Friday, April 6, 2007

God never comes up short

The new office I moved into last week had to be remodeled from floor to ceiling before it was ready to occupy. Part of the landlord’s terms required me to choose carpet out of a small stock of floor coverings he owned. Three months ago, when I signed the lease, I had found one acceptable color and design in his warehouse, and so consented to his deal.

But lo and behold, what happened last week? Two days before I am to take possession, I get a call at 10 a.m. from the contractor telling me the carpet layer was coming at 2 p.m., and he had just discovered that there wasn’t enough of the carpet I had chosen to cover the space.

“Would I come over and choose another design?” He asked.

This was not good news! I knew the other choices were ghastly, 20 years outdated, and very ugly.

A bit forlorn, I agreed to meet him at the warehouse and decide what to do next.

As I drove over to Richland, I reminded myself that divine Mind was carpeting my office with the graces of Love, and there could be no mistakes, no oversights, no shortages, and no lack of every right quality necessary to finish the project with splendid results.

When I arrived at the warehouse, two men were waiting outside with a roll of carpet in the parking lot. Unsure what to do, they pointed to the bundle and said it was 6 feet too short.

We went into the building, and as I had suspected, the only other choices were two gross colors that obviously were in storage because no one would want to use them, including me! I wasn’t sure what to do except stand, listen, and be patient until a solution appeared.

It would have cost me $1500 to buy new carpet at a store, which was an unnecessary expense since I already had a deal with the landlord to do the job.

At the moment, the situation looked hopeless. The two workers stood around with the attitude of, “Now what?”

I stalled. I just couldn’t stomach saying yes to the other choices and knew there had to be a better solution.

At an impasse, and unwilling to accept a compromise I would regret for years to come, I stood silently and listened to God for an answer. I insisted in my prayers that there was an acceptable alternative, and that God would reveal it to me.

Be patient! I affirmed. Listen. Don’t act in haste.

Finally, I was impelled to ask the men if they had any other carpet in the back rooms of the warehouse. They shrugged their shoulders in doubt, but said they would look.

Five minutes later they came bounding back down the corridor to tell me they had found a remnant roll of the exact carpet I had chosen to begin with that was almost to the foot what we needed to finish my office.

Alleluia! I thanked God for telling us what to do.

Sure enough, in a dark forgotten backroom was the perfect answer to my prayer. It was new carpet in the proper design. Only God knew it was there, and He told us about it.

The carpetlayers came on time, did their job, and the carpet looks terrific, if I may say so myself. I enjoy it everyday now, and am so happy to have learned the lesson, “Never give up!” There’s always an acceptable answer.

7 comments:

Peggy said...

Wow! That's terrific. It reminds me of an angel thought I had recently: "Nothing in my experience is outside of Mind, God's control."
Thanks for sharing, Peggy

Kate said...

Evan...consider this my desire to blanket your new office with a welcome of spring flowers and a box of dark chocolates....wish I could just drive over and drop off both "gifts" and take you out for a hot chocolate break!

and since desire is prayer...well...

hugs to you, Kathy, Tyler and Jenna...have a great weekend

evan said...

Hey Kate,
I accept your gift! Happy Easter to you and yours.

Thanks,

Anonymous said...

Evan...Thank you for sharing how divine Love met your immediate need. Ever present comfort in our day to day challenges, no matter what size, shape or color they present themselves in =)

Happy Easter
Jan

Bill said...

Yes, what a wonderful testimony to God's loving awarness. The back room was not dark because there was a shinning light, therefor there was no darkness, only God's light.

Anonymous said...

Hi Evan,

Thanks for another great post. But, I have a question that has puzzled me for a long time. You said that "only God knew it (the rug) was there, and He told us about it." Yet I'm pretty sure that you're not suggesting that God knows about matter or material things as such.

I understand that God knows all things as spiritual ideas and He certainly knows the superabundance of all things. From that it makes perfect sense to me that the rug or a more perfect solution would be manifested in some way. They simply couldn't help but BE.

It's the "how" that always puzzles me. I can't accept that God knew about a material remnant of carpet being in a forgotten material room. Or, that God manipulates human events to bring about a desired result. So what do YOU think actually took place to bring about this demonstration?

In this case, clearly someone, somewhere, or at some time knew about the rug (after all, someone put it there originally). So was there a discernment of human thought involved?

Sorry for the long post. I hope you can shed some light on this for me. And, maybe other have had the same question.

Thanks again for all you're doing.

evan said...

To anon above,

What you call a "material carpet," was but symbolic for an idea in Mind. The "real carpet," as an idea expressed, was always a presence in Mind. My final prayer was not to realize something material, so much as to see a right idea expressed. The right idea could have taken another form. For example, perhaps another roll of carpet that was appropriate for the decor could have been found in the warehouse. Perhaps the money to buy a new design in a store could have been freed up...the final result could have been any number of different human scenarios. As it turned out, the above story was the final result.

When I said God remembered the carpet was there, well, that's another way of saying, "God knows everything. God always has the full complete idea in Mind, and never forgets."

Prayer opens human thought up to the completeness of God's ideas in Mind, and the unfoldment of those ideas appear often in what appear to be steps of progress in the human scene. Finding the remnant was one step in a progressive direction.

There is only one Mind. Every child of God expresses that one Mind. So any bit of right knowledge that can ever be known, or could be known, has always been in Mind, and is forever found there.

As a spiritually responsive child of God, each of us express this Mind that remembers all.

Hope that helps!

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