My wife and I were watching a television movie about unemployment in a mill town. The leading character was having a rough time.

He had been laid off for quite a while. He could get no other work, even temporarily. Savings were depleted. Bills began piling up. And he was starting to snap at his wife and children, whom he loved dearly.

Then one day he broke down and confided to a friend what was really bothering him. In effect he said, "I've worked led a good life. I've worked hard. I love my country and what it stands for. And yet I'm broke. I've lost my job and my truck. I'm about to lose my home and my family. What did I do wrong?"

A number of years ago I too was asking myself that same question. And I thought I knew pretty well what I had done wrong.

A few months before, I had resigned a well-paying job in industry to go into business for myself, helping others. And although I was enjoying this new work, things were not going too well for us financially. To make a decision that affected my wife and me was one thing. But we had three small children. And I was deeply concerned about how we would care for them.

"Did I do the right thing," I would ruminate far too frequently, "when I gave up that comfortable position?"

One day our six-year-old burst into the room where I was and blurted out, "Are we rich or poor?"

"What?"

"Are we rich or poor? All my friends keep talking about how rich or poor the neighbors are. And I don't know what we are."

He didn't know. He didn't know! The shattering financial squeeze my wife and I were feeling had not even remotely settled on him. And in that moment I saw our situation in a different light. A surge of spiritual conviction about God's never-failing, constant care for His children filled my thought. Why, I must have stood ten feet tall. I felt so spiritually uplifted, happy, and free!

I picked the child up, gave him a hug, and told him, You're rich. You're very rich. You're rich in Spirit."

That satisfied him. He grinned and went back out to play.

About this same time, my wife and I decided to make a list of all the unexpected good that had come to us since I had embarked on this new job—such things as free dinners, gifts of very nice clothes for the children, consideration shown to us by others—and do you know that list went on for pages?

As I thought about it, I could see that our human needs were being met in many unusual ways, and I saw that I must acknowledge the good we had already received, see that it was of God, and be more grateful for it.

So it began to dawn on me that I hadn't been doing anything wrong at all—except one thing. I had been too busy listening to the suggestion that, perhaps, God was not in full control of my life.

But in order to continue trusting God, as I had done most earnestly in starting out in my new career, I needed to keep reexamining my thinking to see if I was consenting to anything other than God, good, governing my life.

I saw in this instance that I needed to recognize specifically that since God was infinite, all-powerful good, then evil—the very opposite of everything God is—had absolutely no power or hold over me. I realized that I had the God-given right to denounce prayerfully even the slightest doubt in my thought of God's continuous loving care for me and my family.

As I prayed along these lines, I felt more sure that what I was doing was the right course of action for us at that time. And our immediate needs were met; our whole financial picture started to straighten itself out.

I don't want to imply here that never again did we have a financial challenge. As a matter of fact, we had many. But we approached them in an entirely different way. We started with the fact of God's abundance and omnipotence, instead of with the fear that there might be an evil, ungodlike force or circumstance that could cause lack, limitation, failure, and despair. Each challenge over the years has been beautifully and fully resolved, including the financing of college educations for our three children.

Today many people are hurting financially even where there are upswings in an economy. But having financial difficulties does not necessarily mean that you're doing something wrong. You could be doing many things right. But what is important is that you keep reexamining your thoughts and your life to make sure they're of God.

As we base our life on God's goodness, we prove the Scriptural promise "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." ^{Ps. 91:10.} We do have to be alert, however, to stick with God, and God alone, and with what's true of Him and His creation. God, infinite Spirit, never runs out of good, nor does He ever stop imparting good to His creation. Infinite Spirit is always independent of anything material, including accumulations and depletions. Spirit and man, who is Spirit's creation, are never touched by anything mortal and so are perfectly complete, never needing to have anything added or taken away.

But how does this help us when we encounter lack and deprivation? Knowing the spiritual facts—knowing that God is good and that we are actually His creation—is like opening the blinds and shutters in a darkened room on a sunny day. The light of Truth comes pouring in, blessing us in many ways, showing us possibilities and channels for good we may never have considered. We find our human needs are met and met abundantly.

What is it, then, that would keep the shutters closed? What would keep us so obsessed with how much we don't have that we seem paralyzed, unable to do anything except feel miserable and sorry for ourselves?

It's nothing but the unchallenged belief in some power other than God, good. This belief includes the argument that chance, circumstance, something in our nature, works contrary to what is good and true—to what is uplifing, pure, and perfect. Indulging in this belief or not resisting it would throw us into one tailspin after another, particularly when there is something basically wholesome and decent in what we're doing and what we stand for. Belief in or fear of evil would justify its right to exist in our lives and its so-called power to bring about sadness and depression.

But Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, didn't acknowledge a power opposed to God. And he certainly didn't believe evil to be true even for a moment. He did not allow it to intimidate, immobilize, or push him around. He never gave validity to any argument that would justify evil. He saw evil, or the devil, as it is referred to in the New Testament, for what it was, "a liar," abiding "not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." ^{John 8:44.} And there is still no truth in any evil claim or suggestion. How could there be when God, eternal good, is all-power?

In her book Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and has all-power, we still believe there is another power, named evil." And in the sentence preceding this one, Mrs. Eddy states: "We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God." ^{Science and Health, p. 469.}

Understanding this more clearly, reestablishing it in our consciousness each day, and then acting from its basis, help us recognize and reject any lie about God's creation. We refuse to be influenced by evil. Instead, our aim is to prove what man truly is: the spiritual and perfect likeness of God, whole and intact, flawless and complete, now and forever. God's man—what we all really are—is never bounced around as if he were a pawn on a chessboard in a moving car on a bumpy road. He is forever on solid ground, so to speak, with God, infinite, omnipotent Spirit.

Even if some adversity seems to be knocking us flat, we can know that infinite Spirit is ever imparting to us the strength, intelligence, and spiritual discernment we need to rise again—and again and again if need be—until we ultimately and irrevocably triumph. And we do triumph as we grow in our understanding and reliance on God, the only true source of man's being.

Increasingly we'll see that the good we experience will far exceed our expectations. But we'll also see that the prize, the ultimate goal, is not getting things but gaining an understanding of truth—understanding what doing right is all about.

And doing right is not a feeble do-gooder's effort—one mortal against all the overwhelming wrongs of the world. It is living from the basis of infinite good, divine Spirit. It calls for constant purification of our thought and life. And it demands utterly rejecting and denouncing any claim of evil to power. Doing right is built on spiritual law, and so it is a protection and defense.

As our lives move in the right direction—Spiritward—we are free to make a unique and beneficial contribution to our world. We know how to do right. And we go forward, confidently, triumphantly doing it and giving God full credit.