Two days ago, while I was opening my mail, I came across a beautiful thank you card with an extraordinarily large check enclosed. The sender of the gift owed me no money, but was sharing “out of his abundance,” he wrote, for healing time we had spent together in years past working through a severe challenge he had faced at that time.

I have witnessed this type of unexpected and munificent beneficence many times over the course of my Christian Science practice. Each time it happens, I am increasingly humbled, for it wallops over the head any residual belief in my thinking that supply is something we have to go out and get. It is not. Supply is not a material commodity that is obtained through toil, strife and competition. It is a gift from above that comes to us through the grace of God as we sincerely serve the divine will and perform His work faithfully.

The more I pray about the economic turmoil the world faces today, the more it seems there is a crying need for a total revision in mankind’s belief-system as to what supply is and how to have it.

Conventional thought views supply as a material commodity, like money, that needs to be gotten, saved and doled out.

Jesus Christ taught a different concept of supply. He did not spend time counseling his disciples on how to earn money, manage debt and get rich. In fact, Jesus had little respect for money as an ideal to cherish and work for. “Seek treasures from above,” he instructed. Yet, all of Jesus’ human needs were met, monetary included.

Jesus saw supply as ideas coming from God, pure and simple. Supply was not money. Supply was not things. Supply could not be measured materially. Supply was infinite Love loving, divine Mind inspiring, and Life living. Pursue these ideals and your human needs will be met, he taught.

Now, what would happen in society if everyone understood this ideal for supply and lived it? It would totally revolutionize people’s priorities and goals in life, and change what they pursued with their time and energy. It would keep us out of economic messes like the present one we’re dealing with.

Instead of getting caught up into the trap of thinking the purchase of more things leads to happiness, and building up credit card debt as a consequence, thought would be focused on getting more spiritual understanding. Unnecessary debt would be avoided.

When buying a home, instead of thinking, “I need a bigger house than I can afford,” and extending one’s finances a bit too far, thought would be finding reasons to be grateful for whatever size space was affordable. And payments that were a stretch would be avoided.

When building a business, instead of trying to be the biggest and most impressive, and possibly expanding operations with debt faster than the company can reasonably pay off, management would be practicing contentment, humility, and gratitude while working to increase the business through sound economic principles. These “supply-qualities,” from God would keep the balance sheet well adjusted and in the black.

Supply is not money. Supply is ideas and understanding coming from God, that in turn, when lived out and expressed faithfully, translate into human needs met.

Going into the Christian Science practice forced me to accept supply on spiritual terms years ago. I had to let go of my old profit-pursuing ways that had been learned in class at Stanford University and then honed in the family business where I worked afterward.

In the practice, one has to demonstrate supply coming to you. You do not go out and get it like business people and employees are taught to do through their own effort. And what I learned is that supply comes to me first as love, understanding and ideas from God. As I act on this supply and share it with my fellowman through my practice, they in turn show gratitude by meeting my human needs. And to reason a bit further, it really isn’t them, personally, that supply me. It’s the divine Love they feel within that inspires them to give. So, supply really is always coming from divine Love no matter what human channel it appears through or from.

Around 1993, I was accepted for Normal class, to be taught in Boston, which was education that enabled me to become a CS teacher. Between lodging and airfare, the trip was going to cost several thousand dollars, money which I did not have. It never occurred to me that I would not have it. Supply was right ideas coming from God, I understood, and this education was a right idea to strengthen and progress my practice, I was confident.

One week before I was to leave for Boston, a man came into my office and handed me a $5000 check, saying he did not need it and wanted me to have it. I about fell out of my seat, yet, I did not, because I instantly knew what had happened. God had inspired this man to give me that money so that my expenses would be paid on this trip that God had planned for me to go on all along. It was the full circle of divine Love bearing fruit, and everyone was blessed in the giving and the receiving.

Another time in my practice, I started to worry about paying for major expenses in the future, like buying a car, having children, and putting them through college. I did not see humanly how that was ever going to happen from my very modest earnings. One Saturday morning, a woman came to my front door, shoved fistfuls of cash into my hands and said, “God told me to do this. Take this money, and I don’t want to hear anything about it.” She turned, and promptly left.

I was stunned. We had no debt and our bills were paid. We didn’t need the money. But it still happened. After I closed the door and asked God what lesson I was supposed to learn from this blessing, the little voice said, “Evan, never ever worry about money again. I will always meet your needs. Stay focused on being a good practitioner.”

I realized that God sent that woman to impress upon me in a concrete way that my fears about future monetary needs were groundless. And God was right. We’ve never lacked. We live abundantly. Looking back over the last twenty years, we’ve always had a car to drive, and now we’re preparing to send our daughter to college next year.

Supply is not material. Supply is not money. Supply is not limited. Supply is infinite. It is ideas coming from God. It is divine Love loving us, and we have only to open up and receive the divine gift freely coming our way.

I could write much more on this, but I think I’m getting a bit lengthy here…more to come later!

Enjoy your supply coming from God today…