Where has anyone ever found greater peace and satisfaction than in that beautiful sense of true fulfillment which eliminates frustration, envy, and futility? Many may be continuing a seemingly fruitless quest for this state; others may merely have had brief glimpses of it. That it seems elusive to most persons accounts for much of the restlessness in the world. Yet many years before Christ Jesus' time a spiritually-minded prophet could refer to God as saying, "As the rain cometh down ... and ... watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud ... so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please." ^{Isa. 55:10, 11;}

We all rightly wish the personal fulfillment and security of being loved, needed, and able to help others. In addition we rightly desire a full, satisfying, and stimulating lifework. Can one through religion gain both personal and career fulfillment in today's world with its ever-expanding population and ever-increasing automation? Since the social structure is inevitably pyramidal, the incentives, hopes, and desires common to us all would in many instances appear to conflict. The Psalmist, though, declared, "Thouopenest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." ^{Ps. 145:16;}

This promise does not allow for our being hopelessly lost in the anonymity of a burgeoning population. Where God is known, no unloved, unwanted, unimportant individual exists. Here is no indifferent impersonality of a remotely controlled machinelike operation. Quite rightly one rebels against the prospect of anything that would seem to extinguish his individuality. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, assures us, "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 70;}

If religion is to help us find and fill our own places in the infinite scheme of things, it must be more than a mere sop for frustration or a rationalization of our mediocrities or failures. Christian Science teaches that by turning his thought unreservedly to God one gains a true perspective of value and a right sense of direction toward his unique contribution and is led step by step to the complete development of his talents, with full opportunity for their expression and recognition. This Science brings the prospect of full fruition of the Christly promise, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ^{John 10:10;}

A right sense of values must be the starting point in one's search for fulfillment. This fact is pointed up graphically in Mrs. Eddy's Message to The Mother Church for 1902 when she asks, "Who of the world's lovers ever found her true?" ^{'02., p. 17;} Her answer includes the statement, "Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can."

Surely we must first fulfill God's law if we are to experience fulfillment ourselves! Expressing the maximum of love to our Maker and to our brother men brings God's law into our lives. This love gives us the right perspective and frees us from personal emptiness and self-pity as well as from the headlong plunge of selfish will, driving ambition, and blind, human pride. Then we are ready to be directed by our all-knowing and all-loving God, and we find our right channel of activity.

In his ministry Jesus emphasized the qualities of humility and service. These enabled him to aid mankind. Christian Science teaches that God has great service for each of us to perform, but we must each attain the humility that opens our thought to His unerring guidance. Of itself humanity does not possess the self-knowledge to know its own fitness or talent. Human testing and counseling do not supply this knowledge. Of themselves men do not possess the wisdom or unerring direction of divine intelligence. Through Christian Science one learns that real humility is a conscious at-one-ment with God wherein he can in full trust let God govern his thinking.

Perhaps this state of thought is best expressed by the Psalmist in his advice: "Delight thyself ... in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord ... and he shall bring it to pass." ^{Ps. 37:4, 5;} If one truly delights himself in God, the desires of his heart, far from being foolish or futile, will be God-directed. True fulfillment must ever lead in paths away from self.

We often see persons with a sound sense of values, who, though they have started their lives correctly, have never properly developed them. The deepfreeze of human anxiety, rigid planning and outlining, and limited personal thinking have arrested the natural unfoldment of many a career.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," which with the Bible constitutes the joint pastor in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." ^{Science and Health, p. 1.} Christian Science, the Science of effective prayer, assures us that if our desires are pure enough to qualify as prayers, they will be answered. Spiritual unfoldment, like the opening of a flower, cannot be forced, but it need not be slow.

Emphasizing the Biblical truth that God is Love, Christian Science assures us that as we understand Him and are obedient to His laws our righteous plans cannot be postponed or blighted. Perfect fulfillment is always the rule in God's kingdom. This includes abundant opportunity to use our God-given talents. Since each of us "must fill his own niche in time and eternity," competition can never deprive us of this rightful place or opportunity.

Let us be very clear that fulfillment can be gained only through spiritual means. Fulfillment, as most top executives will frankly admit, is far more than mere human accomplishment or success. The true attainment of fulfillment is never a wearing, nerve-racking process but rather a strengthening and uplifting one. The outlook it affords never makes one unsure of his position but conscious that he is not a self-made but a God-made individual.

Regardless of who we are or where we may be, each of us in truth is the object of the love of God that never varies and always satisfies. In Science His children are always needed, unfailingly secure, ever provided with purpose and direction, confidently aware of their God-given ability to fulfill His unending, enriching assignments.