[The participants are Harvey Wood and Robert McKinnon.]

McKinnon: We all want our jobs and our lives to have purpose and meaning. But what happens when the specialized skills we have been trained for and have used daily for a number of years are now very much out of date, replaced by technology and automation? When someone feels his specialized skills are not needed anymore, he can really feel at a loss about his sense of purpose.
Wood: I agree. Your heart really goes out to people today in such a situation. What do people you know of do?
McKinnon: Most people probably approach this problem with the idea that when one job has been made obsolete, the next thing to do is to try to get some new training and skills in an area that may last long enough to get them to retirement.

Wood: What's helped many I know is to realize that right when things look so bleak there is a demand for the purposeful qualities we express in our lives. It requires, though, that through learning more of the nature of God and His purposeful plan for man we quit letting fear paralyze our God-given receptiveness, resourcefulness, ingenuity, and right activity.
McKinnon: But people begin to develop a kind of cynicism and fatigue, boredom and depression, about the fact that they're just no longer very important.
Wood: That is the basic need, then, that has to be met. It is more than just learning a new skill. Perhaps this is what we can throw some light on. In the Bible we read accounts of men who were faced with empty, purposeless lives and overwhelming fears. Remember what Christ Jesus said to his disciples (John 21:6):"Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." That has a lot of meaning and application for us today.

The Master took the disciples who had been fishermen and trained them to do a new job—to follow him in his healing ministry. What more purposeful activity could anyone have? And then to find their whole future wiped out because of the death of their Master—what could they do? Well, seeing Christ Jesus after the resurrection and hearing him tell them to cast their net on the right side —the side of God, Spirit, the side of Jesus' teachings and his example—restored to them a new sense of purpose. They began to realize that all that Jesus had taught them was true—that God's plan for man, the child of God, the man we all really are in our true nature, is not subject to material limitations of any kind, including loss of purpose or meaning. With this new, awakened sense of purpose their lives took on new meaning. They found increased opportunities to bless suffering humanity, to help and uplift others in new and constructive ways.
McKinnon: But, of course, this is such a grand kind of vocation. I'm wondering if it really relates to those involved with daily living, that is, bringing home bread money. In what way can a person who is losing his job because it has become obsolete turn around and cast his net on the right side?
Wood: The point is that we all have the opportunity right where we are to cast our nets on the right side—to let our light shine, to glorify God in all that we do. God, who is infinite Spirit, divine Love, continually and bountifully imparts purposeful activity, peace, joy, love—whatever man needs— to all His creation. Being of God, these cannot be lost or displaced, mismanaged or terminated.
McKinnon: But we do lose jobs, and we seem to lose our purpose in life. I don't think it is easy for anyone—especially after years of experience and good work.
Wood: I am not saying that it is easy. But as we see that man, God's perfect creation—the man we all really are in our true God-given nature—can never lose his purpose or feel displaced, we gain hope and courage. God's man is so much more than what appears as a flesh-and-bones kind of man. Man is the very expression of divine Love, always in his rightful place, secure, beloved, intact.

As we understand this truth, it begins lifting us from our fears, and we see there is no lack of demand for purposeful qualities right where we are. These are not just nice-sounding words. We can see tangible evidence of all this expressed in our lives in ways that improve and uplift ourselves and others. There may be new ways to use our skills. Perhaps latent abilities will come to light, or whole new horizons may open up.

And we can start now to learn this, regardless of our so-called job security. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 326), "The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained now." And further on she writes, "Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way."

I can tell you of an experience of a man who spent years trying to find a permanent specialized skill. After training, schooling, and job experience he frequently was forced to change jobs. He went from being a grinder, to being a toolmaker, to being a repairer of die-cast dies, always trying to find some real sense of purpose or meaning for his life.

In the midst of all these job changes he found out about Christian Science through a co-worker. He began reading the Bible and Science and Health, and he began to glimpse more of what God's plan is for man. He began to understand more of his true God-given nature and to see that he was always in his rightful place, always purposefully active.
McKinnon: When you say that he always was "purposefully active," do you mean that he always could be or just always was in fact?
Wood: As he discovered a new concept of man, he saw that man is always purposefully active. He didn't see that he as a human being had always been so, but that the man whom God has made and is maintaining is a purposeful man. He began to glimpse that truth, and it gave him hope. As he kept praying along these lines and continued to expand his sense of purposeful activity, the job situation began to take shape and form. He eventually became North American manager of sales and service for a die-casting machine manufacturer. It gave him an opportunity to use most of his previous technical training and background, besides providing many new challenges and opportunities that made him really feel he was of service. This has all awakened him to be more concerned about what he can do to help others. He feels that his whole purpose in life now is to glorify God in whatever he does.
McKinnon: Just how does one start?
Wood: It calls for a continual day-to-day, moment-by-moment, examination of our thinking, motives, and actions, on the job and off, to see on what side we're casting our nets—on the side of preoccupation with material gain and success or on the side of Spirit, God, the side of giving.

God's plan for man is never mismanaged, never distressing, never stagnant, nor does it come to a stop. As we understand this and begin expressing more unselfishness, more desire to help others, more deep concern to improve humanity's lot, our efforts along these lines will have a tremendous impact on every aspect of our lives.