I love spending time with friends while being outdoors and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation. 

When I was traveling for a ski trip a few winters ago, I began to be concerned that I might get into an accident while skiing. I recognized this as an “aggressive mental suggestion,” and Mary Baker Eddy instructs members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, to defend themselves daily against such erroneous suggestions (Church Manual, p. 42). The term indicates how intimidating thoughts of fear, danger, or separation from God can seem. When we’re alert to such thoughts, though, we can more easily identify them for what they are and obey Christ Jesus’ instruction to “agree with thine adversary quickly” (Matthew 5:25). To me, this means that we should agree to disagree with thoughts and suggestions that are opposed to God, good—so I worked on doing this. 

One day during this trip, on my last mountain run, I took a tumble and fell awkwardly on my hand. The pain was severe. I was able to ski for the rest of the trip, but with only limited use of that hand. The discomfort and restricted mobility persisted and did not improve with the passage of time.