Article November 1, 1975 Issue

Athletics-An Opportunity to Express God

GLENN M. LINDEN

When we realize that athletics provide an opportunity to express more of God's qualities in our lives, we have taken the first step toward success in the field of sports. We realize that the real challenge is not to win or to impress others but to rise to a more perfect and complete expression of God. And this is true whether our participation is at the recreational, interscholastic, intercollegiate, or international level. We can always magnify God by expressing His qualities in every aspect of our athletic activities.

In order to do this, various limiting claims of mortal mind must be faced and overcome by the specific acknowledgment and demonstration of spiritual truths. Man is not a physical being with certain human characteristics of weight, height, and strength. Man is entirely spiritual, a complete and perfect idea including all good through reflection. He possesses unlimited and infinite ability to express his God-given dominion. He moves as a spiritual idea governed by divine Principle. The understanding of this acts as a law of harmony to produce perfect coordination and timing. By reflection, man has limitless strength. Knowing this and learning to claim our true selfhood, we are able to perform well regardless of the human situation or conditions. As these truths are acknowledged and lived, athletics become a stepping-stone to a fuller expression of man's God-given qualities. Then the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement can be proved, "Man is the expression of God's being."^{Science and Health, p. 470;}

Several years ago, I had an opportunity to prove some of these truths. For a number of years I had played tennis and had decided to try out for the varsity team at my university. However, my performance was at a consistently low level. Practice matches were poor, and I seemed unable to improve. Whenever I had to compete for a higher position, I played poorly. It was discouraging.

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