“Is the job too big, or your thinking too small?” a friend asked herself out loud to me recently when figuring out how to tackle a major project at her office.
It’s a good question.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by work demands? Wondered how to get everything done before a dreaded deadline arrived?
August 2001 was a month when I was tempted to throw up my hands and declare I had more to do than I could handle.
With an unusual turn of events I suddenly faced a Mt. Everest sized proportion of critical decisions and activities that had to be finished within a three week period.
At the end of July 2001 I had been asked to work in Boston at my church’s world headquarters. I needed to sell our house in Washington State, buy a house in Boston (3000 miles away), move my family and report to work ASAP. I had a two week class to teach in the meantime. Unfortunately, my mom passed on in early August, and being the executor of her estate, I suddenly had the responsibility of speaking at her funeral, managing her possessions, selling her house, and buying another smaller house for her husband. On top of that I had to carry on my own full-time job which was very demanding. I was overwhelmed with things to do. I felt like I needed three of me to get it all done.
“With God, all things are possible,” I reminded myself daily.
Was the job too big or my thinking too small?
I prayed to get a limited personal sense of things out of the way.
From a human perspective, the work demands were daunting, to say the least. From a spiritual perspective, the work was done. God had the details already figured out.
Just like the principle of mathematics has solved every possible math problem we could ever face, the divine Principle of the universe, God, has already solved every human problem we ever face. My prayer was to yield to the divine plan and let it happen through me. The job was not too big for God.
In my prayers, I knew it was the one Mind that was going to coordinate the move of my family, sell and buy four houses, teach my class and heal my patients. The one Mind fully comprehends and knows all things. There is no lack of knowledge, no lack of understanding, fear or worry in the one Mind, I accepted. The one Mind was my Mind, and I could trust the guiding hand of the divine influence to coordinate all the activities before me in the best possible way for the most appropriate, timely, and efficient outcome.
I clung like adhesive bond to these truths, and events evolved in almost miraculous ways as every task was accomplished on schedule and to everyone’s satisfaction. All loose ends were tied up quickly, jobs finished and my family in Boston by the end of August. I took a deep breath of relief when finally reporting to my new job the first day, and very grateful to God.
What we cannot do, God can do.
If God can keep the planets in their orbits, and the seasons in their places, He can keep our workload under control and in order. Our prayer is to let it happen through us.
Is there any job too big for God? Not really. As we let God take over our thinking, He’ll figure out a way to get the work done.