, and that is that these men were receptive and obedient, for the following verse reads, "And straight–way they forsook their nets, and followed him."

So long as we are honest and sincere, we have nothing to fear if things seem to go wrong or if matters do not work out exactly as we had hoped or planned. If we trust God to guide and lead us, we shall find ourselves led into paths of greater usefulness and activity.

Two lines in a well–loved hymn read (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 134),

The way of God is a way of righteousness, or rightness. All who walk that way gain joy, peace, and dominion. Chastened by the humble acknowledgment of God's unfailing government, which allows no mistake or setback, we can face the new direction with confidence and a deeper trust in God, knowing that, as Mrs. Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (pp. 3), "He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers."