CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: A HELP IN SPORTS

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

LORETTA WHITE JAEGER

One autumn day as the bus drove along, Jack, who was the fullback on his team and who was on his way to the most important football game of the season, thought of what the coach had told him during the week. His high school had a good chance to win the county championship this year. Also all the important plays were to be built around the fullback.

This athlete was a Christian Scientist and always used the truths he had learned in Sunday School in his preparation for every athletic event. He had a fine record in tennis, track, baseball, and wrestling. On this particular day he thought of Mary Baker Eddy's definition of man in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 475): "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, includingall right ideas." He reasoned that he was not really a mortal going to compete with other mortals, but a spiritual idea, including the right idea of sport.

He recalled another passage from Science and Health (p. 514): "Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and disport themselves." He realized that in reality he was not dependent upon material muscles but upon Mind for speed and strength, for gaiety, joy, and buoyancy—qualities which he reflected as the image of God. He lifted his thought to see that as idea he moved in Mind, in harmonious relationship with all of God's ideas. He knew that this truth would act as a law of freedom and protection to him.

Jack remembered this promise of protection from the ninety-first Psalm (1, 2): "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." He was so inspired by these God-given thoughts that when he left the bus, he felt happy and free from any burdened sense of responsibility.

That afternoon he demonstrated in that football game what he knew to be true. Never before had he slid so easily through the grasp of the tackles. Never had he run with such speed for the winning touchdown. Newspapers on the following day named him "The Express" and commented that "nothing could stop him."

Of course, he thanked God for the victory. This was another illustration to him that he could reflect God's qualities in sports, just as businessmen do in their affairs. The experience showed him that one's thoughts determine the outcome of any endeavor.

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