I had an older brother and a supportive dad, and as a result I started playing baseball just about as soon as I could find a baseball glove that would fit my hand. And living in Indiana, where basketball is popular, it wasn't long before a basketball became as normal an attachment to me as the glove. I loved sports.

Yet even by the time I was in the upper age bracket of little league baseball, it had become clear that the push to excel could be intense and unrelenting. While I was in high school, my life took a turn. School studies and my interest in Christian Science brought balance to my life, and sports became a pastime instead of an all-consuming drive. But for many young men and women, athletics are more than a hobby.

Sports can be many things: a healthy discipline, a means to finance an education, a path to a serious and productive career. There have been people who have devoted their lives to sports and have become respected role models—like Julius Erving, the former professional basketball player who is still known affectionately to millions as simply "Dr. J."

Yet what happens when the drive to excel becomes so obsessive that common sense, honesty, health, and even life itself are sacrificed? One indication of the seriousness of this issue is seen in estimates that as many as half a million high-school athletes are using steroids and other growth hormones in an effort to gain "an edge" over their competitors.

Given the important place of sports in the culture of many nations and the worldwide problems created by dependence on legal and illegal drugs, finding a solution to this problem isn't just a concern to athletes and sports fans.

What is it that we yearn for? Isn't it the conviction that the individual is valuable, able to have a life of meaning, purpose, and accomplishment? If such a life is dependent upon drugs —or any material thing—wouldn't this make anyone basically dependent upon the superficial, outward circumstances of life? On the other hand, to begin to realize that man's real nature is already good and already valuable, because man is created by God, opens our eyes. We see that excellence isn't really created or limited by circumstances. The reason that people can progress, whatever their current circumstances, is that God has not, in fact, given them limited individuality.

Once, when she was writing to a Christian Science congregation in New York Mrs. Eddy commented on what brings real fulfillment to life. She said, in part: "Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing." She continued in that letter, included in her book titled The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, "The best man or woman is the most unselfed."

Man's life is the expression of God. It is spiritual, created by God. Man's success is sure because in the deepest, spiritual sense man reflects God, who is divine Life, Truth, and Love. It's not body-building hormones that make a person truly strong or individually successful; it's the spiritual awakening to man's real nature as God's child—truly loved, greatly talented, and able to do what is good and according to God's health-producing law.

Man thought of as a mortal—fallible, imperfect, victimized—may, indeed, often seem pretty far from success. But to realize man is God's child, with unlimited opportunity to express God's goodness and strength, can give rise to athletic accomplishment, happiness in home relations, and fulfillment in careers. Whenever genuine knowledge of God's love and of man's real, unlosable worth breaks through, we can be sure of honest achievement.

If even those who are reading this issue of the Sentinel were to care so much for the mutual welfare of everyone that they dedicated themselves to recognizing man's spiritual nature and infinite worth in everyone they meet in everyday life, this would have a noticeable impact on community life. In fact, such spiritual activity can transform a community because it's impelled by Christ, the spiritual idea of Truth. The action of Christ opens thought to divine Love, freeing latent abilities, goodwill, skill, and creativity. Ways will then be found to help and to support community activities that free people from drug dependencies and from the fear one can't or won't excel in life.

The spirit of Christ Jesus' life was seen clearest in his all-inclusive and spiritual love. He said of his own life purpose as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." He wasn't simply speaking about saving a handful of people here and there. His salvation was universal, revealing man's true nature as the spiritual expression of God. This is every individual's true identity. What a difference such a view of man will bring to the sports world, and to any honest effort to excel.

Michael D. Rissler