If [God] is All, He can have no consciousness of anything unlike Himself; because, if He is omnipresent, there can be nothing outside of Himself.

Now this self-same God is our helper. He pities us. He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers.

— Mary Baker Eddy Unity of Good, pp. 3–4

MOST PEOPLE think of career in terms of their occupation. But our various occupations don't really constitute our real careers.

A few definitions may be helpful here. Webster's original dictionary includes a reference to career as a "race," and that same work defines a race as "a movement, or progress of any kind." In the Bible, the Apostle Paul spoke of a race in terms of the life we live, and said, "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1). What is this race we each are asked to run? Is it a race for money, power, and position? Those definitions offer insight into a different view of progress—and a different measure of one's career.

All individuals and families have legitimate human needs, and it is right to expect that these needs will be provided for in a comfortable manner. But since most of us regard our occupations as the source of income with which to meet these needs, the primary focus is often on moving our occupations forward in order to gain more and live better.

Paul, on the other hand, was speaking of a career related to spiritual progress, based on the teachings of Christ Jesus. And while the master teacher did acknowledge that we all have specific human needs, Jesus went on to establish important priorities for us. He said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," and then he promised, "and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). Jesus said that our primary movement should be toward spiritual development. Again, Jesus was acutely aware of the human need and cared that it be properly met, but nevertheless he advised that our occupations not become our chief focus.

While many would agree with Jesus' point, actually following his demand is another matter. When society says you must first focus on the success of your career to get ahead in life, Jesus' demand may seem impractical if not impossible. Some people may even fear that Jesus' demand may actually jeopardize the assurance of success in life. But Jesus said plainly that all we humanly need will be added. This does not exclude the income we need that comes through our occupations. All it does is ask that we first value and pursue spiritual movement of thought and action—and then trust.

In the book of John, Jesus stated that he came so that humankind "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). God would never allow us to have a poor, unfulfilling existence, but rather an experience rich in deep spiritual fulfillment and the unspeakable blessings that are the natural result of such progress. Proof of this truth permeates Jesus' own life work.

For example, when Jesus first met his disciple Peter, a commercial fisherman, Peter had recently returned from an unsuccessful fishing trip. Jesus urged him, much to Peter's objection, to set out again. This time, although in the same waters, the catch was so overwhelming that it broke the net (see Luke 5:4–6). Could it be that Peter had been giving primary focus to his occupation, and that the lack of a catch signified the absence of more specific spiritual focus and movement? Jesus, in having Peter set out again, was already teaching him—and the rest of us—the importance of spiritual priorities and the rich abundance that accompanies the decision to aspire to putting the things of Spirit first in all of our activities. His final comment to Peter: "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men" (Luke 5:10). Now, Peter's life would include much more than the mere attempt to catch fish.

The same basic truth that Jesus taught Peter is of eternal importance and applies to all ages. I saw clear evidence of it as a young boy in our family of seven. My dad worked hard and was very responsible. Nevertheless, my parents were always anxious about the family finances, and there was generally a shortfall at the end of the month. Dad would give his bi-weekly paycheck to my mother, and she would do the best she could in caring for the family until the next check came.

One Sunday morning en route to church, something happened that changed our family's priorities—and our sense of security. On the surface it looked like a matter of money, but it actually had to do with learning a lesson about the true nature of employment. That morning, my mother felt a strong prayerful impulse to place all that she had in her purse in the church collection. Knowing she seldom had anything more than a dollar or two in her purse, she willingly agreed to obey the direction.

When collection time came, she opened her purse, and, to her surprise, she saw all the cash from Dad's most recent paycheck. Torn between her desire to provide for her family and honor the divine instruction she'd received that morning, she closed her purse and allowed the collection to pass. But, continuing to struggle with this decision, she quietly put all that was in her purse into the collection after church.

When Dad found out about this, he wasn't angry. But he was definitely concerned. There were no other evident funds available to the family, we had minimal food in the kitchen, and two weeks separated us from another paycheck.

What was happening here? My parents were learning to lean on Jesus' teachings about spiritual priorities. In connection with their natural desire to provide for their family, they inadvertently were seeing Dad's job as providing the income needed to meet this desire. There had been an ordering in their lives whereby they'd consciously or unconsciously placed greater emphasis on the movement of Dad's business endeavors than on the spiritual movement of our family. This was "the race," that true movement, that Paul said is set before each of us, that Jesus said should come before all else because it is the very foundation of all else.

Putting two weeks' worth of family income into the church collection had put us where Peter was that day he caught no fish. We now had nothing. But as with Peter, the Christ had us go out again and learn of the capacity of divine order—not just the ability of the divine demand to provide for the human need, but more important its ability to reveal the immeasurable and irrevocable majesty of life in Spirit. Our family was coming to trust, value, and focus first on the things of God and to allow Dad's occupation to be subordinate in serving this divine demand.

So what happened? As it turned out, we received a check in the mail the following week. Before my dad was married, he'd loaned money to an acquaintance, and now, many years later, this man was paying him back—totally unexpectedly and with no solicitation. The amount met our needs perfectly. To us, it fulfilled Jesus' promise that "all things shall be added unto you."

But the real blessing came in the days and months that followed. From that point forward, my parents saw a marked transformation in their financial situation. More and more, they first sought "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," and placed less and less emphasis on simply getting Dad's business endeavors to move forward in order to have more finances. The anxiousness and insecurity vanished. Instead of a shortfall, there was always an abundance to meet every need we had. And most of all, this spiritual seeking continually revealed something more of the abundant life Jesus promised.

This same lesson buoyed me when I later left a successful real estate business to go into the full-time practice of Christian Science healing. My career had been financially successful. But it took on a totally new direction one day when this line from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures spoke to me: "To pursue other vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of this Science, is not possible" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 457). Although I'd read this many times before, on this particular day it was as if there were a neon sign around that statement.

The very next day, I took steps to close my business and become a Christian Science practitioner. I can't say I didn't entertain financial concerns, but I recognized these suggestions as the counterargument to putting God first in my life. In fact, my wife and I have never been in want because of this decision, and we've found that our needs have always been met in a beautiful and abundant way.

After Jesus' crucifixion and prior to his ascension, his disciples returned to their old fishing careers and again caught nothing. Even after all that he had taught and proved to them about the spiritual nature of their work, their primary thought, for the moment, was right back where he had originally found them. They were seeking first a way of living, rather than seeking to learn and live what he had taught them.

But Jesus came to the seashore, found them where they were, and gently instructed them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find" (John 21:6). Obedient to his command, they found their nets were once again filled—and they recognized the instructions had come from their Lord, the risen Christ. With this realization, there was no going back to their former careers, their former way of thinking.

Like them, we, too, can cast our thought of career on the right side, and discover the full nets of spiritual living that await each of us. As we acknowledge and seek to honor Jesus' teachings in our own unique way, we'll be led to discover a more spiritually fulfilling life and find those needful things added, without doubt, concern, or heaviness. We'll discover in our careers that "... the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good" (Science and Health, p. 201). That's the side we can all draw from. CSS