Article November 13, 2000 Issue

How's your bottom line?

Finding wealth in the middle of financial disaster

By Kathleen J. Wiegand

WHAT DETERMINES YOUR happiness and your success? The numbers on the bottom line? Your financial situation is a serious matter, but it doesn't tell you what you most need to know about the source of happiness and success.

In the Bible, Jesus gives his listeners a recipe for these things when he says, ". . . seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). I don't see this as Jesus' telling us we shouldn't or won't have the things we need. Rather, I think he was stating priorities, indicating that spiritual-mindedness, not material gain, should be the goal, and that putting God first would open the door to having what matters most in life: peace, conscious worth, joy, satisfaction, consistent supply—to name a few. These things come from an awareness of our unbreakable relation to God, who is the source of all good.

To help explain what God is, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, uses a variety of names. One of these is Soul. In describing this facet of God's nature, she writes, "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul" (Science and Health, p. 60).

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