Article August 20, 2018 Issue

Taking competition to a new (spiritual) level

Katie Martin

As an athlete who plays several competitive sports, I find that sports can be a valuable means of learning solid spiritual lessons. It really doesn’t matter what type of athlete we are—professional, semipro, club athlete, local league player, or recreational player—the competitive “juices” can flow at any level.

When we’re battling it out on the playing field, qualities we generally associate with good sportsmanship, such as honesty, charitableness, and humility, can go out the window. This is the case not only in sports, but also in business and other competitive activities. But I’ve learned from my study of Christian Science that these spiritual qualities originate in God and we possess and express them as His reflection, so they can’t ever be overlooked, diminished, or neglected. As we allow the competitive spirit in us to be animated by the Christ, the spirit of Love that defined Christ Jesus’ nature, we invariably find success, progress, and undiminished joy.

My motive for playing sports usually involves some combination of a love of winning, competing, strategizing, learning, exercising, and socializing. None of these are bad, but I’ve found that they must take a back seat to the higher, purer motive to glorify our Father-Mother God—to express His goodness and to revel in Her infinite power and purpose—which brings out the good in everyone, opponents included (a win for everyone). By doing this, we bring Christianity into practical demonstration by loving one another and fulfilling our duty to follow in Christ Jesus’ footsteps in the practice of spiritual healing. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Christianity is the basis of true healing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power” (p. 192).

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