Article January 19, 2015 Issue

Unexpected answers

Stephen Carlson

A number of years ago I felt impelled, as a result of prayer, to leave my full-time job and try something entirely different. I had a talent for celebrity impressions, which people had appreciated over the years, and it seemed the right time to share that with a wider audience. While the work of stand-up comedy was generally enjoyable, there were a number of challenges, not the least of which was getting hired by various agents and club owners.

I prayed daily about this issue and occasionally asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner. Calls for work did come along as a direct result of turning to God on a regular basis. But to me the most interesting aspect of this unfoldment was that job offers almost always came from an unexpected source. If I’d had a successful night working for a certain agent, I felt I could count on hearing again from that individual soon. But things didn’t work out that way. Contrary to my limited sense of where work would come from, when I received a call it was usually from someone I hadn’t considered, sometimes from someone I didn’t know at all.

While a career in comedy didn’t turn out to be a long-term, full-time pursuit, the experience helped me see more fully that the human mind tends to have a restricted, materially outlined concept of the possibilities for good; whereas the one divine Mind, God, is infinite and therefore knows no limits.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

A business of spiritual ideas