The Secret Door to Success, by Florence Scovel Shinn, [1941], at sacred-texts.com

CATCH UP WITH YOUR GOOD

Catch up with your good! This is a new way of saying, "Before they call, I will answer."

Your good precedes you; it gets there before you do. But how to catch up with your good? For you must have ears that hear, and eyes that see, or it will escape you.

Some people never catch up with their good in life; they will say, "My life has always been one of hardship, no good luck ever comes to me." They are the people who have been asleep to their opportunities; or through laziness, haven't caught up with their good.

A woman told a group of friends that she had not eaten for three days. They dashed about asking people to give her work; but she refused it. She explained that she never got up until twelve o'clock, she liked to lie in bed and read magazines.

She just wanted people to support her while she read "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar." We must be careful not to slip into lazy states of mind. Take the affirmation, I am wide awake to my good, I never miss a trick. Most people are only half awake to their good.

A student said to me, "If I don't follow my hunches, I always get into a jam."

I will tell the story of a woman, one of my students, who followed her intuitive lead, which brought amazing results.

She had been asked to visit friends in a nearby town. She had very little money. When she arrived at her destination, she found the house locked up, they had gone away: she was filled with despair, then commenced to pray: she said, "Infinite Intelligence, give me a definite lead, let me know just what to do!"

The name of a certain hotel flashed into her consciousness—it persisted—the name seemed to stand out in big letters.

She had just enough money to get back to New York and the hotel. As she was about to enter, an old friend suddenly appeared, who greeted her warmly; and whom she hadn't seen for years.

She explained that she was living at the hotel but was going away for several months, and added, "Why don't you live in my suite while I am away:—it won't cost you a cent."

My friend accepted gratefully, and looked with amazement on the working of Spiritual law.

She had caught up with her good by following intuition.

All going forward comes from desire. Science today, is going back to Lamarck and his "dint—of wishing" theory. He claims that birds do not fly because they have wings, but they have wings because they wanted to fly; result of the "Push of the emotional wish."

Think of the irresistible power of thought with clear vision. Many people are in a fog most of the time, making wrong decisions and going the wrong way.

During the Christmas rush, my maid said to a saleswoman at one of the big shops, "I suppose this is your busiest day." She replied, "Oh no! the day after Christmas is our busiest day, when people bring most of the things back."

Hundreds of people choosing the wrong gifts because they were not listening to their intuitive leads.

No matter what you are doing, ask for guidance. It saves time and energy and often a lifetime of misery.

All suffering comes from the violation of intuition. Unless intuition builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

Get the habit of hunching, then you will always be on the magic path.

"And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer: and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."

Working with spiritual law, we are bringing to pass that which already is. In the Universal Mind it is there as an idea, but is crystallized on the external, by a sincere desire.

The idea of a bird was a perfect picture in divine mind; the fish caught the idea, and wished themselves into birds.

Are your desires bringing you wings? We should all be bringing some seemingly impossible thing to pass.

One of my affirmations is, "The unexpected happens, my seemingly impossible good now comes to pass."

Do not magnify obstacles, magnify the Lord—that means, magnify God's power.

The average person will dwell on all the obstacles and hindrances which are there to prevent his good coming to pass.

You "combine with what you notice," so if you give obstacles and hindrances your undivided attention, they grow worse and worse.

Give God your undivided attention. Keep saying silently (in the face of all obstacles), "God's ways are ingenious, His methods are sure."

God's power is invincible, (though invisible). "Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

In demonstrating our good, we must look away from adverse appearances, "Judge not by appearances."

Get some statement which will give you a feeling of assurance, The long arm of God reaches out over people and conditions, controlling the situation and protecting my interests! 

I was asked to speak the word for a man who was to have a business interview with a seemingly unscrupulous person. I used the statement, and rightness and justice came out of the situation, at just the exact time I was speaking.

We have all heard the quotation from Proverbs, "Hope deferred maketh the heart grow sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."

In desiring sincerely (without anxiety), we are catching up with the thing desired; and the desire becomes crystallized on the external. "I will give to you the rightous desires of your heart."

Selfish desires, desires which harm others, always return to harm the sender.

The righteous desire might be called, an echo from the Infinite. It is already a perfect idea in divine mind.

All inventors catch up with the ideas of the articles they invent. I say in my book, "The Game of Life and How To Play It," the telephone was seeking Bell.

Often two people discover the same inventions at the same time; they have tuned in with the same idea.

The most important thing in life, is to bring the divine plan to pass.

Just as the picture of the oak is in the acorn, the divine design of your life is in your superconscious mind, and you must work out the perfect pattern in your affairs. You will then lead a magic life, for in the divine design, all conditions are permanently perfect.

People defy the divine design when they are asleep to their good.

Perhaps the woman who liked to lie in bed most of the day, and read magazines, should be writing for magazines, but her habits of laziness dulled all desire to go forward.

The fishes who desired wings, were alert and alive, they did not spend their days on the bed of the ocean, reading "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar."

Awake thou that sleepeth and catch up with your good!

"Call on me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

I now catch up with my good, for before I called I was answered.