Back to perfect running condition

A few years ago, before tennis became my sport of focus, I regularly enjoyed getting up early for an easy-paced four-mile run. My daily route took me up and down a few hills, by a highway, behind the fire station, and through a beautiful wooded area. It was a joy to make this part of my morning routine, and I loved being outdoors.

One morning as I was headed up what I had dubbed “tough cookies” hill, I suddenly felt my leg muscle pull. In severe pain, my first thought was, “Oh no!” because I had pulled this same muscle a few years before. The injury had kept me from many activities, including walking normally, and it had taken over three months to heal. I stopped running up the hill, but continued to limp as best I could, although it was very uncomfortable.

As a practicing Christian Scientist, I have had many healings through prayer, and I knew it was time to pray and pray diligently. I was concerned because I did not wish to go through a slow recuperation process or live with the fear of a recurring leg injury.

I realized that I didn’t have to accept the mental suggestion that injury was inevitable. This suggestion certainly did not jibe with what I knew to be my true status as a child of God. He created me flawless and whole, spiritual, not material. From this standpoint I could challenge the validity of the injury’s actuality, as I knew that the divine concept of body was the only valid picture I needed to accept.

I also felt the need to challenge the concept of age. So much is advertised about the vitality of youth and the beliefs of so-called middle age and its toll on the body. My kids, all college athletes, were always teasing their dad about how they could now outrun, outjump, and outplay me.

TV sports programs also put out a constant barrage of medical theories regarding older players and their injuries. I realized that I had been negligent in challenging these subtle thoughts and fears as a possible description of my identity as a “mature dad.” I vehemently refused to concede any reality to such thoughts and instead focused on my real identity as spiritual, therefore completely immune from beliefs about a material concept of man. I knew that as God’s man, I could only be what God made me to be: limitless, free, eternal, ever-active.

As I prayed in this way, I noticed in the distance what appeared to be a vintage 1950s Ford truck heading up the road. The truck was so old that I thought, “Boy, that thing is going to rattle when it goes by.”

As the truck got closer, I could see that it was in very good shape; in fact it looked to be in “showroom condition,” and as it passed it did not rattle, it virtually hummed. The driver was as content and smartly dressed as his classic wheels. I thought, “This man obviously cares a lot about his truck to keep it in such pristine running condition.”

Then, I heard a wonderful message from divine Mind, quite loud and clear, “Don’t you think that God cares enough about you to keep you in good running condition?” It was a humbling and sweet thought, and I stopped walking to ponder it and to laugh at the metaphor.

My initial perception had been completely wrong about the truck, and the thought from God had gently and humorously let me know that my initial “Oh no!” perception about my body was also mistaken.

I remembered the Bible saying, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” If my being is in God, it must Godlike; it must be as perfect and whole as the Father. Clearly, my Father-Mother God has the power and ability to completely and fully care for me as His child. I also thought of the line from a hymn: “And safe is such confiding . . .” (Anna L. Waring, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 148). The hymn sings about confidently and fearlessly trusting in divine Love, no matter what the material picture. I felt I could confide and trust in Love’s capacity to show me my true spiritual nature.

As I prayed with the ideas from this precious hymn, I felt gently buoyed and mentally armed with this wonderful idea from God of my pristine perfection. I immediately challenged any thoughts of injury, and I began to run again. Within three steps I was moving effortlessly, completely free of pain or other physical effects. The fear of injury was banished by a sweet sense of my true being as God’s child.

What a special run I completed that day as my gratitude just flowed for the complete physical freedom and the sweet sense of the present Christ. The pain was proven to be nothing more than a mere mental suggestion, powerless to touch or affect my spiritual identity in any way.

This healing has been permanent, and though I use my mornings for prayerful time now instead of running, I maintain a very active tennis schedule, playing competitively with no physical limits whatsoever. I also enjoy snowboarding in the winter months with my competitive college-age kids.

I’m grateful beyond words that I have the privilege to grow daily in this wonderful Science. The last part of Hymn 148 fittingly expresses my reasons for gratitude:

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