Article April 20, 1998 Issue

Too many problems?

No list of troubles is too long to take to God.

By Barbara Beth Whitewater

One of my favorite childhood toys was a kaleidoscope. I still remember looking through the hole at the end of the cardboard tube and being amazed at how, with each turn of the casing at the other end, a different pattern of colors would appear. Some were pretty and some were not. But they were all the result of that same bit of stuff going around and around.

I was reminded of this one day as I sat down at my desk. I had a whole list of problems I was facing, and initially they seemed overwhelming. Then I thought of these words: "Evil is neither quality nor quantity: it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it" (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 12–13).

No matter how many different problems may stare us in the face, there is a spiritual truth that cuts right through the heaviness and lifts us up, giving us the strength and wisdom to solve those problems. It is the truth that God, the only true power in the universe, is ever present and fills all space. What looks like a universe that is coming apart in the form of a laundry list of troubles all boils down to the same "bit of stuff" going around—that is, the false belief that God, good, is sometimes absent from His creation, and that evil can therefore find a foothold.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Infection healed