A change of employment calls first for a change of mind. It begins with a reassessment of what work really is, a scientific job analysis in which we evaluate our human talents and purposes as they relate to the divine scheme of things. Sometimes this involves a change of the human situation; always it calls for a shift of outlook, a reconception of the nature of work from a spiritual point of view. For the serious student of Christian Science, a change of employment means a change of attitude, a higher sense of dedication and direction. It is a transformation that originates in the heart and extends to the total compass of one's activity.

Our employment picture reflects the quality of our thinking. And when this picture is troubled, we need go no further than a spiritual revision of our thinking to set things straight.

Questions are in order. Are we, for example, ready to look on our careers as the means through which heaven's harmony and rightness are brought to the world around us? Have we reached the point where we are willing to acknowledge God in all our ways by reflecting Him not only in the overall design of our lives but in their minutiae—in such mundane matters as the way we drive through traffic, in the tone of our voice when we answer the telephone, in the cheerfulness and skill due our every act as God's representatives?

What about our readiness to part with self-defeating tendencies—envy, laziness, stubbornness, self-depreciation, pride, hurt feelings? Such traits are enemies obscuring godly, prospering qualities of enthusiasm, efficiency, judgment, inventiveness, productivity, and excellence, which render our services invaluable to the world.

In short, are we ready to change, to be a new creature? If so, then we are on our way to a better job. Change of mind invariably produces change of experience.

Christian Science makes clear that our only real work is to express God—on earth as in heaven. That is our purpose, our reason for being. The first chapter of Genesis states that God created man in His own image and likeness. The search for our identity as this likeness begins with a study of the nature of God, man's Principle. The source of man's real character is found in the following definition of God given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science: "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." ^{Science and Health, p. 587;}

To have meaning in our experience, this all-embracing concept demands of us living, visible proof. Minus such proof, it would be reduced to mere abstraction. But God is a living God and dwells with each one of us. Our job is to acquaint ourselves with this mighty fact and demonstrate it in every detail of our experience by dispensing with fear, sin, suffering, and all phases of materialism. God, divine Principle, and His expression, man, cannot be separated. Paul declared, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." ^{II Cor. 6:16;}

The entire career of Christ Jesus was vivid testimony of his understanding of this close relationship between God and man. The magnitude of his acts witnessed his full awareness that the Christ, his real nature, was the manifestation of the infinite. His deep humanity attested his complete identification with divine Love. In all ways the Exemplar for us, he urged this same lifework upon everyone who would follow him in the way of Life.

Jesus once defined his and our purpose thus: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." ^{John 6:38;} And again, when one of his disciples sought a visible manifestation of God, he replied: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; ... believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? ... the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." ^{14:9, 10;} Here he proclaimed for all men the coincidence of God and man, Mind and idea. In this intimate, tender relationship of creator and creation, cause and effect, the Master beheld the inseparability of Principle and its expression.

Finding out these facts and putting them into practice wrought a thorough change in my affairs at a time when work seemed little more than a monotonous treadmill, meaningless and unrewarding. For a long period I had been feeling bored, wasted, and poor, and I could see no way out. At the time, however, I was studying Christian Science. And as I prayed honestly to see things rightly, it became clear to me that there was a way of escape and that it lay in a change of attitude. It was not entirely easy to accept this, because I had long believed the solution lay in a new job, a promotion, or a change of duties.

However, as I became willing to face the need for a new spiritual outlook rather than a shuffle of human circumstances, I began to see things altogether differently. Willingness to serve man's Principle all the day and to my full capacity in whatever came to hand began to alter the meaning of everything I did. I had glimpsed what it meant to serve God. I found that the details of each assignment provided fresh opportunities for the expression of divine attributes in human affairs.

One day I saw that any honest act is potentially creative. Its meaning and nobility lie in the degree to which it is used as a medium for bringing some facet of the divine nature to light. A sense of humility and service to God and mankind was being born in me, and with it a recognition of my worth as a representative of God. I had begun to grasp the meaning of work as the evidence of Immanuel, or "God with us," the coincidence of the human and the divine.

For example, preparation of a cost estimate ceased being a matter of routine arithmetic. It was an occasion to embody the integrity of Principle, the competence of Mind, the ingenuity of Soul, the precision of Truth. It afforded opportunities to represent Love's care, Spirit's facility, and Life's enthusiasm. Activity like this was bringing freshness and color to every aspect of what had once been a dull task.

As my outlook expanded, I soon found myself promoted to an executive position with increasing responsibilities and a substantial boost in pay. The advancement not only called for skills long fallow but for hitherto undiscovered talents. For as long as I remained in that field of work, there was continuing progress, not only in my business affairs but in other areas of activity involving higher service to mankind. From stagnation and frustration the scene had shifted to one of productive, purposeful, and enriching employment.

Mrs. Eddy declares, "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 70;} The waiting niche is coincident with the demonstration of our divinely determined uniqueness, the originality of each one's presentation of God's infinite goodness and love. It awaits fulfillment at each stage of individual experience, every hour of every day, a continuing high and holy destiny. Love's mandate for each manifestation of its nature is that it be grand, limitless, without duplicate. Man's role is to be the exemplification of God's heavenly qualities and attributes in wondrous, never-ending variety.

As God's representative, none of us can claim less than highest purpose. And we are abundantly supported in the execution of our mission. Paul puts it this way: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." ^{I Cor. 12:4–6;}

Washing the supper dishes, closing a sale, filing the day's correspondence, are as noble, as beautiful, as holy, as we make them. Guiding the affairs of a vast conglomerate or executing a monumental piece of sculpture has, qualitatively, no more of divinity in it than the accomplishment of some simple task if the latter is done with integrity. When we change our occupation from the performance of humdrum material tasks to the presentation of divine attributes, our days take on meaning. We come alive. When the work of housewife, artist, laborer, executive, becomes the medium through which judgment or loveliness, prowess or dependability, cheerfulness or inexhaustibility, are expressed, then we are working for God.

When we give ourselves to the business of living gentleness and efficiency hour by hour, and intelligence and purity moment by moment, then we become aware of a spiritual impetus and control in our work, an action more harmonious and precise than that of the most intricate and flawlessly balanced mechanism. One's occupation—what comes to hand to do—is simply an opportunity to express the nature of our divine Principle. Right now, right where we are, we can make a glorious, satisfying, enriching, fascinating career out of this business.

Mrs. Eddy epitomizes the meaning of work in these words: "As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 165.}

We will never be in a better position to express the qualities of God than at this supreme moment. Let's have a change of employment today!

The God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God.

Romans 15:5, 6