A Few Months Ago, I landed awkwardly on the basketball court after shooting a basket. I felt immense pain on the underside of my knee and was afraid that I had torn some ligaments, which is pretty common in sports today. I sat down next to the court and prayed for a few minutes and then tried to get up and walk. But I wasn't able to, so I asked a student to help me get back to my college office. Once in my office, I closed my door and continued to pray, affirming my unbreakable connection to God. At that time, the following line came to me by Mrs. Eddy from the scientific statement of being, "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual" (Science and Health, p. 468). I reasoned that because I am the likeness of Spirit, I couldn't be material and therefore the victim of a physical injury.
After about an hour, I left my office and was able to walk part way to my car. Then, the pain in my knee became stronger and sharper. It was so intense that I needed to stop walking so I could focus on the spiritual truths that came to me. I remember thinking that if I could just get to the car and call a practitioner, I could tell him how bad I felt and ask him to give me something to focus on so he could heal me.
However, when I finally got to the car, I found I had no cell phone reception. So I drove to a spot where I could call and pulled over to the side of the road. That's when I asked, "OK, Father, what should I do now?" Then a sentence from Mrs. Eddy's book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany popped into my head: "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them" (p. 210). It was a line that I have shared with Christian Scientists on the sports teams I've coached and one that I have studied and used myself many times over the years. Then I said, Ok, I can keep my thought filled with love, but where do I start? And the next thought that came to me was to call my dad. That made sense because I love my dad and calling him would show him that I loved him. So I did.
