Freedom from sports injuries
I played three sports in high school, so I was constantly “in season.” During basketball, I was playing club volleyball. During volleyball, club basketball. And then during track season, I did club volleyball again.
So it got to be pretty frustrating when I sprained my ankle every single year while playing sports. Besides dealing with discomfort, I hated missing two sports, even for a couple of days.
Each time I’d sprain my ankle, I’d pray about it and be back on the court fairly quickly. I especially liked working with the definition of man from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I often thought about the part that says that man is “not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements” (p. 475). It was helpful to recognize that I wasn’t made up of a bunch of parts that could be damaged, but that my substance was entirely spiritual. But I needed to deal with the fact that the sprains kept happening.
When my freshman year of college began, I was playing volleyball in a pre-season game when I landed on my wrist in a funny way. I shook the incident off because I didn’t want to get subbed out. Afterward, though, it really hurt, and when I woke up the next morning, it was swollen and I couldn’t move it very well.
We don’t shine by our own light, but we include and reflect all the wonderful attributes of God, such as joy, grace, strength, and humility.
I started panicking a little. Would I have to sit out freshman year volleyball?
I talked to my coach and the captains of the volleyball team, who are all Christian Scientists, and let them know what was going on. I knew they could help by seeing me in the right way—as completely untouched by the effects of an accident. But that whole day, I just kept pushing through and blocking out the pain, instead of actually praying about it.
When I got back to my dorm room that night, though, I noticed that one of my captains had printed out a bunch of quotes from the Bible and Science and Health and had put up a big sign that said she loved me.
Immediately, I was so filled with love. And I realized that in fact, I was surrounded by love. The love of my coach, captains, and teammates. The love of my fellow students. And I could feel how that love pointed to something bigger, which is divine Love. Since divine Love is ever present, we can never get outside of it. That night, before I went to bed, I prayed with that idea of being held by divine Love.
The next morning, as I was walking to the gym, I saw the smallest sliver of a crescent moon in the sky. It was so beautiful, and that feeling I’d gotten the night before of being embraced in Love reappeared. It hit me that like the moon, we shine by reflected light. The moon only reflects the light that the sun gives it.
We don’t shine by our own light, but we include and reflect all the wonderful attributes of God, such as joy, grace, strength, and humility. I felt so clearly that I wasn’t a physical person doing some physical activity by playing sports; I was God’s spiritual idea, reflecting His perfect substance, goodness, and freedom.
With these ideas in mind, I went to practice, got through practice fine, and my wrist didn’t bother me after that. It was such a quick healing!
It also had a ripple effect, which I didn’t even realize until after the school year ended. That summer, it suddenly occurred to me that I had gone the entire school year playing four sports without spraining my ankle once. I was thinking about why, and two things stood out to me.
First, I realized that the feeling of being embraced in Love had completely clicked with me. I really felt that atmosphere of Love and saw how it protected me from injury.
Second, I’d been working on the idea found in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy talks about resolving “things into thoughts” (p. 123). This has helped me to spiritualize my view of my activities and to understand more clearly that everything in my life is governed by God. Playing sports is really about getting a clearer and more expansive vision of how God made me as His reflection, and how I express Him in all that I do.
This understanding has not only helped me be a better athlete, but it’s also given me such awesome freedom from injuries. I’m very grateful!
