Jerry was the number six man on his high school basketball team. He got to play on the varsity team in many games, and he was usually the first one to go in when a substitute was needed for one of the five starters. His father was among the team's most loyal fans. So both Jerry and his father were disappointed the day before a game when the coach announced that one of the first five couldn't play and that another player had been chosen to take his place, instead of Jerry. Somehow it didn't seem fair.

Anyone who has played on a team knows that he has to think of the team first, not himself. Even if a player feels the coach has made a wrong decision, he has to go along with it. But Jerry knew something more—what Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook: "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." ^{Science and Health, p. 468;} So when some of his teammates were upset about the coach's decision not to include him in the first five, Jerry tried to turn his thought away from resentment and dissension. He realized that because there is only one Mind, God, he and all the other players could only be under the control of divine intelligence, and nothing but good could result for them all.

But it seemed the team members and their parents were giving out a lot of conflicting opinions. When he began to feel sick later that day, Jerry knew he had to correct the suggestion he was one of several mortals in competition with each other. The only competition was with himself, to do better than he ever had, not just as a player but in following Christ Jesus' unselfish sense of love. He was familiar with the Bible verse "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." ^{Prov. 3:5, 6;} He knew there was a need for him to give up human planning and let God govern everything and everyone.

Meanwhile Jerry's father also had been concerned about the coach's decision. He decided that he had better correct his own pride and disappointment because his son hadn't been picked to start the game. He asked himself, "What do I really want for my son—to be on the first team, to be a great basketball player, to win the game?" And the answer came, "No, what I really want for him is to realize that God is in complete control of his life."

When Jerry and his father met at the breakfast table, they talked about the game to be played that night. "Maybe you should do some thinking about God directing everyone," his father said.

Jerry laughed. "That's just what I've been doing, and I think I'm ready!" When game time came, all feeling of sickness had disappeared, and Jerry felt completely free.

The game was a tough one for the home team. In the third quarter the coach took the starting squad out and replaced them with five substitutes, including Jerry. But they were still ten points behind when the clock showed only four minutes left to play. Then, against strong opposition, the team rallied and began to close the gap. Fifty seconds before the final whistle, Jerry shot the basket that brought his team within one point of a tie, and another teammate made the final two points to give them the victory.

A local sportswriter called the game "a complete reversal." Jerry and his father knew that it was a material sense of self that had been reversed, and that they had proved once more that, as Mrs. Eddy says, "Truth is always the victor." ^{Science and Health, p. 380.} But more important than winning a game was Jerry's new assurance that God is always in control—of everyone everywhere.