Article November 4, 1985 Issue

Adrift? Divine Mind guides our course

H. SHELDON THOMPSON

There are few things more unsettling than having to make an important decision without feeling a clear sense of direction. Too often needless hours, days, weeks, even months and years, are wasted in feeling at sea, adrift without any clear sense of what course to take. And when the time of decision does arrive and we have to chart a course—be it choosing a trade or profession, committing oneself to a marriage partner, deciding on a place to live, or any of the other decisions we make during our lives—too often we think those decisions must be based on external forces of circumstance, others' opinions, or whim. We yearn for that clear sense of direction expressed in the words of Isaiah: "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."^{Isa. 30:21.}

Through the study and practice of Christian Science we can eliminate that period of weary wandering, that sense of being adrift, or that fear of boarding a ship whose destination we really aren't sure is the right one for us. An important first step in removing this haphazard sense of things is to recognize that there is but one God who captains and empowers the ship of being—one divine Mind guiding and governing its spiritual and perfect creation, man in God's likeness, our true selfhood. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, makes this arresting statement: "Only by understanding that there is but one power,—not two powers, matter and Mind,—are scientific and logical conclusions reached."^{Science and Health, p. 270.}

On the human scene, the winds of chance and circumstance would blow us in many different directions and strand us on sand bars of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. But God is not dependent upon nor affected by such human conditions or distractions. The divine Mind knows all, comprehends all, and man as Mind's expression can't drift or be left high and dry. He is ever at one with God, expressing Him. When we seek and find divine direction as the result of prayer, communion with the divine Mind, we need never fear to follow. The Christ, divine Mind's impartation of wisdom and right ideas, is unceasing, immediate, clear, perfect.

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