Editorial August 30, 1969 Issue

Spirituality Empowers the Athlete

Alan A. Aylwin

The Christian Scientist who is an athlete has a big plus going for him. He has glimpsed the fact that strength, flexibility, and endurance are not dependent upon the size and muscularity of his physical body. The body is seen to be a mental phenomenon, the visible expression of human thinking, and therefore amenable to the conscious and latent beliefs of the human mind. Mrs. Eddy illustrates this decisive mental influence when she writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil."^{Science and Health, p. 199;}

An athlete will find these facts helpful in any sport in which he is engaged. He will understand that he is the master of his body because it is the subjective state of his own thought, and that as he spiritualizes his thought this mastery becomes more and more apparent.

In reality, all power and activity is vested in God, who is the creative Principle, or divine Mind. This Mind is All, and its expression, individual man, lives in this allness and partakes of its boundless energy. Every movement of the real man emanates from omniactive divine Life, and the humble, prayerful acknowledgment of this fact imparts the confidence, alertness, coordination, stamina, and relaxation so essential in the world of sport. The athlete who has learned to claim his unity with God both before and during a game or athletic event will find that he has tapped the very source of refreshment and vitality. In the words of Isaiah, God "giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength."^{Isa. 40:29;}

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