Article January 28, 1985 Issue

Starting over: there is a way

GREGORY JAMES RYBAK

Have you ever wanted a second chance? Do you wish you could start a conversation, a Monday, a relationship, or even your life all over? Nearly everyone wishes for such an opportunity at one time or another.

I remember when I had a strong desire to start fresh. It was a few months after I'd graduated from college. I was trying to establish myself in a new and large city. Despite some previous successes and a record of adjusting well to new situations, my life seemed unsteady and guidelines unclear. My college education appeared to be of little practical value in the swirl of confusion I felt. Advancement in my field of work looked, at worst, without promise, and at best, slow. What's more, I was drinking socially to relieve some of the anxiousness I felt in social situations.

At that same time I became acquainted with a student of Christian Science. Quietly, through talking with my friend, I learned of the light Christian Science sheds on the promises for man contained in the Bible. This includes seeing man as the image of the one God who is all-powerful and ever-present Principle, Love. Further it reveals that man is not a material mortal victimized by personal faults, a flawed nature, or uncontrollable circumstances. Rather, man's being is the natural outcome of God's being. And God, Spirit, is complete and perfect. As the Bible states: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.... And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."^{Gen. 1:27,31.}

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