For some time, I had been very unhappy in my dark basement apartment. But I felt I could do nothing about moving until some financial obligations were completed. After five years, when those were wrapped up, I was so excited to make a change that I rushed out in search of a house—something I had been dreaming of for so long! I didn't pray or ask God for some direction. I just said, "I'm going out and rent it now. I know what I want. Then, everything will be wonderful!"

It wasn't. I moved into a house, and everything was wrong. I discovered that the yard I'd so wanted was too big and too much work for a single woman. The utilities and other expenses were far too high. The neighborhood was not pleasant—police were always raiding the next-door neighbor for drugs or coming to control loud, screaming domestic disputes or penned-up dogs that were constantly barking. The situation was a total disaster.

I could barely wait for the end of my six months' commitment. As that time neared, I began to look at other options. And at this point, I called a Christian Science practitioner to ask for her supportive prayers about my housing. I poured out my story, telling her I now realized I had approached finding a place to live all wrong and needed to pray this time. She just said, "Stop looking!" When I said I'd given notice and had to find something, she suggested that I read the short prose work No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy and an article in a current Christian Science Journal that she thought addressed my situation. And, beyond that, she encouraged me: "Get off the track of, 'I've got to search,' and listen for God's direction. He is in control of His own universe. Remember, as the Bible instructs, 'Be still, and know that I am God'" (Ps. 46:10).

I stopped frantically making calls and looking at apartments and spent some time looking for a better understanding of God's control of my life. It was two weeks until moving day. I did make arrangements for movers, but told them I could not give them a destination yet.

My time of spiritual study brought out this idea: "All must be of God, and not our own, separated from Him" (Mary Baker Eddy, Retrospection and Instrospection, p. 57). My study also showed that if God reflects Himself in His entire creation, then the good we long to experience comes from God—it doesn't originate with us. God hasn't given us a flawed existence separate from Him, in the hope that we can somehow make that existence perfect. I saw that I didn't need to search for what was available and make recommendations to God, but rather, I needed to listen for His guidance. And I felt calmer and more optimistic every day.

Then one afternoon a man came into our office who had a condo for rent that was exactly what I wanted. It was a perfect location near a park and a hiking path, and ten minutes from my office. It was the perfect price, and the size and style that exactly met my needs. It was as full of light as my basement had been of darkness (a direct correlation to my thoughts!). Even the move went smoothly. No detail was lacking.

I've been here five and a half years, and every day I am grateful for the harmony and happiness of this home. What a difference there was when I set about witnessing God's plan of good for me instead of trying to make my own plan!

Peggy Shuster
Denver, Colorado