Article April 30, 1979 Issue

Recovering wasted years

MERLE WITHAM MILLER

One who has suffered dashed hopes about a career, relationships, or a combination of such challenges may feel that precious years were outright wasted and must be written off as worthless. The Bible, however, tells us, "Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."^{II Pet. 3:8;}

Could an eternal God create man subject to time mandates and losses resulting from them? No. These are mortal beliefs, not concepts of the Mind that is infinite Love.

In our real identity as immortal ideas we reflect God's being, the completeness of Spirit. We can acknowledge now our real, spiritual status and daily live the integrity of this true self. If we've been striving to do this and yet have had disappointments, setbacks, even failures, we need not feel that anything real has been lost. The true value of our lives is not determined by the successes or failures we've had in a limited amount of time. In the Christian Science textbook Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded this Science, writes: "Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-filled years."^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 598–599;} Obedience to the Christ brings eternal rewards.