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The inspiration to get things done

What can we do when the task at hand seems overwhelming? For one woman, it was turning in prayer to the divine Mind, God, that enabled her to accomplish just such a task with joy, without stress, and on time.

  • By Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
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We all have things to do from time to time that demand inspiration, direction, and a willingness to push through resistance to getting started.

This happened to me when, after deciding to make a big move from the United States to France, I had the task of emptying out and selling the contents of my home. The project seemed colossal and overwhelming.

I have seen how turning to God in prayer can help me move past anxieties of all kinds, including the fear that I can’t do what needs to be done or do it well. So I prayed for direction on how and where to start.

While praying, I remembered a line from the Bible, in the book of Isaiah. The King James Version puts it this way: “The word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (28:13).

How comforted I felt reading this! To me it was clear direction. Christian Science explains that God is the unlimited divine Mind, and we are the creation – or inspired spiritual idea – of that Mind. Right thoughts and activities proceed from divine Mind and are reflected in us as God’s creation. This indicates that we have at every moment the inspiration and ability we need to accomplish good.

Even a glimpse of this fact can lift the fear that we don’t know how to start, opening us to an awareness of infinite possibilities. And that’s what happened. I had 1,930 square feet of house to empty, repair, carpet, and paint – and two months in which to do it. With my heart open to the inspiration of Mind, God, I was able to accomplish at least one task each day, and ultimately the project was completed in the allotted time. Further, the work was accomplished with joy and without stress.

That lesson learned in prayer has stayed with me. I have since found that a daily practice of affirming everyone’s true nature as the spiritual expression of God’s intelligence and goodness ensures that we always have the ideas needed to accomplish whatever task it is ours to do, whether large or small. This proved especially helpful when I began writing and blogging regularly and needed to come up with ideas and articles on deadline.

Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, “There is but one way of doing good, and that is to do it!” (“Retrospection and Introspection,” p. 86). But we’re not left on our own to do so. Turning in prayer to God to lead us can open the way to accomplishing whatever needs to be done and is worth doing. As Mrs. Eddy wrote in her poem “Christ My Refuge”:

My prayer, some daily good to do
To Thine, for Thee;
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.
(“Poems,” p. 13)

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