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'No' and 'know': ideas on prayer
I was hiking up my first 14,000-foot peak. I was new on the summer camp staff and didn’t know too many of my fellow counselors with whom I was hiking—but I was determined to go the distance on this first staff orientation trip. However, after a few hours, I started feeling the newness of my new boots. In another couple of hours, it just hurt to walk.
I have always prayed whenever I’ve been confronted by discord—whether physical, financial, or related to relationships. So this was the way I planned to deal with this situation: pray.
I usually start my prayers by thinking about the allness of God’s love. It then becomes easy to detect whatever thoughts are ungodlike—in other words, any thoughts that would limit our health and wholeness, which are our natural states since we’re made in God’s image.
By refusing to make the body’s limitations the focus of my experience, I started to feel the tangible presence of God’s omnipotent goodness. With each step I took, I prayed with an emphasis on denying the material evidence and affirming God’s overwhelming joy in me.
My prayer had two parts. The first was basically a simple “No!” to any suggestion of pain or discomfort. This was really a “no” to any thought that would try to crowd out my God-given freedom. I knew that God has given us dominion over anything that tries to limit or diminish our joy, so there was authority in this denial. As I took a step, I paused and let my “knowing” of God’s goodness rush in, leaving no room in thought for pain or distress. Then I took another step of “No”—denying the pain—and another pause to “know” God as Life and Truth and Love, filling all space. And because Love fills all space, I knew I could experience only harmony, dominion, and strength.
I continued on with greater freedom each step of the way. No, know. No, know. No, know. All the way up the mountain. The result? I made it to the top! And I was able to make it down completely pain-free. I spent the rest of the summer with high school groups, making a number of trips to the summits of the neighboring mountains.
The lesson? This passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, says it all: “Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final triumph over the body” (p. 242 ).
—Kim C. Korinek, Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin, and Saint Paul, Minnesota