Article March 5, 2012 Issue

Sports–playing & praying

By Nathan Bermel

Courtesy photo

Something that I really love about Christian Science is its practicality and its healing power that brings results. Playing sports is one activity in my life where I can really demonstrate this. Sports is an area for spiritual growth, a place where we recognize our real spiritual sense and are led to “divine heights.”

During my high-school soccer season this fall, I was able to pray in many different situations and see results. For example, during tryouts I focused on keeping my thought uplifted and centered on God. I reminded myself that I was playing to “express, not impress.” By focusing on expressing God and all of His qualities that were mine as His reflection—and not worrying about impressing the coaches who were watching me—I played much better.

Another issue that sometimes came up during the season was conflict within my team. We lost our first game of the season, and during this loss and in the practices after there was a lot of arguing and fighting among teammates. Everyone was pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame. To counter this mind-set, I prayed with the idea that it is perfectly natural for there to be harmony, and that discord is not a quality of God and His likeness, man. This statement from Science and Health helped me: “It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony” (p. 390). I continued to keep an uplifted thought, and to be the best teammate that I could be. Eventually, I noticed a more harmonious and focused mind-set for the whole team. Soon the fighting stopped, and we started playing well together again.