When I first discovered the Science of Mind, it felt like coming home. I later learned I wasn't alone in that. Many people describe the very same feeling the first time they walk into a Centers for Spiritual Living (Religious Science) center.

I'll never forget my very first Foundations class. My mentor looked at us and said, "I have some good news, and I have some bad news. The good news is: you are responsible for your life. The bad news is (you guessed it): you are responsible for your life."

Yes, things are going to happen to us — that's life. We may not be responsible for the event. We are always responsible for how we respond to it.

Marianne Williamson calls this the Law of Divine Compensation. Ernest Holmes simply called it Law. And here's the thing: this Law is at work in our lives whether we believe in it or not. We don't have to understand gravity to fall down the stairs. We don't have to understand the Law of Divine Compensation to be living under it — right now.

Williamson's premise is simple and radical: whenever there is loss or lack in our lives, the Universe is programmed to compensate. Not someday. Not if we earn it. It is the nature of the Divine to restore, renew, and make whole. Our job is to get out of the way and let it.

I look back at the first fifty years of my life and see how I created the very chaos that was the bane of my existence. Every. Single. Day. The truth is, whatever we believe about ourselves, the Universe says YES to. I was a gerbil on an exercise wheel — running round and round and going absolutely nowhere. Once I stopped (which was a process, and quite frankly still is), my life shifted and aligned with the new thoughts I held about myself. And nothing changes the conversation you have with yourself faster than someone who knows the Truth about you speaking your word and declaring, "And so it is." Thank you, Rev. Suzi!

In her book, Williamson reminds us that faith isn't a feeling — it's a decision. It's easy to have faith when life is humming along on all four wheels. It takes courage to choose faith when a tire flies off and you're holding on with every fiber of your being. For me, faith is knowing the Universe is always quietly working things out on my behalf. All I have to do is look back — at the mishaps, the misjudgments, the near misses — to see that even before I knew it, the Universe had my back. It always has.

So, here's what I'd tell my younger self, and what I'll tell you: you are responsible for your life. And that? That's the good news.

Blessings on your journey,

Rev. Gayle